Child abuse increasing in Japanese areas hit by 2011 quake

Child abuse is on the rise in areas of Japan devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, welfare workers say. A public health nurse said reports of child abuse were unusual in the coastal areas of Miyagi prefecture before the disaster, but have become fairly commonplace, Asahi Shimbun reported Friday. Some parents may have been abusive before the earthquake and can now no longer conceal it in crowded temporary housing, the nurse said. But she believes the stress of life after the Great East Japan earthquake is taking its toll. One woman said she began beating her child due to stress, the report said. "Temporary housing is small, and the walls are thin," the woman said, describing the prefabricated house she now occupies. "But my child would not remain quiet. I had nobody but him to take my stress out on." The woman said she has stopped beating her son but recently overturned a dining room table in a rage.