We've all seen these stories on Japanese TV about (usually young)
mothers maltreating their children (or worse), well guess what there's
something similar happening next door and I am looking for information
on what I could do to try and solve this issue. We understood about
this problem until only recently, when the little girl in question
entered the same elementary school as my child.

We often see her with bruises on her face, she's been wearing exactly
the same (unwashed) clothes everyday since she entered school last
April and says she doesn't eat at home and therefore only has lunch
while at school (and probably nothing much during week-ends or
holidays either). She lives with her (young) mother and grandmother,
both living in their own rooms (with their own TV sets) in which the
kid is allowed access. If you've read "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo
you get the picture.

School knows about this problem but says that all they can do is wait
for the result of the investigation from the 児童相談所 (jidou soudan jo),
which must have been going for a while now. The kid was in a
kindergaten before so they must have realized that something was wrong
already at that time.

We're trying to do what we can, the wife and a neighbour are feeding
her when we can talk to her (she's not allowed to go out to play,
never see her outside except for school) but this really enrages me to
see this kid practically dying before our eyes. So basically I wonder
if you guys have some advice on the question on legal possibilites.
This happens in Okazaki, Aichi by the way. You can write me directly
at perniflard (at) gmaill (dot) com, cheers.