KUALA LUMPUR - Lawyers for a 21-year-old Vietnamese former technical intern trainee, Nguyen Thi Nguet, charged with abandonment of a corpse for allegedly leaving the body of her stillborn baby in a trash bin in Fukuoka City, Japan, filed an appeal to the Supreme Court on January 13, contesting a guilty ruling by the Fukuoka High Court.

The defense again argued for acquittal, saying the act was a temporary placement under extreme circumstances and that there was no intent to abandon the body.

Both the district and high courts handed down guilty verdicts with suspended sentences.

According to Seikatsu News Commons, Nguet came to Japan in July 2023 and worked as a technical intern at a food processing factory in Fukuoka Prefecture. 

She said a broker had repeatedly told her before coming to Japan that she would be sent home if she became pregnant, leaving her unable to seek help after realizing she was pregnant in December 2023.

On February 2, 2024, she gave birth alone at an acquaintance’s home, but the baby was stillborn. 

She placed the baby’s body in a plastic bag inside a trash bin, citing cultural taboos in Vietnam, before collapsing from heavy bleeding. She was taken to a hospital about eight hours later.

Police were notified, and she was arrested four days later on charges of abandoning a corpse. She has maintained her innocence.

In March 2025, the Fukuoka District Court handed down an 18-month suspended sentence, which the high court upheld in November. 

According to the Asahi Shimbun, the key issue in the first and second trials was whether the defendant’s actions constituted abandonment.

There was no dispute between the prosecution and the defense over the basic facts.

The baby’s body had been placed in a trash bin at her partner’s home in Hakata Ward, Fukuoka City. 

Both the district and high courts referred to a Supreme Court ruling in March 2023, namely the Kumamoto case, that acquitted a former technical intern trainee in Kumamoto Prefecture who had been charged with abandoning a corpse. 

The Supreme Court held that whether an act constitutes abandonment should be assessed based on whether the act is incompatible with customary burial practices.

In the Kumamoto case, the stillborn twins were carefully wrapped and stored with letters, leading the court to rule that the act did not amount to abandonment. 

By contrast, the Fukuoka High Court found it key that the body in the current case was hidden in a trash bin together with other waste. 

It concluded that the act constituted abandonment and upheld the lower court’s guilty ruling, rejecting the defense’s claim that it was an interim measure.

How far criminal law should go in punishing the actions of a woman placed in an isolated situation under Japan’s technical intern training program remains to be seen, as the Supreme Court’s judgment is awaited.