Over five and a half years, our cameras followed a man falsely accused of violently shaking and abusing his baby son, his arrest, detainment, and separation from his family to his eventual acquittal. Through our coverage we found child consultation centers that continue to deal with cases such as these on the premise that “parents lie”, prosecutors who refuse to turn back even when new evidence comes to light, and courts that continue to allow detention of the parents.

In November 2017, the peaceful life of photographer Tomoaki Akasaka’s family of four changed drastically. Akasaka was looking after Yu, his 2-month-old son at home, when Yu suddenly fell ill and seemed to have stopped breathing. Akasaka patted him on the back as quickly as he could, but his condition did not improve, and he called an ambulance.

The hospital found a subdural hematoma and retinal hemorrhage, and diagnosed Yu’s condition as "Shaken Baby Syndrome," a condition caused by violently shaking an infant. In the 2010s, the number of arrests and prosecutions for SBS cases surged, especially in Osaka.

Although he had not abused his child, Akasaka was suspected of abuse, and Yu was temporarily taken into the custody of the Child Consultation Center. Akasaka and his wife repeatedly appealed for Yu to be returned home as soon as possible, but the Child Consultation Center would not change its stance that there had been abuse.

In October 2018, Akasaka was arrested and subsequently charged with violently shaking Yu. As he exercised his right to silence during questioning, Akasaka was detained for five months, and even after release on bail, a no-contact order was issued to the couple. In April 2020, while the family was still forced to live apart, Akasaka was allowed to attend his daughter's kindergarten graduation, the only time the family were permitted to meet. It was the first time the family had seen each other in a year and a half.

Our program clarifies the damage caused by "false accusations of abuse," and also shows how certain "diagnostic criteria" that have not been revised, continue to cause many false accusations. Our program aims to help prevent similar damage by false accusations in the future by informing viewers of this situation. (In March 2024, eight months after the broadcast, the government revised the manual to remove the SBS diagnostic criteria.)