A 35-year-old mother was acquitted Monday of defrauding a cooperative out of mutual aid money by starving her daughter to the point of hospitalization in 2023.

The Osaka District Court, however, gave Kasumi Nawata a six-month prison term, suspended for two years, for attempted coercion by ordering the girl, who was 8 at the time, not to eat.

During the trial, Nawata denied all the charges, saying she had no intention of worsening her daughter's health or defrauding the cooperative by applying to hospitalization coverage. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of three years and six months.

Presiding Judge Kunitaka Iwasaki rejected the prosecutors' claim that Nawata caused her daughter to develop low blood sugar by continuously withholding meals, saying the mother had been following medical guidance from a doctor regarding how to feed her daughter, who had been repeatedly hospitalized due to illness.

However, the judge found that Nawata attempted to prevent her daughter from eating during one hospitalization by telling her over the phone, "Don't eat, sleep," noting the message was enough to instill fear and went "far beyond the bounds of discipline."

Nawata was indicted for allegedly endangering her daughter's health -- including actions that led to her January 2023 hospitalization -- and swindling 140,000 yen from the cooperative.