TOKYO - A JAPANESE woman was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for killing her nine-year-old daughter and another child in a case that stunned the nation, court officials said.

Suzuka Hatakeyama, 34, fell to her knees on the courtroom floor to apologise to the boy's parents after the judge handed her the life term but spared her the death penalty.

The court ruled that Hatakeyama killed her daughter Ayaka, 9, in April 2006 by dropping her from a bridge into a river in northern Akita prefecture.

She had been finding Ayaka a nuisance and snapped when the girl insisted on taking her to look at the river, according to prosecutors.

She later strangled to death Goken Yoneyama, a seven-year-old in the neighbourhood, in a bid to cover up her daughter's killing, the court ruled.

The case made nationwide headlines, as initially Hatakeyama portrayed herself as an aggrieved mother, appealing for help in finding out who killed the two children.

She later confessed to killing both, but her lawyers argued that she was not mentally competent.

Judge Toshiro Fujii rejected prosecution calls for the death penalty, saying there was 'room for consideration' of the mother's mental plight and that her killing of the boy was an instant decision. -- AFP