A Japanese boy has been found by police six days after being abandoned by his parents in the forest as ‘punishment’.
Seven year old Yamato Tanooka is thought to have been left by his parents in a wooded area on Hokkaido, northwest Japan on Saturday afternoon.
On Friday morning, Japanese military personnel found the boy in a hut around 5km from where he is thought to have gone missing.
Yamato is said to be in good health and only suffering from a few cuts.
“He was incredibly calm considering he had been missing for seven days. He didn’t panic at all”, said the doctor who assessed Yamato after he was found.
It is believed that Yamato was abandoned by his parents on a mountainside road on Saturday morning without food or water because he was “misbehaving”.
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Soon after being reunited with his son, Yamato’s father Takayuki Tanooka publicly apologised for his actions. Speaking to reporters outside the hospital in the city of Hakodate he said, “The first thing I did was apologise to him for causing such an awful memory for him.
“The first thing I said to him was that I was really sorry. He nodded and said OK, like he understood.”
Tanooka then thanked the police and military for their search efforts and admitted he had gone too far with his efforts to discipline the boy, after Yamato had allegedly thrown stones at cars and people.
“We’ve raised him in a loving family, but from now on we’ll do even more to love him and keep a close watch on him as he grows up,” he said. “Our behaviour as parents went too far, and that’s something I’m extremely regretful about. I thought that what I was doing was for his own good, but, yes, I realise now that I went too far.”
