Tokyo: A seven-year-old boy missing since being abandoned in a bear-inhabited forest in northern Japan as a punishment nearly a week ago was found alive today and reunited with his parents, officials said.
Reports said he had taken shelter in a hut and found a tap to drink from but was hungry and immediately asked for food when he was discovered.
"A Self-Defence Force official who was on a drill found a boy whose age appeared to be seven," said Tomohito Tamura, spokesman for police in northern Hokkaido island.
"There was no conspicuous external injury, and the boy introduced himself as Yamato Tanooka," he said, adding that the boy's parents were reunited with him and confirmed he was their son.
"I apologised to Yamato," his father said in a phone interview aired on TV Asahi, adding that his son nodded in response.
"First of all, it's really great he is safe," the father said through his tears. "I can't find words. It's good." Self-Defense Forces spokesman Manabu Takehara said that the boy "looked in good health" but was taken to hospital by helicopter for a check-up as a precaution.
The parents originally told police their son had got lost while they were out hiking to gather wild vegetables, but later admitted they became angry and ordered him onto the road because he had thrown stones at cars and people.
The local Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper said the boy had told police that on Saturday night he walked some distance to the corrugated metal hut on the military base -- located some 5.5 kilometres northeast of where he went missing.
An unidentified Self-Defence Force official told national broadcaster NHK that there were two buildings on the perimeter of an exercise field, and that when the soldier opened the door of one of them he found the boy inside. "When the official asked 'are you Yamato?' the boy said 'Yes, I am'," he said.
Another military official told NHK that the boy was hungry so the soldier who found him gave him something to eat. Nippon TV said there was a tap outside the hut and that the boy had been drinking water from it while he sheltered there.
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