A seven-year-old boy who went missing in bear-inhabited forests in northern Japan after his parents apparently abandoned him as punishment, has been found alive, according to authorities.
Yamato Tanooka was found by chance by military personnel in a hut on one of its exercise areas 5km from where he is believed to have gone missing and had sustained only cuts.
The doctor who assessed him after his ordeal in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, said: "He was incredibly calm considering he had been missing for seven days. He didn’t panic at all."
Yamato had been missing since Saturday after his parents said they made him get out of their car on a mountain road because he was misbehaving. He was reportedly without food or water.
The parents originally told police their son had got lost while they were out hiking to gather wild vegetables but later said they were angry and tried to punish him because he had thrown stones at cars and people.
After being reunited with Yamato, father Takayuki Tanooka, told reporters outside the hospital in the city of Hakodate: "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, 44, then apologised to his son’s school, the search teams and everyone who had supported the family through the weeklong search. "I’m overcome with emotion," he said, pausing to fight back tears. "Really, thank you very much."
Tanooka conceded he had "gone too far" when he ordered his son out of the car in the forest last Saturday evening.
"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."
News agency Kyodo said the boy was found at about 7.50am on Friday by military personnel in a building on an exercise area in the town of Shikabe in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island. The area is about 5 km away from where he went missing, or 7km if travelling via the region’s forest paths.
A police spokesman said: "A Self Defence Force official who was on a drill found a boy whose age appeared to be seven.
"There was no conspicuous external injury, and the boy introduced himself as Yamato Tanooka."
According to an SDF soldier who is familiar with the building but wasn’t there when they found him, the boy was "curled up" on a mattress and not visibly injured. The soldiers gave him rice balls and bread when he said he was hungry and thirsty.
The boy told police he had been in the drill area for several days after walking alone in the forest, Kyodo reported. However, TV Asahi and the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper said the boy told police he had walked to the hut inside the military area and taken shelter there on Saturday night, the day he went missing.
While he had no food, it appears he did have access to water. Nippon TV said there was a tap outside the hut.
Manabu Takehara, a Self-Defence Force (SDF) spokesman, told AFP: "He looked in good health, but he was sent to hospital by medical helicopter."
NHK TV said his parents identified their son. In a tearful telephone interview with TV Asahi, father Takayuki Tanooka said: "He looked well and didn’t appear to have lost any weight. He’s safe – that’s the most important thing. I’m so relieved."
The area on the island of Hokkaido where seven-year-old boy Yamato Tanooka went missing on 28 May 2016. He was found alive on Friday 3 June.
The area on the island of Hokkaido where seven-year-old boy Yamato Tanooka went missing on Saturday. Photograph: Hokkaido prefectural police
Yamato was healthy except for low body temperature and would be kept overnight as a precaution, a doctor told a news conference.
The area of forest in which Yamato went missing has experienced heavy rainfall, with overnight temperatures dropping to 7 degrees C (44F).
The building where the boy was found is a one-storey wooden hut with no heating. The SDF hold meetings there but it also doubles as sleeping quarters during exercises. It has two doors but one of them had been left unlocked.
More than 180 rescuers had been searching for Yamato, with the military joining the search on Wednesday. The local town of Nanae requested military support after four days of fruitless searching, with heavy rains at times hampering the search.
"We asked the SDF to go into places which people can’t easily access, such as deep crevasses along creeks," town spokesman Mitsuru Wakayama told AFP.
