The search for a 7-year-old boy whose parents left him alone in a forest in Japan as punishment entered its fourth day on Tuesday, as people took to social media to criticise the couple’s actions.
About 180 police officers and firefighters were scouring a mountain forest inhabited by bears as fears grew for the safety of Yamato Tanooka, who went missing early on Saturday evening.
Yamato’s parents initially claimed their son had gone missing while the family were collecting edible plants in a forest park, but later admitted that they had left him in the forest to “discipline” him for throwing stones at people and cars earlier in the day.
On the way back from the park, Yamato’s parents ordered him out of the car and drove on for another 500 metres, police quoted them as saying. But when the father walked back to collect him about five minutes later, he had disappeared.
The search for Tanooka, who was dressed in a T-shirt and jeans and had no food or water, has generated widespread media coverage, with TV networks running frequent updates from the scene, located on Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido.
In brief comments to reporters, the boy’s 44-year-old father, Takayuki, said: “I feel very sorry for my son. I am so sorry for causing trouble for so many people.”
Rescuers and police officers have widened the search area, and are using sniffer dogs and horses to go deeper into the thick woodland, Nippon TV said.
Police said they were looking into the possibility of filing charges of neglect against the parents, whose claim that they had intended only to discipline their son has infuriated Japanese social media users.
One Twitter user said she could not understand why they had abandoned their child in a remote forest, however briefly. “I’m a parent too, so I understand (about discipline), but that was going way too far.”
“This is not punishment, but abuse!” read one post, while another said: “The parents are so stupid ... I am speechless.”
The area of forest in which Yamato went missing experienced heavy rainfall on Sunday night, while overnight temperatures dropped to 7 degrees C (44F).
On Tuesday, TV networks quoted search teams as saying they had found fresh bear faeces in the area.
Mitsuru Wakayama, a spokesman for the nearby town of Nanae, said local residents only occasionally passed through the mountainous area as a short cut.
“Not many people or cars pass by, and it gets totally dark as there are no lights,” Wakayama said. “It’s not surprising to encounter bears anywhere in the area.”