UPDATE 06/02/16:
The 7-year-old boy who went missing after his parents abandoned him in a forest as punishment has been found almost a week later. CNN reports Japanese officials said Friday morning that Yamato was found on the same island of Hokkaido. According to Satoshi Saito a local fire department spokesman Yamato was found on the military's Kamagatame exercise field by Japan's Self-Defense Forces personnel. Yamato reportedly doesn't have any injuries said a rep for the Hokkaido Prefectural Police.
See original story below.
Authorities are searching a forest in northern Japan for a missing 7-year-old boy whose parents left him there alone as punishment. Yamato Tanooka has been missing since Saturday afternoon, the Associated Pressreported. Though the child's parents initially claimed their son had gone missing while they were picking vegetables, they later confessed his disappearance was the result of an act of "discipline" gone awry.
The parents told local police they attempted to punish the child for throwing rocks at strangers by forcing him to get out of the vehicle and leaving him behind. When the boy's father returned a few minutes later, the child was nowhere to be found. "I regret what I did to my child," the father told local news outlets.
"The parents left the boy in the mountains as a punishment," a police spokesperson said. "They said they went back to the site immediately, but the boy was no longer there." According to the International Business Times, the wooded areas on Japan's Hokkaido island are "populated by brown bears."
150 rescue workers were still searching for the missing child as of Monday. Police are reportedly weighing whether or not to charge the parents with child abandonment, according to AP. "I feel very sorry for my child," the father toldNTV. "I am so sorry for causing trouble for many people."
