News On Japan

Osaka girl says she was fed only once per day during confinement

Nov 25, 2019 (Japan Today) - A 12-year-old girl who was missing for almost a week after arranging to meet with her alleged kidnapper has said that food and bathing were restricted during the time she was confined in his home, police said Sunday.

"It was around one meal per day and one bath every two days," the girl was quoted as saying by a police official. She had been missing since Nov. 17 and showed up Saturday at a police box in Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture, more than 400 kilometers from her home in Osaka.

The girl has told the police that she became acquainted with the suspect, Hitoshi Ito, on social media around Nov 10. and they decided to meet in a park in Osaka four or five days later.

The 35-year-old man, who was arrested Saturday, sent a message asking the elementary school sixth grader to come to his house in Oyama, according to the police. He has denied the allegations against him.

Ito also said in the message that another girl had been in his house for about six months and he wanted the girl from Osaka to be "a conversation partner" for her, according to the police.

When the girl appeared at the police box, 750 meters from the man's house, she was not wearing shoes. She told a police officer that she had "fled from a man's house" after "becoming scared" and there was another girl there.

Osaka prefectural police transferred Ito to its headquarters on Sunday afternoon.

He is suspected of abducting the girl from the park in Osaka on Nov 17 and confining her in his home despite knowing she was a minor.

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

Japan's World Cup campaign begins on June 14 when the Samurai Blue face the Netherlands at Dallas Stadium in Texas, a clash that will showcase some of the game's most talented players and pit two ambitious teams against one another in a crucial Group F opener. While Japan arrives without injured winger Kaoru Mitoma, one of its most recognizable stars, the squad still boasts a wealth of talent drawn from Europe's top leagues.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) announced that an El Niño phenomenon is believed to have developed this spring, warning that Japan is likely to experience above-average temperatures nationwide this summer despite the climate pattern's traditional association with cooler summers.

Narita International Airport Corporation is expected to announce next month that it will apply to the national government for project certification as part of the process to enable compulsory land acquisition for the construction of a new runway at Narita Airport, according to sources familiar with the matter.

A fire broke out at Arima Inari Shrine near the Arima Onsen hot spring resort area in Kobe on the night of June 9th, destroying multiple buildings and leaving an elderly Shinto priest and his wife with minor injuries.

Japan's national soccer team arrived in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 8th from Monterrey, Mexico, where it had been conducting a pre-World Cup training camp, and held its first practice session at its base camp for the FIFA World Cup in North America.

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Society NEWS

A fire broke out at Arima Inari Shrine near the Arima Onsen hot spring resort area in Kobe on the night of June 9th, destroying multiple buildings and leaving an elderly Shinto priest and his wife with minor injuries.

Two men, including the head of the Japan Cycling Association, have been arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department on suspicion of defrauding two men in Kagoshima Prefecture out of 30 million yen by falsely promising a massive return on a purported patent-related investment.

A bear that had been repeatedly spotted in commercial and residential areas of Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, was captured in a residential neighborhood at around 3:30 p.m. on June 9th after authorities used a tranquilizer gun, but the city remains on alert because police say they cannot rule out the possibility that another bear may still be roaming the area.

Nara Prefectural Police have arrested seven people, including a 46-year-old Yokohama man who described himself as a "messenger of God," on suspicion of unlawfully confining a teenage boy entrusted to their care by his parents, allegedly threatening him, confiscating his belongings, and forcing him to sleep naked.

A man believed to be in his 50s or 60s was found dead with knives lodged in his left eye and abdomen inside a container at a company property in Kobe's Suma Ward on June 8th, prompting police to investigate the possibility of a criminal case.

The family of James "Weston" Higginbotham, a 20-year-old Auburn University student who disappeared during a family vacation in Japan, announced on June 7th that he has been found dead after a volunteer search-and-rescue team located his body in a mountainous area outside Kyoto, bringing a week-long multinational search to a tragic end.

A clinic director and a former Peruvian staff member have been referred to prosecutors after the man allegedly performed medical procedures without a license, including an external cephalic version—a procedure used to manually turn a baby into the correct position before birth—at an obstetrics and gynecology clinic in Fukuoka City, raising concerns about patient safety and oversight in maternity care.

A 14-year-old junior high school girl was arrested on suspicion of robbery resulting in injury after allegedly spraying a woman in her 60s in the face and stealing her wallet during a robbery attempt in Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture.