Overview

• The Hyogo Prefectural Police arrested a 26-year-old unemployed mother on August 13 for allegedly leaving her son home alone from August 9 until the evening of August 12.
• A neighbor discovered the crying six-year-old outside his Taishi home on August 12 and alerted the Himeji Child and Family Center, which found him healthy and unharmed.
• Investigators say the boy survived on food found in the house and are scrutinizing the mother’s claim that she traveled to Tokyo during the period.
• In Kiryu, Gunma Prefecture, a 15-year-old junior high student walked into a local koban around 10 p.m. on August 14 to confess to stabbing his 48-year-old father.
• Gunma Prefectural Police arrested the teenager on suspicion of murder after finding the father’s body and have opened a formal inquiry into the motive and events leading up to the killing.