Missing Japanese boy made right choices to survive, experts say

The seven-year-old was found sheltering at this Self-Defense Forces training camp.

TOKYO -- The case of a lost boy found safe after five days alone in a northern Japanese forest has given survival experts something to ponder and unleashed criticism on his father, who claims to have left the seven-year-old on an unpaved mountain road to "discipline" him.


The lad was discovered by chance Friday when Self-Defense Forces arrived at a mountain training camp about 5km away. He said he had taken shelter there and survived on water.
"Preventing dehydration and hypothermia is vital," said Kazue Oshiro, a physician who serves as mountain rescue adviser to police on Hokkaido, the northern island where the boy went missing.
The fact that the boy sheltered at the camp, where he had access to drinking water, from the day he went missing on May 28 played a big part in his safe return, she said.
Children are particularly vulnerable to hypothermia because their bodies' ability to regulate their temperature is not fully developed. Dressed in a T-shirt and running pants, the boy apparently kept warm by lying sandwiched between two mattresses.
"Even in June, the temperature dips low at night" in Hokkaido, Oshiro said, saying the boy did right to limit his movements and keep warm. "This was a potentially dangerous situation."
Ikuya Ueta, head of intensive care at the Saitama Children's Medical Center near Tokyo, said "the conditions were right" for the boy's survival.
"Not only did he stay out of the rain and wind, he was also protected from the danger of attack by wild animals," Ueta said.
"While there are reports of adults surviving for a week or so on water alone, I've never heard of similar data on children," he said. "His is a very rare case."
The boy's father has come under fire for leaving the boy in the woods for misbehaving.