Japan's 7-Year-Old Found A Week After Being Abandoned In Forest By Parents

Yamato Tanooka was only seven, but he was abandoned in a forest by his parents for punishment and then got lost. He was found after a week and admitted to a hospital, from which he was released Tuesday.

The seven-year-old was hit by loud camera flashes and cheers from dozens just outside the hospital in Hakodate, on the northern island of Hokkaido. With a baseball gap and a gray jacket over a T-shirt, he held a greeting card shaped like a huge baseball and waved to the crowds.

What would he like to do, asked some media persons? He said he wanted to play baseball.

How was he feeling? "I am fine," Yamato answered a reporter. He wanted to go back to school and looked forward to being part of a school sports day.

His father took his son from the hospital, bowed deeply to the media persons, and thanked them deeply.

Six days after he was lost, Yamato had been found in a military training ground hut on Friday. Surprisingly, though he had not eaten and had drunk only water, he suffered from light dehydration and minor bruises on an arm and his legs.

Shunsuke Kudo, an assistant section chief for the Hokkaido police department public relations division, denied that the police wanted to press charges against the parents for "child neglect."

Still, they wanted to report the case to the children's welfare center.

While his parents reported that he had been missing on May 29, they told the police that he had disappeared when they were gathering plants in the forest.

It was only later that the father, Takayuki Tanooka , revealed that he had planned to leave Yamato briefly in the forest to punish him for throwing rocks on vehicles and people during the day.

The excessive discipline drew a lot of flak in the public. Takayuki admitted that he regretted what he had done.