Infant left at entrance to Japanese Red Cross nursery in Ibaraki Prefecture

This is a good news for starting my day. At least... her mom or dad didn't think about ending his life.

Hope they don't find the mother. Like Beara said above, I'm glad she didn't off it. They really do need more baby hatches - not just in Kumamoto.

 They said the mother faces a charge of parental neglect.

Do the authorities prefer a baby flushed dead instead ???

It is not neglect : baby was to be found for the purpose of being taken care of for adoption. Isn't that what the red cross do, help people in dire situation ?

Can't they imagine the psychological effort for who did it?

My mom had to give away (old times) one of my brother because no father.

I did not know until I met him nearly 50 years later...so happy.

. They said the mother faces a charge of parental neglect.

Yet, if there were more of these baby hatches she would not be facing any charges.

She did the right thing, they shouldn't be trying to find her, that just discourages other women from leaving their babies in safe hands. We've been seeing so many articles about women killing their babies, this woman was very brave and should be looked at as a role model.

The baby is safe, well and being looked after.

I only hope that baby and mother receive all the help they both need in the years to come.

Good news.

i can adopt.

"Police said they are examining surveillance camera footage to try and determine who left the baby. They said the mother faces a charge of parental neglect."

PLEASE don't! There are hundreds of families who cannot conceive, and in Japan there is already a stigma against children in foster care, whom are rarely adopted because they aren't "new", and those people would gladly take a newborn baby and care for it. DO NOT seek out the mother who felt she could not care for the baby, because if she's found, and punished, in a nation that barely punishes mothers who MURDER their children, it's guaranteed we'll read about the baby being found in a coin locker a week after the fact next time, or a rest-stop toilet, or in a dumpster, or any of the other places we read about because the government doesn't have it's priorities in check and is actually more worried about punishing than the life of the child.

expat - How would it change your opinion if she'd left the infant somewhere other than outside a hospital? You'd all be condemning her, right?

Do you mean somewhere like trying to flush it down a convenience store toilet, tossing it in a dumpster or leaving it in a coin locker? Um, yeah, probably. (roll eyes)

Police said the baby was born two or three days ago and that his health was good. They said the mother faces a charge of parental neglect.

How is leaving the baby at a Red Cross facility seen as "neglect", yet they have places called "baby hatches" where you can do exactly what she did, but that is ok? I know the baby hatches are set up specifically for this, but perhaps she couldn't make it to a baby hatch.

Even though looking for whoever left the baby is sort of meaningless, they have to do it anyway.

Apparently, in Japan, it's a real hassle to adopt or give up your kids. So, unfortunately, doing it this way is quicker.

At least the baby wasn't thrown in the garbage or down the toilet, as happens here a few times a week.

Agreed regarding the mother who must have felt she had no other choice.

Don't be too quick to try adopting, though. The legal system here will not back up these orphaned children. Without a name and place of birth, all kinds of barriers will block their exit from an orphanage, and these kids in Japan remain generally unable to get a job or marry. Memories of a Christmas party with bright-eyed and wonderful children of all ages at a church orphanage in our city remain seared into my heart. The nuns introduced me to their first-ever university student, someone who had miraculously managed to break through the glass ceiling. Her stories were sobering, although the children all looked happy.

Speed

Hope they don't find the mother. Like Beara said above, I'm glad she didn't off it. They really do need more baby hatches - not just in Kumamoto.

Obviously, she does not want to be found. To the contrary, publishing the fact that leaving a newborn in relative safety at the door of a hospital will get you hunted down will mean that others will make a much much worse choice in the future. Think about that.

Hope that society provides more support to these nurseries - it takes a village to raise a child after all, and these nurseries gonna need help from the villagers

Guess its better than flushing the newborn down the toilet, dumpster or just thrown out like garbage. Does Japan have a system for unwanted children where the person who chooses this path will not be persecuted.