Newborn baby found in bag in Naha

It is good to see this baby was found alive and has a chance at a life, instead of just being snuffed at birth and dumped in the trash, like so many other cases of this kind.

Poor soul, please have a good life.

Hopefully this little one grows up as part of a loving family & not in a cold metal crib at the nearest orphanage

Nice one D, and may he grow up happy, never knowing what his "mother" had done

"A passerby heard the baby crying and looked inside the bag and found the child"

Well done my little one, you're a survivor. These won't be the last tears you shed, but there are are whole world of people here, ready and waiting to look after you.

They should name you Yamato!!

@ensnaturae2

Again, you are making way too many assumptions by assuming that the mother or father had the capacity to give this child a loving home if they wanted. The mother could be a teenage victim of rape, who didn't even know she was pregnant. Maybe the mother has no family (ie grandparents of the child) neither you nor I know the circumstances of the parents Again I am not giving a pass to anyone. There are other better ways of handling an unwanted child, but as I said, desperate people do desperate things and often don't do nor react to situations as rational people do.

@ensnaturae2

You are making a lot assumptions here. What makes you think that the father is a part of the woman's life? She could have been raped. Although there is no excuse for abandoning a small baby, especially in this manner -being left for dead., desperate people do desperate things. As much as I want to see justice to be done for the little one' sake, i would also want to hold off judgement until I know the full circumstances of the parent(s)

If they find the mother, ask her what drove her to abandon the child so early in life.

Lets find the mother is prosecuted to the full extent of the law which I hope includes considerable jail time

Sorry, but this is Japan. If a woman gets only four years for murdering her baby, what makes you think this woman will get any time at all?

Thank God the baby was alive. It could've been tragic. Thank goodness the passerby was there at the right place and time when he heard the cries.

At least she didnt kill this little baby.

Perfectly fine healthy fetuses, that would otherwise have grown to healthy viable infants, are indeed, treated as trash, or used as material for different experiments.

And perfectly fine eggs are thrown away every month. Millions of perfectly fine sperm cells are thrown away in condoms. I have more sympathy for pigs in slaughter houses than I do for human fetuses that could not survive outside the womb even on life support for what should be obvious reasons. Any decision of the pregnant woman counts for far more than a fetus. I have massive sympathy for this actual baby though, and I am glad he is alive and I hope he will be cared for.

Bless him, the little baby.

Lets hope the child survives and is well and is being taken care off. Lets find the mother is prosecuted to the full extent of the law which I hope includes considerable jail time.

The infant was taken to hospital and is in a stable condition, hospital officials said, adding that the child was born about one or two days before he was found.

This baby is alive and is destined for great things!

Quite a lot of abortions are performed where the baby to be is well and truly, and legally dumped in the trash

Can you back this up with some facts other than your opinion.

Hayashi San...the father of this child ...is out there somewhere.... Yes ..it is true that he may be no part of the mothers life, and The abandonment of his child by the mother, might show how true that is. However, even if those two, mother and father...feel nothing at all for each other, even if they have hurt each other ..that does not change the fact..that the child has two parents. Not one. At present, we have no other information, we only know about the plight of a small and vulnerable infant, who needs love and protection. Whether or not either one of its parents may be considered "excused" ...for whatever reason...from taking care of it. That decision must come later. Yes, the child may have been conceived in rape, or any one of a number of circumstances, that have caused the kind of despair that reverses any inclination in a woman to care for her child. Still, the first and most important issue, is the well-being of the child. The first people to turn to who maybe willing and able to support or love it...are its parents. Both of them. And the families of those two. The child has a family somewhere. It perhaps has grandparents, siblings, a whole network of potential carers. From both of its parents. The child must not be deprived of its right to know and be known by those people who may be inclined to love it best. No, I don't choose toThink of the abandonment of an infant, in the same way as a sack of abandoned puppy dogs. Sad as that cruelty is, my first responsibility is to this child, and that would be my best approach. The mother, father and all their families, belong to the little one.

Quite a lot of abortions are performed where the baby to be is well and truly, and legally dumped in the trash.

Babies are not aborted. Zygotes, embryos and fetuses are. I don't even have a memory before 5 years old and so, was scarcely more than a talking animal really. Even so, I can see such melodramatic emotional attachment to even a late term fetus to the point that you say "baby", even though there is barely as much going on its brain as an insect. Before that? Utter nonsense unless its your own, but the real loss was the loss of your own hopes and dreams. There is no more life there than the skin cells you kill every time you scratch somewhere.

Quite a lot of abortions are performed where the baby to be is well and truly, and legally dumped in the trash

Can you back this up with some facts other than your opinion.

By all means. According to http://ken-min.jp/rank/467 (removing the character for instance and summing the first numerical column) there were approximately 202,106 artificial abortions carried out in Japan in 2012. Many of these were perhaps necessary to save the life of the mother, or in cases where the child would have been likely to have been very ill (so ill as to be un adoptable perhaps).

But (and I don't have figures to back this up but I think you will allow) a majority of these 202,106 foetuses had the potential to be brought to term and put up for adoption. The mothers all, facing harsh decisions, decided to have the foetus legally....what is the term..."terminated" by means of abortion.

The lady described in the above article may also have had the same option but, likewise faced with a harsh decision, chose instead to put her baby in a bag on a bench.

Are we able to imagine the mother looking back at the bench from a distance, worrying, crying presumably, when she saw someone pick up the bag. How does this go? "Yes. Goooooooal!" Much, much more than that.

This is not a happy story, but when compared to the 202,106 abortions that were carried out in Japan in 2012, likewise harsh, it is a story that contains also, for me, the mother and the child at the very least, a certain element of joy.

Babies are not aborted. Zygotes, embryos and fetuses are.

True, but Zygotes, embryos and fetuses have the tendency to mature to the point where they can put up for adoption, or left on benches in bags. If this were not the case, no one would pay for the operation.

I can appreciate the argument (whether I agree or not I am not sure) that it is far more responsible to "terminate" a zygote, embryo or fetus than it is to leave a baby on a bench, and I am aware that the former is legal and the latter illegal. At the same time however, I find myself in some sympathy with the lady described in the article above. I think all you need to do is imagine being there, but perhaps I am just sentimental.

@Jack and the Beanstalk: The decision by said pregnant woman should have been made prior to said pregnancy. Do I want to get pregnant? No? Okay then there are: /deep breath: Pills, condoms, shots, day after pills, proper abortions, and spermicidal lubricant to name only a few.

It would be great if people would start thinking ahead more than 10 seconds. And if they make mistakes, then take responsibility and act appropriately instead of both literally and proverbially, dumping their problems on others.

But (and I don't have figures to back this up but I think you will allow) a majority of these 202,106 foetuses had the potential to be brought to term and put up for adoption.

Fair enough, however beyond your informational facts there is something missing. You suggest adoption. Do you know of any child actually adopted from birth here in Japan? The overwhelming majority of these aborted children would become wards of the state, that is a fact as well.

Young couples and married couples that chose not to have kids won't adopt either.

This women has at least 1% of humanity ...

They should name you Yamato!!

No they shouldn't, the child should not have that unfortunate moniker placed on it, if anything "hope" or 希望 (kibo) would be more appropriate!

When will the Okinawans march against women? There must be a way this is the US military's fault.

Jack and the Beanstalk!I think you must be quite unusual in having no memories of pre five years old.!! I have very many, and can easily recall suckling my mothers breast and I'm sure many people do! But a 24 week old infant is most certainly not a zygote! The laws in Japan may be quite different than Europe but the point is, no one has yet set a time when an infant may be viable or not. Perfectly fine healthy fetuses, that would otherwise have grown to healthy viable infants, are indeed, treated as trash, or used as material for different experiments. They simply are aborted for a number of reasons.

The child has a father, what part did he play in causing this child to be abandoned?. Why do you think, at once, only of its mother? What kind of stress was she feeling, to treat her child in such a heartless way? Does the infants father know or care that his child needs a loving home? I hope both parents may be found, and required to support this little one.

Quite a lot of abortions are performed where the baby to be is well and truly, and legally dumped in the trash. How does this compare? Sure this mother could have put her child up for adoption, but then so could those who choose abortion, compared to which this event may show bravery, endeavour, and even somewhat, no a lot, of a happy end.