Doctors in Okinawa are treating a 17-year-old boy for injuries he sustained after falling from an apartment balcony while allegedly intoxicated.
According to police, emergency services were called to the apartment block in Urasoe at around 6:45 a.m. on Sunday after the boy apparently fell from a fifth floor balcony while drunk, TV Asahi reported. Officers arrived at the scene to find evidence that a large quantity of alcohol had been consumed on the premises by a group of nine underage youths.
Police questioned the other youths in attendance and discovered that the group had been drinking alcohol at the apartment since Saturday evening, despite being under the legal drinking age.
© Japan Today
19 Comments
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TheDevilsAssistant
Literally a bad hangover...hangover the balcony.
We've all did stupid stuff when we were younger. I hope he will be alright and live his life learning from bad decisions
Skeeter27
Isn't it illegal to drink in Japan before the age of20??? I wonder if the police will give him a ticket?
Nessie
Falling-down drunk.
nath
Glad he's okay but I sure hope he learned his lesson. Glad no one else was hurt. Wow, news from Okinawa other than typhoon or anti-military base movements.
Tiger_In_The_Hermitage
I hope he's alright.... Take care, recover well and enjoy the sunny weather in Okinawa, thats after the typhoons heading your way.
Disillusioned
Whose apartment is it? Obviously not one of the kids.
hereforever
Hey, an Okinawa story that doesn't involve military?
ControlFreak
@Skeeter27--Yes, but all police forces have learned to turn a blind eye to at least a few laws that don't really matter. There is lots of underage drinking going on here, but this is the first time I can remember anything like this happening.
Laguna
6:45 am?! Give the lad credit; I don't remember having that stamina at the age of 17. I did when I was in my 20s, though; let's hope he learns from this.
taiko666
I didn't know it was illegal to drink alcohol if you're under 20... I thought it was illegal to sell it to somebody under 20.
Serrano
That'll teach the kid to drink before he's legally able to, and able to handle it.
Fadamor
And to underscore your point, it's telling how JT refused to list this under the Crime section. They don't want to treat the crime as a crime.
taiko666
@Fadamor
What crime? It's legal to drink alcohol at home whatever your age.
TrevorPeace1
Well said, Nessie. Been there, done that. Once. Lesson learned. Let's hope the kid does, too.
Mirai Hayashi
@Fadamor
What crime? It's legal to drink alcohol at home whatever your age.
Maybe in the UK, but not in Japan. Legal drinking age is 20. Perhaps its legal in the presence of parents, which was obviously not the case here.
taiko666
@Mirai
Quite the opposite actually. According to this link in Wikipedia, the UK is the only country in the world that sets a legal drinking age at home (5 years)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_drinking_age#cite_note-Icap_Reports_4-1
In Japan, as in nearly all countries, the legal drinking age is the age at which alcohol may be purchased and/or consumed in a public place. Drinking at home isn't mention in the law as far as I can see.
ControlFreak
@Serrano--Right. Cause nobody ever fell off a balcony sober and no adult ever fell off drunk.
It might be wise not to assume how he wound up falling from the balcony. He might sit on the edge every single day, but this time, somebody bumped him. Lots of ways it could have happened, and many have little or nothing to do with his own consumption of alcohol.
Bogi
Rock 'n' Roll!
nath
I hope he will be fine. He'll nurse that headache for a while, I think. Also I'm pretty sure he won't touch alcohol for a loooooooong time.