4-year-old boy falls to his death from 10th-floor apartment in Aomori Prefecture

This is the third or fourth time I’ve read about similar incidents in the last couple of months. Sad news every time.

again? seriously? is there something wrong with people in this country?

is there something wrong with people in this country?

Yeah, they live in a country where most of the built environment in cities, where 90% of the population lives, consists of apartment buildings that are fundamentally unsafe environments to raise toddlers in.

Its very easy to judge people, but all this mother did was a normal household errand of the kind that mothers of toddlers have to spend their whole day taking care of.

Its very easy to judge people, but all this mother did was a normal household errand of the kind that mothers of toddlers have to spend their whole day taking care of.

Every time one of these tragedies happens my wife and i will talk about. It's always in the news. How could you risk it after there being so many horror stories reported in the news. If there arent bars attached to the windows in your apartment, then make sure you install child locks. "Souteigai, souteigai!" is no excuse.

the child left his room and climbed up onto a chair on the balcony

Its not hard not to leave any climbable objects on the balcony (including AC outdoor units).

Also not very hard or expensive to safety net your balcony. This was supposed to be a top priority for parents when moving to any unit above ground floor.

What the hell?? This sems to be happening every other day.

Unfortunately, this kind of accident will continue to increase since more of these really talll high-rise condos are being built everywhere, replacing homes and shorter apartment buildings.

People with children should not be living in high rise apartments. Simple really.

Surely, There must be some very smart engineers out there that can design this out.

The other day a TV show, showed small kids at a kindergarten climbing over a balcony railings/walls without a chair. We don't need any more excuses, we need someone to look at this, and pass legislation to prevent this from happening. Maybe new locks on ALL WINDOWS, where it can't be opened unless an adult can reach it or unlock it. The locks are basically at toddler height. She did what every single parent did at one time of another when their kid is sleeping.

Like security screens on the windows?? Japan has the worst safety for high rises for any developed country! So many high rises in build up areas don’t even have fire escapes but let’s no blame the cronies for letting safety regulations get by passed.

Supposedly the son locked the mum out by mistake when he woke up and she couldn’t get back into the house. She went to the police to try and get them to break input it was too late…So sad if there had of been safety screens on all the windows this could have been avoided!

Another kid falling to their death while left at home alone. It’s never ok to leave little kids at home alone regardless of how long they are alone for. In this case the garbage could easily have gone out on the next day.

Rest in Peace to the poor boy. As always these tragedies are mostly avoidable.

Netting underneath open balconies should be mandated. It would save several precious kids each year.

People with children should not be living in high rise apartments. Simple really.

Unfortunately high rises - often old and poorly designed - are all lower income people can afford to rent.

RIP little fella, another family contributor to the graying population of japan, Where are all the children at??? Let the kids keep dying how sad.

This happened in my city and the local newspaper had more information, but it makes the story a bit more puzzling. As mentioned the mother thought the child was sleeping and took the garbage downstairs. But when she returned to her apartment, the door was locked. She went down to the closest Koban to get help from the police, but when they returned they found th boy on the ground. He had used a chair to get up over the balcony. What they can't understand is how did the door get locked. Did the child do it? This building is owned by the city and it is for lower income families, so you'd hope they would have designed it with safety in mind, but it looks like they didn't! I wonder if they will be help responsible for the accident?

Every time one of these tragedies happens my wife and i will talk about. It's always in the news. How could you risk it after there being so many horror stories reported in the news. If there arent bars attached to the windows in your apartment, then make sure you install child locks. "Souteigai, souteigai!" is no excuse.

Yeah so do I. We have two kids and had to move out of one of those apartment buildings when our eldest was 2 years old in part because it was so dangerous. The child locks were a joke, we couldn’t make modifications on our own, the balconies had air con units right next to the railings that kids could easily climb on, the list just goes on and on. Almost every damn apartment building in the country has the exact same problems, they are all bloody death traps just waiting to kill kids the second a parent has to go to the bathroom or cook dinner or take the trash out or any one of the million other things one has to do in a day that precludes you from keeping your kid in your direct line of sight.

We had the luxury of being able to move into a house and not having to constantly worry about our kid falling 6 floors to his death but not everyone is so lucky.

Leaving that chair in the Balcony is the first mistake, the second mistake many parents were NOT meant to be one.

So sad and disturbing every time I read the news about children falling to death.

A couple I know live in a high floor and have a 3yo son, they usually have a lot of care and keep their balcony free of any furniture and windows locked, but since the first news article about a kid dying from a fall a few weeks back they put extra locks and a fence.

When reading about a tragedy like this it is very important to reflect for a moment that this could happen to anybody including yourself. It is very sad for a family to suffer something like this, but even more when something similar happened recently that should have put the danger in the mind of the adults.

Its very easy to judge people, but all this mother did was a normal household errand of the kind that mothers of toddlers have to spend their whole day taking care of.

All very well showing sympathy which we all are but the reality is it looks like the mother made an error. We just want people to not make these errors so a tragedy like this can be avoided. RIP to the child!

TV reports said what MarkX wrote above. Its a bizarre tale with the mother putting the garbage out at 11pm and returning to find the child had locked the front door.

fwiw, there won't be many 10 story buildings in Hachinohe, but this public housing building is one of them. In fairness to them, this is very north Tohoku with cold winters, and the cost of heating an apartment will be much lower than trying to heat a detached house. High rises may not make sense for people with young children, but they do for people on a low income in cold climates.

Never leave a young kid alone. Not to take trash, not to go to combini, never. We would never take the garbage down in such a situation. Take it the next morning when leaving WITH the kid. Even houses have balconies and roof balconies that kids can climb over and fall IF you don’t child proof it.

Fighto....

Unfortunately high rises - often old and poorly designed - are all lower income people can afford to rent.

If people can't afford suitable housing they certainly can't afford to have children. High rises have a 1st and second floor.

Here we go blaming the mom. First and accident is a "UNPLANNED EVENT". The mother thought the son was sleeping little did she know he probably wasn't. When kids that age wake up and start looking for their mom they do the most unthinkable things they go looking for her. Now think about it, the story says the door was locked when she came back. The kid probably saw on many occasions how his mother locked and unlocked the door. Perhaps the first thing the kid did was go to the door with may a stool to unlock the door and during this time instead of unlocking the door he "locked it" this is why mom probably couldn't get back in. Once the child realized the door could not open he probably took the stool to look over to see where his mom was and the unthinkable happened. I know I am not right here but all of these are possibilities. The mom did what she thought was right while the child was sleeping she took the opportunity to try to take the garbage out, is that an error NO!! We don't know if on the balcony their were stools or whatever the child lifted himself over to cause his demise. For all we know the mother did take in consideration all of the safety precaution, think about it she waited until she thought the child was sleeping to leave him alone for a minute to take the garbage out. That right there tells me she had some logical reasoning for taking that unfortunate opportunity. Here we have people too quick to place blame and try not to think of the 5 Whys, who what, when, where , and why. Instead we place immediate blame. Just my two logical cents. It's sad that we have read about these types of unwanted accidents involving children but in this case personally from what little I have read this was just an unfortunate turn of event that happened where the mother thought her son was sleeping to do a task but he wasn't. RIP to the little and I could only think the mom is devasted.

Heywa bokai!

The world had many danger and it's an adults responsibility to look out for them when you have children. But when you a adult child waiting for others to tell you what to do or how to act, this happens. Pathetic.

How irresponsible to live on a high floor and not take precautions for a child..

People with children should not be living in high rise apartments. Simple really.

Of course, it should be a law

again? seriously? is there something wrong with people in this country?

It does not happen only in Japan, in many places the carelessness and irresponsibility of the parents is evident, in my country this happens from time to time...