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A 5-year-old boy drowned in a pond in Ichinoseki City, Iwate Prefecture, on Sunday afternoon, police said Monday. The boy, identified as Sho Hironaga, was taken to hospital by helicopter at 3 p.m. but died about three hours later.
According to police, the boy was playing with his brother, sister and friend. Police say he was trying to retrieve his shoe which had fallen into the pond when he slipped and went under. His brother and sister ran to get their parents who pulled the boy out and called for help. Police said there is no fence around the pond which is more than two meters deep.
© Japan Today
11 Comments
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smartacus
Once again, another example of slack parental supervision in Japan. And the same applies to the story about the boy who lost his fingers at the golf course. And please, let's not have some reader telling me that these accidents happen in other countries. I'm not concerned with other countries.
lipscombe
"Police said there is no fence around the machine and it does not have any shut-down safety function" "Police said there is no fence around the pond which is more than two meters deep" cut and paste journalism? poor kids, someone screwed up here either the parents of absentee fence builders
keech2
smartacus, when you were growing up did your parents know where you were 24 hours a day? Did you never do anything that might have been a little stupid or possibly a little dangerous when you were a kid? If they did and if you didn't, then you must have had a boring childhood. But accidents happen. Nobody's fault, they just happen. I am the first to criticize Japanese parents for not taking safety precautions such as child and booster seats. However, keeping kids on a figurative or literal leash 24 hours a day will not solve the problem, because when they do slip the leash they will have no idea how to act and probably get into a bad situation. Also, we do not know how old his brother and sister are. Possibly they are older and were supposed to be taking care of the younger brother. As of now we just don't know.
gogogo
Many japanese people can't actually swim, I guess this is the same problem.
rjd_jr
The interesting thing is, though some here take it too far in generalizing, I've noticed the same kinds of criticism of the parents of young children that drown or die in tragic accidents in other countries. For example, last year a young child around the age of this poor boy drowned in a public swimming pool with his parents around. I was sad to see all of the hateful messages towards the parents and how 'careless' they were. I am with keech2, nitpicking and 20/20 hindsight does nothing to alleviate the pain of this boy's family. What happened happened, no need to judge others. Unless we keep our kids on a literal leash, which I assure no one out there wants to, then we cannot always prevent tragedies such as these. Rest in peace young boy and my thoughts to the family.
chobita
gogogo, you're getting off the subject. It has nothing to do with the capability of swimming. Anyway your opinion is beyond my comprehension, though.
Blue_Tiger
Like Smartacu8s, I do wonder where the parents were, what they were doing. After all, they were at a pond. Didn't they know that ponds and 5-year-olds don't go really well together without parental supervision? I don't think that smartacus is wrong to criticize these parents. They were at a cotton-pickin' pond!!! It isn't enough to give supervision to children for their younger siblings, especially if we assume that these brother and sister of the 5-year-old were likely not much older. It isn't about putting a child on a literal leash, but rjd_jr. and keech2, this little boy was FIVE (5) YEARS OLD!!! He wasn't very far removed from being a toddler!!! How can you talk of allowing children their freedom when in this case, this little boy was so very young? 8-, 9-, or 10-years old, I can understand letting them get by without as much parental supervision.....but 5 years old?
I'll say this, and it may get me a lot of flak and criticizm, but it must be said: very likely, these parents were at a hanami party, getting drunk, and didn't want the kiddos around, so they let 5-year-old junior go off with his not-much-older brother and sister so as not to encourage the children to get drunk or see them drinking themselves into a stupor. This is, assumingly, a case of parental selfishness. A 5-year-old boy or girl needs to be with parents at a pond or lake, or at least told, quite sternly and strictly, not to go near the water for any reason.
The pond isn't to blame, and the lack of a fence isn't to blame, and neither are the sister, brother, and friend: blame rests squarely on the parents. If this boy were older, I'd not place blame on them....
conqueror_of_Uranus
The same people who berate the lack of fences will rap Japan on cementing rivers.
keech2
Blue Tiger, I stand by my point that we don't know how old his siblings were. If his siblings were 8, 9 or 10, what is wrong with them going to play outside together? When I was 5, I would tag along with my elder sisters, who were 8, 9, and 10 at the time and, even occasionally when my parents forced him to, my brother, who was 13. Until I know the age of the child's siblings, I will withhold judgment. Also, since this took place in Iwate, I don't the parents were at a hanami party. According to the news, it's too early for hanami in Iwate.
nimbus
Tragic accident. I am glad the other kids were smart enough to call for help and not jump into the pond to try to save the little boy. Otherwise, the death toll could be higher.
bushlover
what's with the 'no fence around ...such and such...' thing these days? What's wrong with just teaching your kids about potential dangers too them. I wasn't watched 24 hours a day either and remember being out of mom's sight quite often. But I was told about many things that were dangerous like vehicles, machinery and bodies of water.