national

6-year-old boy drowns in irrigation ditch in Fukuoka

9 Comments

Police in Sasaguri, Fukuoka Prefecture, said Thursday that a 6-year-old boy apparently drowned after he fell into an irrigation ditch.

According to police, the boy was playing in the waterway on Wednesday night. Sankei Shimbun reported that at around 9 p.m., Kenichi Yokoyama found the body of his son Yuta floating face down. Emergency rescue personnel confirmed the boy's death at the scene.

Yokoyama told police that Yuta went out to play in front of his house at around 6:30 p.m. A short time later, his parents noticed he was gone and started looking for him.

The irrigation ditch runs near the house. It is approximately 3 meters across and 1.2 meters deep. Nearly 50 meters downstream from where the boy was found, his parents found the clothes he had been wearing, Sankei reported.

Yuta's father said his son had told him he wanted to go out and fish for crayfish, leading investigators to believe that while out playing in the water, Yuta fell in and drowned.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

9 Comments
Login to comment

Another sad tale of children drowning. RIP to the little guy. Maybe the parents will take better care of the second child, if they have one.

-5 ( +4 / -9 )

It is always sad to hear these kinds of accidents. Some irrigation ditches are not covered and big enough to contain human bodies. The boy probably had fallen to the ditch due to lack of sight as this happend at night.

Deepest condolescences to the boy's family.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

So dad thought it was a good idea to allow his six year old son to go fishing for crayfish alone??!? Another child dead from a preventable accident. RIP little one.

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

Don't get it. 6 years old out of a line of a parent's sight at 6:30pm, in a ditch. Simply doesn't compute. You either suggest another time or drop what you're doing (the remote?) and play with your child.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

There is a real need for parenting lessons. The problem is I have no idea who'd give them.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

What on earth was dad doing that was so important he didn't decide to keep an eye on a six-year-old child who said he was going off fishing by himself at 6:30pm as it was getting dark? This is so unbelievable it is suspicious. This should be properly investigated.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

6:30pm? I tell my daughter to COME HOME no later than 6pm. WTF is wrong with these parents?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

This is too frequent an occurrence. I remember very scary public information ads as a kid about playing near water - why none here?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I don't have a problem with 6 y.o going out to play, but they should never be near water unsupervised, I think that some people lack common sense, children are not a commodity! FGS look after them!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites