9-year-old boy falls to his death from 13th floor

Children supervision lacks in this country

Akihase.

Always amazes me how's many post like you. News like the above I just as often read from my home country or on sites like CNN, BBC, Der Spiegel, etc.

RIP.

Children supervision lacks in this country

Don't know about you, but when I was 9 I was running out in the forest with friends and playing games without parental supervision.

Sounds like a game of "Dare" or "Follow the Leader" gone wrong. Sounds like some posters never did those.

I have felt for a while now that we are not supposed to live in such high rise buildings. I would even suspect they are one reason for depression being so high here.

Sounds like kids fooling around. Wholly preventable, but from the moment of conception the only sure thing is we will die. Accidents happen and people do stupid things. Hope his mates aren't too traumatized.

@It`s Me,

I`m sure you do.

@badge213,

Me too. But it was never a jumping floors in a high rise building kinda fun.

Some buildings don't even name the 13th floor.

Yep, I got up to some pretty hair raising things at 9 or 10 years of age - it's what boys do.

The racist remarks are stupid. I think Japanese parents try their best to over protect in this regard, if anything.

Poor parenting...birth rate is down the hill in Japan, yet young life are lost so often.. Children supervision is so poor here, I often see yochien children playing at the roadside or children running across the road and mother running after them....God bless his soul.

Sad, RIP.

These things happen all over the world.

@lostrune2 here it's 4th floor we don't have. Yon or Shi is the bad luck # here.

I think from the point of view of living in the US in this day and age, one might come here and think there is a lack of parental supervision. However, I was 9 yrs old during the 1970's in the US and I was out all day with my friends having one adventure after another. Fortunately we didn't have to play on high rise buildings. We did play with rattle snakes though. I think Japan, in terms of safety, is where the US was during the 60's and 70's. I hope it stays this way. BTW, I live 1 km from Nishi Hokima. The sky was filled with helicopters--quite an unusual sight in Adachi-ku. RIP.

Yeah, yeah, and all that crap about non-supervised kids. I admit that 9y/o's should not be playing on the stairwell of a multi-story building, but boys at that age are extremely adventurous and quite old enough to be playing unsupervised. But, please consider the environment they grow up in before you go condemning them. At least they were outside and sitting in their rooms with their faces pasted to a PSP. Playing in the stairwell is a lot safer than running around the crowded streets.

As I think back, when playing I was away from adult supervision for quite a bit at ages 9 and 10. We used to head down to a nearby canyon in our San Diego suburb and slide down the grassy slopes on cardboard. Those canyons were susceptible to flash floods or wildfires but it never concerned us because "we would be faster than any fire or flood". It used to drive my mom batty when she'd have to track me down and get me out of the canyon.

Kids don't have it as good as we who were children years ago as real estate has spread into the rual areas nd taken play areas with them! So sad for the family even if they couldn't watch him 24/7 which is impossible. God love him and his family

Children supervision lacks in this country

He was 13 not 3. At what point does child supervision turn from responsible into somewhat creepy? If a kid hasnt learned the art of self-preservation by the age of 13 then sadly, regardless of the eventual cause, his days are probably numbered.

He was 13 not 3.

Actually, he was 9, like the headline says.

Now if we go to the dark side, was the group of friends really friends? Did he really try to jump from the 13 to 12 floor? Or is something more sinister going on.... Kids are not the most reliable sources especially if they had something to do with it.

Doh! Sorry Fadamor! Not enough coffee this morning clearly!

Apologies all - that changes my view of things somewhat so please disregard previous comment and I will slink off into a corner and bash myself over the head a few times....

Boys will be boys, 9 years or 19 we do stupid stuff.

My heart goes out to the family. I can't imagine what they must be going through.