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A 12-year-old girl who had been missing from her home in Osaka's Tsurumi Ward since Jan 5 turned up safe and sound on Friday morning.
Police said they received a call from a woman at around 11:20 Friday morning, in which the caller said she was with a runaway girl whom she had seen in the car park of a family restaurant in Osaka's Higashi-sumiyoshi Ward, Sankei Shimbun reported.
Police went to the restaurant and took the girl, Mirai Atarashi, into protective custody. Police said the girl was tired but unharmed. They quoted her as saying she had run away from home by herself because her parents scolded her.
Atarashi went missing on Jan 5. On the morning of her disappearance, she met up with five friends through the instant message application LINE and they went to an indoor leisure center in Sakai.
The girl’s mother said she received a text message from her daughter at around 2:30 p.m., saying she was about to return home. Atarashi and one of her friends went as far as Yada train station where they parted ways at around 6:15 p.m., and that was the last place the girl was seen.
The parents contacted police on Jan 7 to report her missing. On Wednesday, prefectural police released photos and information to the public, seeking help.
Police did not give any further information on where the girl spent the past 12 days.
© Japan Today
24 Comments
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smithinjapan
Regardless of what the girl may be like or what her parents are, and the 'scolding' she received, I'm glad she turned up safe and relatively sound. Definitely thought it was a runaway.
papigiulio
That is #2 safe in 1 week. Good news.
pointofview
The first article said she sent a mail at 1 or 2 am to her parents saying she was on her way home. She shouldn`t be out on the street at that time. Did she run away because they scolded her for being out that late?
gogogo
Glad she is safe, but she needs to go visit all the policemen and say sorry she wasted alot of people's time.
PitaHito
Wow, so loving! the parents went on Jan 7 to report that they hadnt seen her daughter since Jan 5! So sad.
tmarie
Glad to hear she is safe. Will child services step in and do their job as clearly this girl and her family need some support and help.
ConnorH93
Thank god she's been found safe and sound, she must have been staying somewhere considering she would have been starving by now if she had nothing to eat?
I get the feeling she runs away a lot when scolded, perhaps staying at a friends for a day. When she was gone for longer than that I guess the parents realised something was different this time so called the police, that's just what I think anyway.
CrazyJoe
When this case first surfaced this week I felt intuitively that this was not a criminal case. Glad she's safe and hope she's snuggled in her mother's arms.
Thunderbird2
Silly little girl... but at least she's safe now. Glad it had a happy ending.
akihase
Really.... I doubt she did this all on her own.
Cortes Elijah
The aliens are at it again!
Shaolin7
It's really nice to read good news like this and the other missing girl case for once, instead of the sad stories that show up far more often.
Paul Arenson
Actually reading the article, I don't see any indications, but the article is poorly written. It also does not look at why the police refused to give info or if--in fact-- they even had info. It is probably just a verbatim report of what the police said the girl said as well. Little effort is madee to pursue a story in order to clarify.
Tessa
The girl has a history of truancy and running away from home. Let's hope this incident, involving the police and a nationwide alert, results in her turning her life around. We can always hope.
kdotson1965
Here in the states it is common to file a missing person report on an Adult after 48 hours, but a child - never - as soon as they are noticed missing (regardless of the time) an Amber Alert (Missing child alert) is put out on the news line and every other public media. Why did the parents wait so long to report their little girl as missing. That is just crazy
Elbuda Mexicano
I do not want to blame the parents but this girl also sounds like a real dumb ass!
Vincehwr
12 days are a pretty long time. More details need to be filled.
GW
Folks while I realize you want more info the priority is first on the girl, chill out you may get more info later after things are better sorted, just sayin!
Serrano
"Mirai Atarashi"
Miss Future New!
nath
She had a previous history of running away, and has now done it again. Next time it happens it would be irresponsible of the parents to call the police. This time it was responsible of them to wait 2 days.
nath
She needs intervention/help and so do the parents. It was a dangerous move on her part. She and her parents needs to thank all those involved in recovering the girl. Happy and safe ending; makes me happy.
Bear27840
My hint about this is that she was be 'bullied' at home. It can happen if the child is being constantly scolded pertaining to anythying. She does need help along with the parents to get at the bottom of why she ran away.
funny car
Absolutely not true. Lots of kids go missing just about anywhere with little info rushed to the public.
The three main criteria of Amber alerts are 1. Law enforcement must confirm that an abduction has taken place. 2. The child must be at risk of serious injury or death. 3.There must be sufficient descriptive information of child, captor, or captor's vehicle to issue an alert.
Most children's status of missing doesn't come anywhere near having that much info available.
Mirai Hayashi
The local gvt should bill this family for all of the resources used to search for this runaway.