Two-year-old boy found dead in puddle in Ibaraki

Suspicious

When will parents learn to supervise their young children in this country, especially near water, balconies, train platforms, escalators, in parks and on the street? Mothers, your children are precious human beings. They are not pets.

Sounds like my "Japanese and their glorified pets (kids) theory" at work again... RIP lad, my kid is the same age and my prayers for your better place as your Mom was probably not taking the trash out but I can take a stab in the dark at that one....

"When Haruki started playing with some dogs..."

Great time to leave a two year old.

That is one of the silliest alibi I've ever heard, EVER. No one leaves a two year old alone with dogs at a playground to go dump trash.

"When Haruki started playing with some dogs, his mother returned home briefly to take out the garbage".....the word stupid idiot does not do enough to describe this moron. Some mothers should be made to a pass a commonsense test in this country to be able to have children. But as the first post says......this is suss!!!

I guess the dogs were supposed to babysit until the mother returned? hmmmmmm.....

When my kid was 2 either myself or my significant other was on him like a fly on turd until he went to bed at night. Especially outside (or with DOGS?!?! in a park).

The loss of life is sad, but with this mother at the helm I can not believe he made it to 2 years old....

When Haruki started playing with some dogs

WTF?

About 300 police officers and firefighters along with neighbors searched the neighborhood

But he was found 50m from his home? Is this a real story? It sounds way too unbelievable. Like someone out of the stone age.

God another one. Seems like an everyday occurrence here. Some parents are obviously struggling to cope for whatever reason and give the child due and necessary attention and care. Financial problems perhaps.

Have to agree with some of other posters here. Either this is suspicious or the woman in question should be cited for stupidity resulting in death. Nobody in their right mind leaves a 2 year old unattended. Furthermore, it is important to note that the dogs are described as "some dogs," not necessarily belonging to the family.

Who takes out the garbage at 2 in the afternoon? Pick up times would be easy to check, but did she forget and then suddenly remember when she got to the park? She had had all day to remember. Or did she think this was a logical order to do things, as opposes to take out the garbage and then go to the park.

Sounds like an alibi dreamed up in a panic.

What a bunch of crap - Mom wasn't watching kid, kid went outside the home at who knows what time, Mom called the police when she finally got around to wondering where her child is.

Restating the obvious: this mother is stupider than dog crap for leaving her 2-year-old son by himself... outside...with dogs!! And why did it take 300 police and firefighters so long to find him when he was only 50 meters from the home?

Agree with ratpack. there really needs to be a test that people have to take before they have kids! I've heard too many stories here about parents leaving their children alone at home or in a car, leaving their child out on the balcony, selling sexually explicit pictures of their kid...it's just agonizing to hear about all of these precious children suffering and dying because of their dumb, neglectful and abusive parents.

@My2sense

Kids = glorified pets is spot on.

At the very least she could be arrested for negligence resulting in death. She should be a suspect in this case, as I suspect we will see further news on this in the future.

So sad...

OMG you leave a 2 year old to play with dogs, while mom just takes out the trash at around 2:00 ~ 2:30PM? come one hes TWO years old! I would never leave a 2 year old child behind just to take out the stupid trash.

Trash Vs Child supervision.

Someones gotta set her priorities straight.

Jeez. Hope she has a long life to remember how stupid she is. Dont ever Leave a 2 year old alone, especially with dogs. Just can't believe this.

Sounds very strange My 2yr old boy would freak out if he was left outside alone..and i would never leave any of my kids alone with dogs. probablly she got engrossed with some mindless garbage on TV or her Ketai

I just noticed that this is not a crime!! Jeez japan Inc. Get your act together. This is a case of murder by stupidity so hurry up and charge this wench.

and the reason why they didn't find him until 9pm was that there would have had to be liaison meetings about further meetings between the rescue services,lots of standing around until everyone was satisfied that the correct channels had been followed,form signing,lots of lip sucking and can coffee drinking...and then finally being careful not to tread on anyone's toes then the search would start...too late

Silly woman.

So thats it? Nothing will happen to the mother? No charges or diciplinary action? What the hell is going on in this country? Fact of the matter is its her fault.

Poor baby. Why on earth would anyone leave a 2-year-old alone, outside, for whatever reason? Toddlers need constant supervision.

As a self-proclaimed dog fanatic, I would never leave a child alone with my own dog, never mind 'some dogs' we happened upon in a park.

What was this woman thinking???

At least the trash got picked up on time, hey.

The woman's story doesn't sound very plausible. How often do you see "some dogs" in a park without their owners? I've never seen such a thing: lots of stray cats, but no stray dogs. If there really were any dogs, their owners should be able to verify the woman's claims.

This should be in the 'Crime' section.

Leaving a 2y/o kid alone to play is SOP here. I've seen it many times and even chipped my wife about leaving our kids unattended. Too self-centered to care.

Why a puddle? It is quite strange to me. What is wrong with 'a small drainage reservoir' in the headline?

Poor kid. I agree with others... the truth about what happened needs to be uncovered. Regardless, mother will have to live with this for the rest of her life.

Dogs as babysitters for a two year-old? What a stupid and very avoidable death... poor baby.

How old is the mother? She might be a child herself. In Japan, that is between the ages of 1-38 years old.

She should be arrested. I believe she went home and start texting or watching TV. Hell I would worry if my kids were in the 5th grade and outside playing by themselves. I would still continue check on them until they come home.

Basic rule for my children: If you don't have a job and live in my house, then you will always be under my watchful eye.

I agree with perspective. That would make more sense. She probably did forget about her kid then when she remembered, called the cops. This story just doesn't add up. Wouldn't an autopsy be able to pinpoint the time of death?

I got myself to thinking..........and thats always dangerous. But at my Kindergaten all the moms dote on thier children. I guess when times get tough instead of putting the child first as we do... they seem to reject the child. Maybe its a basic survival mechanism.

I dont know how is in Ibaraki, but in Hiroshima you cannot throw the garbage at 2 pm. I dont know how anyone can think that leaving a 2 year old alone will bring no consequences. Unless she is really fast, she went to her home (100 meters), entered, prepared the garbage bag, throw it and then walked another 100 meters, thing that takes around 5 minutes, enough for bad things to happen.

Why is everyone jumpn to conclusions!? This article lacks tons of info!! I am more than positive that that mother did not leave her kid all alone to play with dogs! Come on people!!!!

such a sad story.

and 'PUDDLE' surely isnt correct in the title...

Japanese news said she was 36. So she wasn't a child...at least not leagally

I agree with perspective. That would make more sense. She probably did forget about her kid then when she remembered, called the cops. This story just doesn't add up. Wouldn't an autopsy be able to pinpoint the time of death?

An autopsy will also determine if there was water in the kids lungs. if not, he didn't drown and really points suspicion towards the mother for something other than neglect.

She left her child...Period! Abuse, and now murder!

the mother is 36 years old, she left the boy for 30 minutes.. doesn't take that long to take out garbage.. she probably had other "priorities".. makes me sad.

Japanese news said she was 36. So she wasn't a child...at least not leagally

Like I said earlier:

How old is the mother? She might be a child herself. In Japan, that is between the ages of 1-38 years old.

In Japan that is still a child!

Lots of people are jumping to the conclusion that the mother may have killed the boy. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if what the "mother" said happened actually did judging by the insanely stupid things I see people do in this country. Either the woman is a monster or too stupid for words. In any event my heart goes out for this beautiful boy and hope he is in a better place.

and it wasn't those police officers and fire fighters who found the boy, it was the neighbors.. what were all those police officers doing.. geez..

the mother is 36 years old, she left the boy for 30 minutes.. doesn't take that long to take out garbage.. she probably had other "priorities".. makes me sad.

makes you silly as well if you think she didn't spend a few minutes running around in panic looking for her son.

No, biglittleman. My wife is 26 years old and she is by no means a child. This is one instance of neglect by a mother who didn't deserve to be a mother. Don't lump all Japanese women together. You should know better than that.

Why single out the police and not the fire fighters then? People just love every bit to blame the police for everything.

biglittleman at 03:15 PM JST - 10th February "How old is the mother? She might be a child herself. In Japan, that is between the ages of 1-38 years old." "In Japan that is still a child!"

No, they are considered children until they leave their parent's home (36 - 38 - same diff). Then, they are considered "little-miss big pants".

lovejapan21

Thats just what she did

Police said Haruki’s mother took him to a playground about 100 meters from their home at around 2 p.m. When Haruki started playing with some dogs, his mother returned home briefly to take out the garbage.

It's still just stupid. but this just continues to happen in Japan.

I'm not going to say what she did wasn't wrong. However, the kids may have kicked up a massive fuss being torn away from the doggies and worn out Mom might've stupidly thought "I'll only be two minutes and he promised not to budge" We've all done stupid things in the past with no terrible results, this could've been one of those dumb moments that went horribly wrong. Just saying.

Why is no one questioning how it took 300 people 6 hours to find him 50m away from his house?

Poor kid.

After more thought, the mother's story is definitely suspicious. Even the DUMBEST mother on the planet would not leave their child alone 100 meters away from herself or from home to take out the garbage. 100 meters is a long way for a 2 year old. She must have been doing something else, or something else must have happened. I know, I know, jumping to conclusions... but still makes you wonder.

No, it's not logical. You do NOT leave your 2 year old alone while you return to take out the trash. And what dogs? Were the dogs with a human or alone? Who would leave a 2 year old playing with dogs? If the dogs were with a person, was the person asked to keep an eye on the kid for a minute or not?

This woman is either incredibly stupid or totally neglectful. So is the person responsible for the drainage ditch.

Poor boy. What a wasted life.

dammit - You do NOT leave your 2 year old alone while you return to take out the trash.

Maybe you don't, but many Japanese people do. It's a safety country, remember?

Even the DUMBEST mother on the planet would not leave their child alone 100 meters away from herself or from home to take out the garbage. well Tahoochi, I beg to differ. Here's an example. When my son was 2, sleeping in our car as we arrived at the supermarket, my wife once suggested we both go into the supermarket and shop in a hurry. No harm done. well, needless to say, this didn't happen, and will never happen. Don't ask my to analysis this, I'm just reporting a story. But I was think WTF!

Typos - Don't ask me to analysis this, I'm just reporting a story. But I was thinking WTF!

The mother's obviously a moron and so are the police. In the mother's case it was leaving her son unattended. The 300 police officers and firefighters along with neighbors, are seriously blind. If you have that many people looking for the kid 50 meters from the house, which is the halfway point from his house to the park, obviously someone isn't doing their job correctly.

@spudman- -- makes you silly as well if you think she didn't spend a few minutes running around in panic looking for her son

well well, makes YOU silly if you thought i didnt think the mother didn't spend some time being panicked. the mother spent 30 darn minutes AT HOME doing things around the house, THEN went back to the park to find out that the boy was gone according to another article i read. Took hours before the boy was found.. I have two little kids and I would NOT leave them even a few minutes alone outside. If I have to go home, I'd take them back with me. The article here says the boy was found at 9pm. Read the whole article before making an insulting comment.

the mother probably thought it would be a good time for her to do housework, and i understnad how difficult to do everyday house work when little ones are around, but it is clearly a mistake to leave small kids outside without being watched.

There have been accidents in the news on here at times when I felt sorry for the parents because it was a case of something happening in the blink of an eye but posters jumped all over the parents in those cases. Sometimes things happen no matter how careful a parent you are.

ut this, there was no friggin excuse for what this woman did. A 2 year old child left alone in a park with some random dogs so she could take out the trash in the middle of the day??? Either she is incredibly stupid to have done that or she is incredibly stupid to think that the police are going to buy that story. I have a funny feeling we are going to see a follow-up headline to this story in the coming weeks.

I wouldn't let a 2-year-old out of my sight outdoors.

I wonder if she would've left her pet dog alone in the park. I highly doubt it... poor kid. RIP. Dogs are often treated better than kids in this country.

this is crazy..you dont leave a two year old alone..i have a two year old boy and hes our Joy..we dont take our eyes off of him..even 2 meters away from a guardian is dangerous for a baby..a very sad story..

The Darwin award of alibi's, if there were such a thing. This woman is a complete muppet. 300 cops, firefighters and neigbours took SIX hours to find the boy who was 50m from his home?? really?

Leave it to JT readers to be as cynical as can be. This incident is a tragedy and it's hard to tell what really happened from a few lines in a news article.

I don't care what others say, IMHO this woman didn't really think that her son was precious enough to not take her eyes off him for a few minutes, let alone 30 minutes!! I can easily picture her going around her house, talking on the keitai, or typing on it, just chillin until she forgot about her son. Meanwhile this little baby is struggling inside that puddle drowning while this "animal" is taking the garbage outside according to her, 30 minutes to take the trash outside? yeah right. Some people are very ignorant and have no idea who the typical j-mother is nowadays. The keitai, the Louis Vuitton handbag, the flatscreen and tons of other material things seem far more important that taking proper and decent care of their children. I don't say all but a very big chunk of them, sadly. If I was her, I'd definitely jump off a cliff.

Obviously separating and throwing the garbage on schedule is more important to her :(

She's an idiot !!!!!!!!!!! She should be arrested for child abuse.

Will all the authors of harsh comments please take a moment and realize that you are talking about real people? The mother no doubt is experiencing the worst pain of her life, which will probably not abate much. At least she's unlikely to read your ugly comments...