Japanese parents admit they leave their children as a form of punishment all the time

Asia/Japón/junio 2016/Autor: Victoria Finan/ Fuente: dailymail.co.uk

Resumen:  Un experto en educación ha afirmado que no es raro que los padres en Japón abandonen a sus hijos como una forma de castigo después de siete años de edad, Yamato Tanooka se encontró casi una semana después de que sus padres lo dejaron en bosques densos infestados oso.

An education expert has claimed that it isn’t unusual for parents in Japan to abandon their children as a form of punishment after seven-year-old Yamato Tanooka was found nearly a week after his parents left him in dense bear-infested woodland.

University professor Naoki Ogi said he he had been told by many adults in Japan that abandonment is common disciplinary procedure.

Writing on his blog, he said: ‘The parents who put him in this situation must be harshly condemned’

‘Surely, they will be arrested soon,’ he added.

But he also said that many adults had told him they too as children were abandoned by their parents as a form of punishment.

‘This is apparently not unusual!!’ he wrote on his blog.

Yamato was found safe and well yesterday in a disused military facility, three miles from where he went missing on the northern island of Hokkaido.

He had remained alive by sleeping in between two mattresses and surviving off water from a tap outside the facility.

He had made the trek after his parents disciplined him by abandoning him – only to find him missing when they returned to collect him minutes later.

Japanese reacted with outrage on social media after news emerged of what happened last Saturday, with the actions of the parents roundly condemned as ‘abuse’ and them being described as ‘stupid’ for what they had done.

And though there was a national sigh of relief after the boy’s rescue, opinions remained harsh.

‘Missing boy was found and that’s all wonderful, but the parents must be disciplined such as being abandoned on an uninhabited island,’ read a Japanese-language tweet.

The father, Takayuki Tanooka, admitted that what he did was wrong, apologising in front of reporters after being reunited with his son, and decrying his own action as ‘excessive’.

While many social critics, television personalities and others have condemned the parents, some were quick to sympathise over frustration related to child-rearing and discussed their own experiences of tough parental love.

‘Should we call all forms of strict disciplining abuse?’ said one tweet.

‘If you were his parents, would you never keep a distance from your child or even abandon them?

‘This case could be a chance to think about how we engage with children.’

Another Twitter user expressed sympathy with the father, whose impulsive decision to momentarily punish his son turned into a nightmare.

‘Many say the father in the Hokkaido abandonment case is scum, but he was not going to go home without the child.’

Ogi on Friday softened his tone somewhat, recognising that the entire family needs psychological care as they start the healing process after their ordeal.

‘How much distrust is Yamato feeling toward his parents?’ Ogi asked in a fresh blog post.

‘I hope experts will offer adequate care and careful counselling to all members of the family.’

Fuente de la noticia: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3625046/Abandonment-common-form-Japanese-punishment-says-education-expert-day-Yamato-Tanooka-island-Hokkaido.html

Fuente de la imagen: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/06/04/10/34E24E2C00000578-3625046-image-a-25_1465031665657.jpg