Japanese Army Joins Search For Missing Boy

The Japanese army has joined the search for a seven-year-old boy who is missing after his parents left him alone in a dense forest on a bear-inhabited island.

Seventy-five army personnel have joined around 130 members of the emergency services and volunteers in the search for Yamato Tanooka, who has been missing since Saturday on the island of Hokkaido.

His parents initially said they had lost the little boy when they were out hiking to gather wild vegetables.

They subsequently admitted they had made him get out of their car on a mountain road as a punishment for misbehaving because he was throwing stones at cars and people.

He reportedly does not have water or food.

Rescuers at the local town of Nanae requested the extra help because they said they had already scoured the area for four days and the task was frustrating because they could not find any sign of his presence in the rugged mountainous area.

Heavy rain has also hampered the search.

"We asked the SDF [Japan Self-Defence Forces] to go into places which people can't easily access such as deep crevasses along creeks," a town spokesman said.

"We have already covered the same areas over and over again," he explained, adding it was hard to imagine even a lost adult being able to travel over such a wide area on foot.

"We have not taken such a long time before to find signs of a person in distress," he said.

The boy is believed to have been abandoned on the northern side of the road on a slope of Mount Komagatake, which rises to an altitude of 1,131 metres (3,710 feet).

"Unless he started climbing the mountain, he would have hit a main road after walking for two-three kilometres (1.2-1.9 miles) in any other direction," rescuer Satoshi Saito said.