Futaba Nursery School in Nakama, Fukuoka Prefecture, is seen on July 30, 2021. (Mainichi/Shinichi Okuda)

       FUKUOKA -- A probe into a private day care center in southwest Japan where a boy died after being left alone in a bus in hot summer weather has uncovered multiple cases of abuse.

       A special audit of Futaba Nursery School in Nakama, Fukuoka Prefecture, conducted by the Fukuoka prefectural and the Nakama municipal governments after the death of the 5-year-old boy in July, found abuse including hanging children upside down.

       The prefectural government issued an improvement advisory based on the Child Welfare Act to the day care facility's operator, social welfare corporation Shinseikai, on Oct. 21.

       According to the prefectural government, the probe found cases dating back to 2019 in which children were hit on the head and had their arms strongly pulled. Apparently, there had also been verbal abuse since April 2021, including telling children, "I don't like you," and, "You idiot." In one instance, a child was bundled with a bath towel and left in a bathroom for a long time, the investigation found.

       The special audit was conducted based on information the prefectural government obtained from questionnaires distributed to children's guardians in August following the death of 5-year-old Toma Kurakake, who succumbed to heatstroke after boarding the day care's bus on the morning of July 29 and being left in the vehicle until the evening. In the questionnaires, guardians reported multiple incidents of inappropriate behavior including verbal abuse. The prefectural and municipal governments accordingly decided to conduct a special audit, separate from the bus incident.

       (Japanese original by Ken Nakazato and Shinichi Okuda, Kyushu News Department)

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