Those Crazy People in Japan

Girl shoves little boy off building to hide video arcade visits



A 13-year-old girl who pushed a 5-year-old off the edge of a Tokyo building because she didn't want him to tell her mother she had been to a video arcade has been taken into custody, police said.
Mainichi Shimbun

The 5-year-old was pushed from this apartment block in Tokyo's Shinjuku-ku.

Miraculously, the 5-year-old survived the 11-meter fall with only light injuries after the branches of a tree cushioned his fall and he landed on shrubbery beneath the building, located in the Takadanobaba district of Tokyo's Shinjuku-ku

The 13-year-old said she regretted what she had done.

"I didn't want him to tell my mother that I was going to the video arcade. I had him sit on the railing of the stair landing and pushed him off. I feel bad about what I did," police quoted the 13-year-old as saying.

Because of her age, the girl cannot be prosecuted. She has been referred to a Tokyo child consultation center.

Investigators said the girl led the boy, Sun Jizu, who is of Chinese nationality, to a spot between the fourth and fifth floors of an apartment block at about 4:40 p.m. on Tuesday, and pushed him off.

The boy fell onto shrubbery below. As he was falling the branches of a camphor tree appeared to have cushioned his fall, police said. He reportedly suffered scratches as he fell.

Police said Jizu's 33-year-old mother had taken him to a pachinko parlor at about noon on Tuesday, and he had been playing by himself at a video arcade next to the pachinko parlor.

At about 3 p.m. the girl came to play at the arcade and said to the boy, "What are you doing at the arcade?"

Jizu reportedly replied, saying, "You always come here too. I'm going to tell your mom."

Because the girl had been told not to come to the arcade, she reportedly decided to push the boy off the edge of the apartment block to "shut him up."

The girl had reportedly met Jizu several times before at the arcade, and they knew each other well.

At about 4 p.m. on Tuesday, the girl led Jizu by the hand to an apartment block about 1 kilometer from the arcade, and they climbed the stairs on the outside of the building together, police said.

When they reached the space between the fourth and fifth floors, the girl said to him, "Why don't you climb up onto the fence?" After making him sit on the fence, she reportedly pushed him off.

Soon after the incident, the girl approached the head of a dry-cleaning store nearby and said, "A boy about 5 years old has fallen from the fifth floor," before going home.

Police said the girl told them she had lent Jizu money in the past but he had not returned it. "I had lent him money but he didn't give it back. From a while back I had thought he was cheeky," she was quoted as saying.

Speaking at a news conference on Friday, an official from the child consultation center that received the girl said the center had received a report about the girl in the past from her school. The school reportedly told the center that the girl found it hard to form relationships with those around her and that she occasionally caused trouble. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, June 23, 2004)

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