Designed as a safeguard for newborns, the “baby hatch” at Kumamoto Prefecture’s Jikei Hospital was meant to allow parents to abandon unwanted infants. (see May 2007 eNEWS)

The first ‘drop-off’, however, was a three-year-old boy, abandoned by his father hours after the hatch opened.

While the police are investigating whether this constitutes a crime, Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa again criticized the hatch, calling the abandonment “unforgivable.”

Both the hospital’s vice director, and a statement from the city government, which approved the scheme, refused to speak on the matter.