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The Japan News/Yomiuri
The Japan News/Yomiuri
National
Takashi Ito / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

Boy saved via 'baby hatch' turns 18, tells his story

Koichi Miyatsu, center, celebrates his high school graduation with his adoptive parents, Yoshimitsu and Midori, at home in Kumamoto. He plans to continue running track and helping out with a children's meal program while at university. (Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

KUMAMOTO -- Koichi Miyatsu does not remember much about that day when, as a toddler, he was left in the "baby hatch" of a Kumamoto hospital. Now 18, he only has a vague memory of "something like a door."

Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto had set up its depository for unwanted babies, which it calls Konotori no Yurikago (the stork's cradle), in May 2007. That was where Koichi would gain a new life and new identity.

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