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Foreign baby left in hospital baby hatch

Kyodo News reports that a foreign baby has been left at the controversial “baby post” drop-off hatch in Kyushu:

A baby with foreign nationality was left at Japan’s first “baby hatch” at a Kumamoto hospital, according to a report on Monday by a panel examining the practice.

The interim report, submitted to the Kumamoto prefectural government, also noted a handicapped baby was left at Jikei Hospital in the city of Kumamoto.

Details of the two cases were not immediately available.

It has already been reported that a total of 17 infants were left anonymously at the baby hatch between its opening on May 10, 2007, and March 31 this year.

How exactly the hospital was able to determine the baby’s nationality is not clear at this time.

Update: Japanese press reports have stated that the hospital knew the baby’s parents were foreign (Zainichi foreigners, to be more exact).

34 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - September 8, 2008 at 9:56 pm

Categories: Foreigners in Japan Tags: baby hatch

_kovert

I thought it was supposed to be anonymous. Seems like this would discourage other foreigners from using this drop box if they are going to announce every time a foreigner drops of an infant.

In fact why would they ever announce that an infant was found at all? The idea is to give these babies a chance at life. The last thing you want is people feeling they might get found out due to the media announcing it.

Wedge

Sorry, maybe I didn’t read carefully enough. What were the parents names? I didn’t catch the name of the baby either?

I took a good look at the picture though, so when I recognise him (or is it her?) walking down the street in 10 years time, I’ll be able to laugh and say, “You got left in a Baby Hatch loser! I found you out and now you don’t deserve a chance! Haha!”

:/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Charles_Nguyen Charles Nguyen

= suicide.

The Overthinker

“How exactly the hospital was able to determine the baby’s nationality is not clear at this time.”

Exactly what I thought when I read it.

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

Because, you know…nationality is determined by your parents, and therefore you must be able to find it encoded in our DNA? Right?

http://surrealu.blogspot.com claytonian

The baby had an Italian accent.

madne0

“How exactly the hospital was able to determine the baby’s nationality is not clear at this time.”

Err…because it didn’t look japanese? Just taking a wild guess here.

revil

Just because it doesn’t look japanese doesn’t mean it isn’t japanese. It is highly probable that it is of another nationality though.

They are talking in certainties while this is uncertain, which is the root of this problem I believe.

So

If we were talking about race, then there are a thing indicators that can distinguish a child from being of pure Japanese blood.

- Hair color
- Skin color
- Eye color and shape
- and…. blue butts. Am I joking? Asian newborns typically have butts that are blue hue.

There are always exceptions to the norms, so don’t take the above list as the ultimate criterions. The baby may also be half Japanese. I’d be interested in how they came to the conclusion.

leitmotiv

“If we were talking about race, then there are a thing indicators that can distinguish a child from being of pure Japanese blood.”

FFS….One more time for those who somehow have missed it…..repeat after me.

There. Is. No. Such. Thing. As. Pure. Japanese. Blood.

A step further if I may……There are also no genetic markers (or tests) for Japanese ethnicity. However, some fruitcake Japanese professor (or misguided J-biotech company) may have successfully bilked grant or venture money to try to develop such.
somegirl

Not just Asians have the “blue butts” Native American babies get those blue hues too. Other than that, features are hard to tell at such an early time unless they were very distinct.

The Overthinker

American Indians are, essentially, Asians.

Zero

Don’t be dicks. In an ethnically homogeneous nation like Japan, it’s quite probable that they don’t differentiate between the concepts of ‘nationality’ and ‘ethnicity’ as much as we do.

The Overthinker

Obviously they don’t, which is one of the main issues at stake. It’s what people like Debito rail against all the time. Credit us with a little more intelligence, please. Well, some of us….
amro

Obviously they slipped a passport in the hatch with the baby’s nationality.
leitmotiv

Obviously they dont. But it’s 2008. Time to update the concepts and their usage, lest Japan continue to be “misunderstood” about racism issues.

onceuponatime

and we know this how??? have then done a fingerprint scan?

leitmotiv

Are racial traits in fingerprints? Do you mean “DNA fingerprint” by chance?

Mister M

I dont know, but if the baby is white there are low probability of this baby being african ou asian. Also DNA and gene of each race are different.

DC

We’re talking about the baby’s nationality, NOT RACE. The Japanese just don’t seem to be able to comprehend that the two concepts are not the same.

Gojira

Joke all you want; they probably came to the conclusion it was foreign from various non-Japanese features. However it doesn’t really matter if the baby is foreign or not because it’s only the possibility that raises the real issue here: what if there are foreigners who, after hearing about the baby chute, are taking their babies to Japan and leaving them there? If the hospital were to allow this, it could end up becoming a worldwide problem, not just a Japanese one.

DC

Great, you want the baby hatch to display another ‘Pure Blood Japanese Only’ sign for Debito’s site?! And what are ‘non-Japanese’ features? Big gaijin hooter? This insistence that ‘Japanese’ is a race and not a nationality makes my non-Yamato, impure blood boil.

Jax143

Japan is a place inhabited by JAPANESE, live with it.

leitmotiv

Why don’t you just come out of the closet and say “Yankee go home”?

The Overthinker

Gojira, this idea of yours is fantastically stupid. Well done – I like it. Will they get printed at the airport on the way in, I wonder?

Zen-Builder

Why take kids all the way to japan to leave them in a baby-hatch?
Many countries have them or similar systems most which date back a few hundred years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_hatch

Personally, I don’t see why it should even be news, the nationality of the child has not been established and either way it should not matter.
So he might be stateless but that can be fixed
stereo

This is a link to a Japanese version of the news.
http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0908/SEB200809080018.html?ref=goo

「ゆりかご」には昨年５月～今年３月に１７人が預けられた。中間報告によると、身元がわかった１０人のうち、母親が１人で来たとみられるのは２割。両親が在日外国人だったり、祖父母や男性が預けたりした例があるという。

“Between last May (2007) to this March, 17 babies were deposited to the “Cradle”. According to the interim report, of the 10 babies whose parents were identified, 20% were deposited by the mother. There were cases where both parents were foreigners or a baby was deposited by the grand parents or by a man.”

So, they found the baby a foreigner, not because of his/her skin color but because both his/her parents were foreigners.

So much for the people who jump to “Japan is a racist hell” on just anything.

Jake

Isn’t the drop-box an anonymous service? Why would they know the nationality of the parents anyway?

stereo

Here is a link to an older news on May 20,2008.
http://www.asahi.com/health/news/SEB200805200008.html

託されたのは１７人で、男児１３人、女児４人。手紙や親からの連絡などで９人の身元が判明した。

“17 babies were deposited, of whom 13 were boys and 4 were girls. The parents of nine of them were identified by letters or through communication from the parents.”

gumpy

People seem to have no clue that the definition of “Nationality” is “What it says on your passport”. Bufoons.

leitmotiv

Yeah…..Bufoons [sic] don’t realize that the baby’s passport obviously was delivered with the baby and obviously must have had some non-Japanese nationality printed in it.

onceuponatime

not to mention the fact that the baby`s fingerprints are not in the database. if they are not in the database, it must be japanese, right? otherwise it entered the country illegally.

So

I don’t think any of us lack any sympathy for what the child will be going through. For you to come to that conclusion based on a few text on a discussion questioning the Japanese identification methods (and at large the Japanese ‘nihonjinron’ mentality) is laughable. It is very apparent that coming out and being that ‘person’ to make some superficial righteous point is for your own self-pleasurement. How does your post even help the child at all? Take your self-serving pretentious religious rhetoric elsewhere.
http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

Not when you’ve got an agenda to prove!

Foreign baby left in hospital baby hatch

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