6-Year-Old Boy Unconscious After Drowning in Yoshino River, Tokushima Pref.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:01 JST, April 27, 2025

TOKUSHIMA – A 6-year-old boy is in critical condition and unconscious after drowning in the Yoshino River in Higashi-Miyoshi, Tokushima Prefecture, on Sunday.

At about 10:05 a.m. the boy’s family called emergency services saying that he had drowned while they had taken their eyes off him. According to the Miyoshi Police Station in Tokushima Prefecture, the boy was found floating face down in the river by his father, who pulled him to the shore. He was then transported to a hospital in Kagawa Prefecture.

The boy is a first-year elementary school student in Shikokuchuo City, Ehime Prefecture. He was visiting the nearby Yoshinogawa Highway Oasis, a tourist attraction, with his parents and younger sister.

The drowning occurred within a few minutes after both parents had briefly taken their eyes off him, about two kilometers southeast of the Miyoshi building of the Higashi-Miyoshi Town Office.