This
book was inspired by the recent discovery in Niigata Prefecture of a young woman
who had been abducted and held prisoner in a backstairs room for close to a
decade. Discovered as a young woman, she had been spirited away while a young
girl of only 9 years old.Though she suffered ill effects from her prolonged confinement, her family was grateful to find that their child was alive at all. Her case gave newfound hope, perhaps false hope, to the families of other missing or abducted children throughout Japan. This book presents the case histories of some of the missing children as well as updated interviews with the parents where possible. Presented under the guise of being an appeal for information leading to discovering the children, the book actually comes off as little more than an exercise in opportunistic exploitation. Still, the book has some value for the foreign reader as it presents a somewhat detailed look at a part of Japanese society everyone agrees we would all be better off without.