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Body Found with Clothes Resembling Shin-chan Creator's (Update 3)

Male remains have been discovered on Saturday morning in the mountains of Gunma Prefecture, the same general area where Crayon Shin-chan creator Yoshito Usui was reportedly going hiking on September 11 when he went missing. Authorities have not identified the remains yet, but they told the TBS Television station that the clothing on the remains resemble those of Usui.

According to Usui's family, he said he was "going hiking for a day in Gunma Prefecture" on the morning of September 11. His mobile phone was last detected in the vicinity of Karuizawa, a town about 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) northwest of his Kasukabe home, on Monday. Karuizawa is located in the mountainous eastern part of Nagano Prefecture, near the border of the equally mountainous Gunma Prefecture. In particular, Usui is said to have expressed his intent to climb the Arafune mountain, which towers 1,422 meters (4,665 feet) high at the border between Nagano and Gunma Prefectures. Authorities have been searching this area since September 12.

At 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, the authorities received a report from a climber that "there are remains below a rocky ledge."

Source: TBS News

Update: More background information added.

Update 2: The first person to discover the remains told the MBS television station, "It didn't seem like a place where people can get to. He probably fell there from above." The remains were lying facing down with apparent fractures throughout the entire body, and had seemed to be there for several days. Police from the nearby town of Shimonita will recover the body on Sunday.

Update 3: The Mainichi Shimbun and Zaikei Shimbun papers report that the Sakushi City Fire Department received the emergency call about the remains with tattered clothes at around 10:15 a.m. to 10:25 a.m. on Saturday. The remains were about 100 to 300 meters directly below an Arafune cliff.