Search teams have found the boy who was abandoned in Japan's bear-infested northern woods nearly a week ago by parents who wanted to discipline him for acting up.

A Self Defense Force (SDF) soldier found seven-year old Yamato Tanooka sheltering in a quonset hut near Shikabe in northern Hokkaido, just a few kilometers from where he was left. 

"One of our soldiers was preparing for drills this morning and opened the door of a building on the base, and there he was," said an SDF spokesman to the national news network NHK.  "When he asked 'are you Yamato?' the boy said yes. Then he said he was hungry, so the soldier gave him some water, bread and rice balls."

Yamato told his rescuers he "walked through the mountains" until he found the shelter.  They took him via helicopter to Hakodate Hospital, where he will stay overnight for observation.  Amazingly - and despite wearing only a t-shirt through six days of cool and rainy weather during which the temperature dipped as low as 7 C Degrees - the boy appears to have suffered no injuries.

Outside the hospital Yamato's father tearfully apologized to his son and rescuers, saying that he "went too far" in trying to teach a lesson to the boy, who upset his parents when he threw rocks at cars.  They left him alone in the woods as punishment, claiming that he had disappeared within just a few minutes.

"My excessive act forced my son to have a painful time," said a tearful Takayuki Tanooka.  "I deeply apologies to people at his school, people in the rescue operation, and everybody for causing them trouble," he said.

"I have poured all my love into my son, but from now on, I would want to do more, together with him.  I would like to protect him while he grows up. Thank you very much."

Tanooka admitted to police that he at first lied to police, initially claiming that Yamato went missing while the family picked wild vegetables on Saturday.  He later admitted that he forced the boy to stand by the roadside.  He says he drove a short distance away, but the kid was gone by the time he return.