Japanese citizens join an arduous search for a missing American student who vanished in a mountainous forest | CNN
One stranger from Tokyo is shutting down his business for a week to help. Another volunteer dropped everything to provide transportation and translations for American parents desperate to find their son. The weeklong quest to find James âWestonâ Higginbotham in Japan has yielded no signs of the 20-year-old. Now, with the permission of Japanese police, the studentâs family has made a public plea for any experienced hikers to aid in the search through treacherous terrain. That search began Saturday morning local time as hikers looked in the steep, wooded terrain around Yamashina. âThe people have been incredible,â said Westonâs mother, Nancy Higginbotham. Weston, an Auburn University student in Japan with his family to celebrate his brotherâs high school graduation, disappeared May 29 after quarreling with his mother. He went off on his own, and the location app on his phone was turned off. He was last seen on CCTV footage walking alone near the border between Kyoto and Shiga prefectures â on a path that led to a hiking trail in the nearby woods. âAnyone who knows Weston knows that he just loves to go outside and go for a walk at a trail, or go for a small hike, no
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