Police arrested a 43-year-old mother on Saturday for allegedly leaving her 1-year-old son at a restaurant in Tokyo, investigators said Tuesday.
Fukure Miyoshi is suspected of abandoning her son at a restaurant in Roppongi, an entertainment district with many bars, nightclubs and restaurants, shortly before 11 p.m. last Friday.
"I don't need a child. I want to be free and play around," she was quoted by the Metropolitan Police Department as saying during voluntary questioning.
But she denied the allegation of abandoning her child, as she claimed to have had no intention of leaving him behind, the police said.
The boy was found alone and crying on a street near the restaurant at around 11:30 p.m. while his mother was alleged to have been drunk at a separate location.
The outside temperature was 1.8 degree Celsius when the child was found.