The youth room at Osaka Medical Center and Research Institute for Maternal and Child Health is imbued with soft light, giving off a warm, friendly atmosphere.

Normally used by children battling illnesses here to read manga, play on computers, or just relax, it has been especially reserved on this occasion for 8-year-old Kuga Odagiri, his mother, Itsumi, and intensive-care chief physician Kanako Isaka.

Kuga was just 6 he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Now with Itsumi, 29, seated diagonally across from him on the L-shaped sofa and Isaka, 33, at his side — not facing him — so as not to rattle his nerves, Kuga awaits the inevitable "talk."