Four months after being rescued, a 19-year-old girl who was held captive for nearly a decade is starting to show signs of recovery.
The girl was nine when she was abducted on her way home from school by Nobuyuki Sato. For the next nine years and two months she was confined to an upstairs room in her captor's house, fed poorly and threatened with violence.
Investigators said the girl was left with serious physical injuries, including atrophied leg muscles and reduced bone weight.
Doctors say, however, that her psychological scars may well take much more time and effort to heal.