Cartoonist's body recovered on peak

MAEBASHI, Gunma Pref. (Kyodo) Police on Sunday identified a body found on Mount Arafune on the border between Gunma and Nagano prefectures as that of cartoonist Yoshihito Usui, creator of the popular "Crayon Shin-chan" series.

The body was found Saturday at the base of a cliff on the 1422.7-meter mountain.

Usui, 51, went missing after telling his family Sept. 11 he was going to climb the mountain.

Police rigged a harness to the corpse and used a helicopter to transport it to a nearby police station for an autopsy.

The body was found below a cliff called Tomoiwa, which is on a climbing route to the summit.

A cell phone, wallet and broken digital camera were found with the body. No suicide note was discovered and police believe Usui may have fallen by accident.