Acting on a tip, Kitakyushu police have discovered that two young sisters, aged 5 and 4, have been living at a nursery school for two years after their parents never showed up to retrieve them.

The police have located the parents and their mother showed remorse for abandoning her daughters.

“I’m sorry for my children. But I couldn’t care for them due to money and health problems,” she was quoted as telling local government officials.

The principal of the nursery school where the girls were living admitted knowing of a law that requires them to notify authorities if any child stays a facility for more than five days.

“We knew the guidelines, but didn’t report the case because we thought that their parents would take them back sooner or later,” the principal said.

The parents have not paid the nursery school any tuition since abandoning their daughters there.