The body will be recovered from the bottom of a steep cliff on Mt. Arafune on Sunday to verify whether it is indeed Usui, 51, who has been missing since Sept. 11, the police said.

Before he left home in Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture, on the morning of Sept. 11, Usui had told his family that he was going hiking on Mt. Arafune and would return by the evening, according to the police.

His family reported him missing the next day and the Saitama prefectural police have been searching for him in cooperation with the police in Gunma and Nagano prefectures.

Usui started drawing "Crayon Shinchan," the story of a feisty kindergarten boy Shinnosuke Nohara living in Kasukabe with his family, in a comic book published by Futabasha Publishers Ltd. in 1990.

The city of Kasukabe issued a special residence card for the Nohara family in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the municipality and has also been using Shinchan since April as the city's mascot for its childrearing support campaign.