Even I'm starting to feel depressed reading this....

Education minister gets 2nd letter warning of suicide

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/389908

Friday, November 10, 2006 at 05:00 EST

TOKYO — Education minister Bummei Ibuki received a letter Thursday supposedly from a student threatening to commit suicide because she is being bullied, following a similar letter on Monday apparently from a male student, ministry officials said Thursday.

The second letter, addressed to the minister, was postmarked Wednesday and reached the ministry Thursday morning. Besides threatening suicide Saturday, the letter says, "I cannot condone those who bullied me. I will kill them," according to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The letter also suggested that the person was motivated to write after a TV report about the first letter. The first letter said the writer would kill himself on Saturday.


17-year-old girl jumps to death from junior high school building

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/389967

Friday, November 10, 2006 at 06:59 EST

KITAKYUSHU — A 17-year-old girl who graduated from a junior high school in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, died at the school on Thursday in an apparent suicide by jumping from a building, police and local officials said.

The girl was found lying on the schoolyard of the municipal junior high school in Kokurakita Ward at around 9:15 p.m. Police believe she apparently jumped to her death from a window on the building's fourth floor. No suicide note was found. Police said she arrived at the school at around 8 p.m. by taxi.


5 more letters threatening suicide sent to education minister; police to boost school patrols

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/389994

Friday, November 10, 2006 at 18:52 EST

TOKYO — The education ministry, struggling to deal with cases of school bullying, received five more letters Friday purportedly from students threatening to commit suicide because they have been bullied, ministry officials said.

The five letters were addressed to Bummei Ibuki, minister of education, sports, culture, science and technology, and were similar to two others he received earlier this week, the officials said.

Of the five letters, one bore a postmark for "Machida" and another for "Seijo" — both located in Tokyo — while a third was stamped "Amagasaki-Kita," which is located in Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan. Comments included, "I've been bullied" and "I'm killing myself," according to the officials.

The officials did not disclose details about the two other letters Ibuki received Friday, as the names of schools and teachers were mentioned in them and the ministry has already instructed the principal of one of the two schools to deal with the alleged bulling.

During a session of the House of Representatives Committee on the Fundamental Law of Education on Friday, Ibuki urged students thinking of writing such letters not to follow suit.

"I want students in real trouble to consult teachers in schools and their parents to protect life. I ask those students to refrain from writing letters that can only confuse such people," Ibuki said.

Meanwhile, three police stations in Tokyo's Toshima Ward have decided to boost patrols near schools, as a letter the education minister received Monday from a student threatening to commit suicide over bullying bears signs that it was sent from the ward, officials said Friday.

The Ikebukuro, Mejiro and Sugamo police stations will carry out patrols near elementary, junior high and high schools in their jurisdictions on Saturday, the day on which the sender of the letter threatened to commit suicide inside a school because of bullying.

Ibuki got the letter which appears to have been written by a boy in elementary or junior high school. The envelope had a postmark indicating Toshima Ward.

Ibuki received a similar letter Thursday, purportedly from a high school female student who said she would commit suicide Saturday as well, also because of bullying at school.


2 adults, 3 girls die in suspected murder-suicide in Yamanashi mountains

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/389778

Wednesday, November 8, 2006 at 16:41 EST

KOFU — Two adults and three girls were found dead in and around a car parked on a mountain road in Yamanashi Prefecture Wednesday morning in what appears to be a murder-suicide, police said. A man was found collapsed near the vehicle and a woman and three girls were found unconscious inside the car by a man from Yokohama who was taking photos in the area, police said.

Police believe the man and woman were in their 30s and the girls were aged 10 years or younger. The car bore a license plate for Omiya, Saitama Prefecture, and briquette charcoal was found inside the car. No suicide notes were found.

Why am I reminded of Battle Royale reading this?

Anecdote : Japan is having a dramatic level of senior citizens to which it projects to have trouble coping economically with . The point , why are the wrong people dying off ?

Probably because a) bullying is seen as a form of socializing behaviour for children in Japan, b) Japan doesn't have as big a social stigma about suicide as elsewhere and c) they don't seem too concerned about reporting it in the news, with all the gory details attached.

14-year-old Niigata boy hangs himself hours after classmates pulled down his pants

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/390436

Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 16:16 EST

NIIGATA — A 14-year-old boy was found to have hanged himself Tuesday night in an apparent suicide in a hut near his home in the village of Kamihayashi, Niigata Prefecture, police said Wednesday. His family started looking for him after he returned home from school at around 6 p.m. Tuesday and then went missing, police said. No suicide note was found.

The principal of the junior high school he attended told a news conference Wednesday that classmates pulled down his pants at school on Tuesday and he told a friend he wanted to die on his way home after school. The boy, a second-year student at the school, was found dead at around 9:30 p.m. that night, police said.

Education minister urges children to stop bullying immediately

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/390738

Saturday, November 18, 2006 at 05:00 EST

TOKYO — Education minister Bummei Ibuki released a rare statement Friday calling on children across Japan to stop bullying immediately. "You who are being bullied and suffering are never alone," Ibuki said at a press conference reading the statement released following a recent spate of suicides by students leaving notes they had been bullied at school and letters sent to the ministry telling them they will commit suicide because of bullying at school.

The statement, titled, "A request from the education minister: To you who have the future," says to bullying children, "Rather than being embarrassed in the future by your own acts, stop the bullying you are currently doing immediately." It says to bullied children, "Do not suffer all by yourselves. Please have the courage to tell others that you are being bullied."

Two 14-year-old boys kill themselves in Fukuoka

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/390784

Saturday, November 18, 2006 at 07:01 EST

FUKUOKA — Two 14-year-old junior high school boys were found hanged Friday in separate and apparent suicide cases in Fukuoka Prefecture, police said. In both cases, local education officials said there has not been any confirmation if they had been bullied at school.

One of the boys was found hanged in woods at around 10 a.m. in the town of Keisen, Fukuoka Prefecture, on Friday, while the other was found hanged in the city of Munakata at around 5 p.m., police said. No suicide note was found in any of the cases.

Parents to file suit against state over daughter's suicide triggered by bullying

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/390660

Friday, November 17, 2006 at 06:59 EST

TOKYO — The parents of a 12-year-old girl who killed herself last year in Saitama Prefecture said Thursday they will file a damages suit against the state and a local education board, claiming they failed to prevent or investigate the suicide.

Shinji Nakai, 56, and his wife Setsuko, 52, plan to file the suit early next month and seek 20 million yen in compensation from the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, and the education board of the prefectural city of Kitamoto for their daughter Yumi's death, which they say was triggered by bullying.

Lawyer Yuji Kodama, who leads the legal team for the parents said, "The failure of schools across Japan to seriously investigate suicides caused by bullying or report them to the education boards can be attributed to policies taken by the state."

Nakai said, "I want to uncover the truth and restore our daughter's honor."

The parents are expected to argue that the municipal junior high school and the education board were negligent in keeping students' safety and also failed to investigate or report the suicide, against their duties.

The Kitamoto education board said that it has dealt with the parents sincerely and has nothing to hide, while the principal of the Kitamoto junior high school Yumi attended said, "There was no bullying in school that could have led to the suicide."

On Oct 11, 2005, Yumi jumped to death from the roof of a condominium in the city of Konosu.

A note addressed to her mother was found inside her desk the same day, which said, "I died not because of everyone in the school's art club or its teachers. It may be because of some of my classmates, studies and exams."

The parents also found a letter from a schoolmate which said, "I won't be your friend anymore and will spread rumors unless you come to the same preparatory school with me."

The parents asked the education board to investigate the case, suspecting bullying was behind their daughter's suicide, but the education board said it found no bullying after conducting interviews and surveys.

The parents interviewed students and their parents on their own and said they obtained testimony that their daughter was being bullied.

They said they do not get the sense that the education board feels it is part of the case, adding they have decided to sue so no other parents have to experience the same thing.

Education ministry receives 4 more suicide letters

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/391139

Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at 16:57 EST

TOKYO — The education ministry has received four more letters that warn the senders will commit suicide because they are being bullied at school, bringing the total number of such letters received to 36, ministry officials said Tuesday.

One of the letters, postmarked in Kimitsu, Chiba Prefecture, was from a sender claiming to be a second-year junior high school student and read, "I hate everybody. I will die," according to the officials of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The ministry did not disclose more information about the three other letters because they give the names of the senders and schools. It is trying to contact the schools via local education boards, the officials said.

Police arrest Nagano librarian for posing as suicidal student

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/391023

Monday, November 20, 2006 at 19:12 EST

NAGANO — A 42-year-old librarian has been arrested for sending a bogus email in which she claimed to be a student planning to commit suicide, police said Monday. The email was sent to an elementary school in Ina, Nagano. The woman, identified as Manami Hirasawa, works in the school library.

According to police, Hirasawa pretended to be an ex-pupil of the school and sent the bogus email from her cell phone in the afternoon of Nov 15. "I was bullied in my fifth and sixth grade years, but the teachers didn't listen to me. I will kill myself in the evening of Nov 17," the email read. The school cancelled all classes that day and searched for the student in question.

On Monday, the board of education in Ina held a press conference and apologized for the misconduct of its employee. "I did it because I was frustrated," Hirawasa was quoted as saying by police.

Gov't to increase school counselors to deal with bullying

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/391568

Monday, November 27, 2006 at 07:49 EST

TOKYO — Education minister Bummei Ibuki said Sunday his ministry will request an appropriation to increase the number of school counselors as an emergency step to deal with bullying in schools.

"In the supplementary budget, we are requesting an increase in the assignment of school counselors," Ibuki said in Tokyo, referring to the planned extra budget for the current fiscal year to next March to be worked out by the end of the year. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has been dispatching experts on child psychology, including clinical psychotherapists, to elementary and junior high schools.

the one difference between these people and me when i was 12-14 was that i wouldn't have killed myself until all the people that had caused me problems were dead.
lucky i never got access to the stuff i needed for that, eh?

Well, that's the difference about whether you have an external locus of control or an internal locus of control ingrained into your upbringing. If you apply blame for your situation on others, then you're going to want to take action against others, the only thing stopping you being knowledge of the consequences. The Japanese tend to internalise everything, so the opposite happens....

I guess this is where you've manage to put all that Psychology training to its optimum use . Forget work (comes with a bonus of being less stressful) .

I had the greatest method of dealing with people that gave me grief at high school. I didn't need a gun, I just let it slip that I knew where to buy some impressive small arms and let people's imaginations decide upon possible consequences if they kept it up. Anybody want to buy an Uzi, PM me now
Most inconvenient part was I got pulled into the school councillor's office but I got let off once he found out it was psychological warfare.
With Japan's tendency to actually report suicides they probably figure they'll manage to generate some attention and hopefully punish the people that have done them ill, but in our culture as in the US, suicides aren't published in the media so school massacres tend to happen.

Ryan White wrote:but in our culture as in the US, suicides aren't published in the media so school massacres tend to happen.

This may be relevant to the discussion at hand. I laughed; does that make me a bad monkey?

I dare suggest that if a school massacre occured in Japan, it'd receive plenty of coverage. Especially as the free reporting of suicides in Japan seems to be having little effect upon making those responsible feel guilty.

Ref: http://ajas.ath.cx/forum/viewtopic.php? ... sc&start=0 "A Smirk Upon the Death of a Classmate"

Confidential Confessions anyone? I swear, that manga series mirrors just about everyone of the things Mappy posted and then some.

You know, incidents like that also explain why Gary Jules may have used so many shots of Asian people in the clip to 'Mad World'.