Four years ago, a girl attending an elementary school in Machida, Tokyo, committed suicide after leaving a suicide note in which she was said to have been bullied by a classmate. An investigative committee made up of experts found that there were multiple instances of bullying. , issued a report stating that ``the causes are complex and cannot be identified.''

In November 2020, a sixth-grade girl who attended an elementary school in Machida City died, leaving behind a suicide note in which she was said to have been bullied by her classmates.



The investigation committee attached to the mayor, which has been investigating the facts and the response between schools and the Board of Education since November 2021, has recently compiled a report, and on the 21st, Machida City's Joichi Ishizaka I reported this to the mayor.



According to the report,


there was a ``prank'' to the girl informing her that he was cutting off their friendship, and


▽two classmates chatted and exchanged things like ``annoying'' and ``I wish she would die.'' The incident


was deemed to be bullying

because the girl happened to be watching it .



On the other hand, regarding the cause-and-effect relationship, it was concluded that although the school was a contributing factor, ``the causes are complex and cannot be identified.''

At a press conference afterward, Mayor Ishizaka said, ``I understand that the situation is not just bullying at school, but a complex one.I understand that it is important to protect children at home and in society.'' said.

Lawyer Yutaka Aikawa, who serves as the chairman of the investigation committee, said, ``The report was compiled with the aim of preventing recurrence.We have thoroughly investigated the incident, but the causes are complex and we were unable to pinpoint them.''

The story so far

In March 2021, the year after the girl's death, the Machida City Board of Education set up a third-party panel of experts, the Bullying Problem Countermeasures Committee, and began investigating the facts.



However, the bereaved families decided not to cooperate with the investigation and reorganized the committee with new members, saying that a fair and neutral investigation could not be guaranteed due to the lack of detailed explanations from the city regarding the suitability of the members and other guidelines for the investigation. I requested that it be done.



In response, Machida City has been conducting a re-investigation since November of this year with a new investigation committee attached to the mayor.

Contents of this report

In this report, the investigation committee found that there were multiple instances of bullying against the deceased child.



Specifically,


between July and September, before the child's death, two classmates notified each other that they were ``terminating their friendship,'' and then pretended to be joking by saying, ``It was a prank.'' , at least 5 or 6 times, and


▽The two classmates were chatting about the child, saying things like ``annoying'' and ``I want him to die,'' which the child happened to see. That's what I mean.



Furthermore, although it is not possible to identify who did it,


there was an incident in which a piece of paper with a swear word written on it was placed in the desk, and


this is considered to be bullying.



As for the causal relationship between bullying and suicide,


``It is not that individual bullying was the cause of suicide, but that children were exposed to long-term interpersonal stress due to the lack of safe and secure classrooms.'' "The cause of the serious situation

was


complex, and school factors were a factor, but it cannot be determined that this was the only cause of suicide."



On the other hand, regarding the school's response to the bereaved family, the report states,


``The school reiterates its conclusion that there has been no bullying since October of the year the child died, and that there is no causal relationship with the fact that it recognized it as bullying.'' ``The response was not to explain what happened, which is what the bereaved families would like to know, and I have to say that it is insufficient.''