Japanese Boy Kills Self Over Bullying

TOKYO - Leaving a note that classmates' bullying made him "scared to live," a 13-year-old boy hanged himself, becoming the latest victim of miseries heaped upon students seen as misfits in a conformist society.

The suicide yesterday by Hisashi Itoh, in his own yard, came on the anniversary of another suicide that drew public attention to rampant bullying in schools.

Nobuyuki Saijo, the principal of Itoh's junior-high school in Niigata, on the Sea of Japan, 160 miles northwest of Tokyo, said the boy wrote in his note: "They are bullying other classmates, too. I will sacrifice myself, as they don't know how bad bullying is."

Saijo said the note named five students, and they have admitted ostracizing Itoh, forcing him to strip to his undershorts and pouring water over him in a school restroom.

The principal added that he was questioning the five about the note's accusation that they had extorted $50 from Itoh $5 at a time. He said police were investigating the case, but police officials declined to discuss it.

Education Minister Yoshinobu Shimamura told a news conference today that the latest suicide occurred despite the ministry's efforts to combat bullying in schools since last year.

In the Nov. 27, 1994, suicide, Kiyoteru Okouchi, 13, hanged himself in his back yard, leaving a four-page note saying he was bullied by classmates into giving them more than $10,000 over three years. Since then, at least 10 schoolboys were reported to have taken their own lives because of bullying.

In a country where people spend their lives trying to fit in, bullying is especially painful to children because it involves groups ostracizing one who is somehow different. Nine children have killed themselves because of bullying in the last 12 months, according to a survey released yesterday by the Mainichi newspaper. Nationally, more than 20,000 cases of bullying are reported to education authorities each year.

Children who are too fat, short, quiet or even beautiful have been the targets of bullies in this land where an extraordinarily high value is placed on conformity.

It is unclear why Ito was habitually tormented by the five classmates he named in his suicide note, but he wrote that those boys robbed him of $50, stripped him naked in the bathroom and then poured cold water on him.

He also received what he said were "silent phone calls" at home.

Takanobu Kiyoshige of the education ministry's student guidance section said 12,817 cases of bullying were reported in junior-high schools alone in the fiscal year that ended March 31, 1993, the latest year for which figures are available.

In the same year, he said, 40 junior-high students had committed suicide. It was not known whether all the cases were related to bullying.

Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama established a Cabinet-level panel last year to look into the bullying problem.

Six months ago, the Education Ministry set up a hotline that children who are being verbally or physically abused by classmates can use to talk anonymously to counselors.

More than 380 children have already called, many of them saying they felt they could not discuss the problem with their teachers. Some of them were only in primary school.