12-year-old girl dies in apparent suicide on first day of term

This is unbearable.this young childs demise follows the tragedy of a 13 year old boy. It is so desperately sad.R.I.P.

I feel pretty much the same way going back to school after a long break. Maybe we need more breaks, but of shorter duration.

So very very sad. Bullying again?

What bothers me is that she jumped in her school uniform. As if she was in such a hurry to die that she couldn't be bothered to change. Didn't she even have one thing to look forward to?

What is it about this country and suicide ? I know suicide happens all over the world but damn, here it's on another level! Poor little soul, she did not have to die like that. Life can be full of opportunity no matter what the situation.

Unfortunately many people live in a "closed box" kind of mindset. They only think about the negative things happening in their lives and seek an escape out. I know suicide takes a lot of courage to do.

When I'm feeling down, i think about all the positive qualities in my life. I have 2 hands, 2 legs, I can walk, talk, I can eat, speak. The simplest of things that many people don't even have. This gives me sense of inspiration and to think positive and be greatful for what i have.

I have lot of friends and people in my family commit suicide too! When I heard about the reason they did it, I just shook my head and felt so bad because many times they do suicide for things and reasons, stuff that would not even bother me.

But I do believe suicide can be strongly linked to metal problems like depression and when a person had depression, that depression is taking over the mind and the poor soul really have no control of what they are doing. Sometimes it goes too far to the point of no turning back.

Also School bullying happens everywhere, not only in Japan. But again here, it's like on another level. Also workplace bullying seems to be just as bad.

People who bully need to be B slapped 101 and out in their place. Don't take crap from anyone.

Unfortunately not everyone is physically or mentally strong to handle this stuff.

This is another very young poor soul lost. May she forever rest in peace.

@southsakai: agreed.

@Octopussy

There are a lot of great people on this forum. If you ever feel down, chat to us. you must be young.

Study hard but have fun.

RIP to the poor girl.

Was she pretty? If so, then there'd be more media coverage of this.

As for bullies, when I went to school, millions of moons ago, we ganged up against the bully,

Japanese always gang up for everything and once you make little mistake you are out of the gang and bullying starts and no way to escape.

My terrible experience, I saw boys of 14 in the park playing some ball game, I don't know what, and one of them missed a ball or something, passed it to the wrong guy. He was punished instantly. All the team (gang) pulled off his T shirt the boy voluntarily stood to the fence and they kicked the ball with full power into his back at least 5 times. I heard the loud clap when the powerful ball hit his backbone and kidney.

The boy didn't feel offended at all, it was natural for him, they continued the game and the boy was happy he was not excluded from the team (gang) and avoided to become a subject to bullying.

I can never get used to it , it's a heartbreak to see things escalating so bad that a little kid come to an emotional and mental state when she can see no more way out than taking her own life.

@The Munya Times: I couldn't comment on your particular example, because I wasn't there. But I would say it sounds like a very common game, which is not bullying at all. The loser gets a punishment, which is normally that the rest of the group get to kick the ball at him. It's fun.

I suppose my point is that it is very difficult to draw the line between bullying and games, and generally it is something that cannot be understood from the outside, hence why bullying is so difficult to stop. Real bullying that leads to a problem is generally subtle, manipulative, relentless, and away from the public eye. The key is ensuring that parents spot when their child is consistently down, and ensure that they have full support in order to overcome it.

Not an easy task, by any means.

Bullying here in Japan is particularly insidious, with the teacher often being complicit in the situation. The government should address this problem now!

118andSep. 03, 2011 - 11:06PM JST

Good point, thanks for making it. Absolutely agreed. As for the second part of your post.

As for the firs part of your post I am afraid you have miss my point somehow (though your point still applies). Let me try to make it right.

I know it was a game and not bullying. I said it was a game and I used the word "punishment" and not bullying. We are saying the same thing.

My point is, that although the punishment turned into cruelty and injured the kid, he was willing to put up with more even by realizing he was risking his health, out of fear of being ejected from the group where real bullying would start. He had to make his choice.

I wrote it as a reaction to zichi's post where he considered ganging up against bullying as one solution. I dismissed it saying that in Japan it wouldn't work out, as on the contrary being ganged up is a default social set-up for them to handle each others and toggle between aggression and social tolerance in a highly ritualized way. Then I gave a sample how they bear even with cruelty inside their group to avoid the worst, being ejected.

Otherwise , once more I quite agree with everything you said.

Also, my apologies for the Japanese for using the word gang up in this context, Japanese don't gang up they team up, I only used the word gang up to proceed on with zichi's original idea.

Also i apologise

And let me say, it might not be bully in the case of the girl in the article, (we just discussed bully as one possible reason the article didn't mention it) but sharing life in the school community, fear, anxiety and as zichi put it

a lack of counseling for children in the schools when some of those problems could be solved instead of ending in suicide.

Now again that is not unique to Japan.

I see may sample with the team cruelty took us a bit far, maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it.

sick japanese society grows sick kids. kids learn everything from their parents. where did japanese learn the weak ability can not facing problems. look at the life extremely positively or extremely negative (suicide). according to the statistics the suicide rate raising every year

How many more of these suicides do we have to see before the government realizes that there's a serious problem with teen suicides bullying (assuming that this is yet ANOTHER case of bullying -which it probably is..)