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13-year-old boy drowns after jumping into sea from pier

15 Comments

A 13-year-old boy drowned after jumping from a pier near Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, police said.

According to police, the boy and a classmate had come to the pier to play on Friday afternoon. The boy jumped into the sea at around 5 p.m. but did not surface, Fuji TV reported. His classmate found a man fishing nearby and asked for help.

When emergency responders arrived, they retrieved the boy's body from the sea and he was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

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15 Comments
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RIP. Hope this wasn't some stupid tomfoolery during the typhoon.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

What is with all these drowning incidents?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Any1 in Kanagawa, how was the weather yesterday?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

What is with all these drowning incidents?

It's summer.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

When I moved to Japan I was shocked how many Japanese I met who either scared of the ocean and/or couldn't swim.

I grew up in Florida and remember vividly my father taking us as small children into the ocean to teach us how to escape from a rip current. When we left Japan and I moved my family to Florida I did the same for my wife and 3 year old. My son at 3 could swim, hold his breath under water and float on his back indefitely.

At fist my wife was shocked how deep I was taking my son, but now she thanks me for teaching them both not to be afraid o the water, but to be knowledgable and respect it.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Why so many drowning? It is not part of the culture to teach children to swim at a very young age. Some women in the USA prefer to deliver their babies under water. Swimming lessons are very popular and if a family has a pool, it has to have a fence and locked gate around it in the USA. There a hundreds of swimming pools in the Japanese junior high schools that are utilized only by the swim team. Students choose a sport in Japan and practice it almost 7 days a week (ridiculous) and during PE. In the USA students rotate through sports in PE, and swimming is often one of them even in cold climate states because the pools are inside of the buildings. The ability to swim and survive for an hour without touching the bottom of a pool in the PE class in Japan would be a start to prevent deaths. It won't happen, it isn't in the culture.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Isn't Kanagawa near Fukushima? Why is anyone swimming a sea with out of control radiation leaks? Sorry for the boy and his family.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

What is with all these drowning incidents?

It's summer.

I hear of a couple every week. Insufficient swimming knowledge methinks

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Not all swimming pools in the U.S. Are required to have a fence around them. The requirement is to prevent easy access and it depends on where you live I live in California and don't have a fence around my pool my gate to my yard is required to be locked to prevent neighborhood kids from strolling in to take an uninvited swim if the drown I could be liable therefore my gate is locked at all times and my son was swimming at 6 months his mom taught him where he start in our jucuzzi and finally the pool which is 2 meters deep in the middle and shallow at both ends.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Badman, it's not a thing in Japan only. I worked as a lifeguard in Florida and rescued an average of 3 people daily, sometimes even nine. Most of the Americans.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Badman, I second that. I grew up in Newfoundland, Canada. Right on the coast. A grey, windy ocean, and I still was confident enough in that swimming ability that was drilled into me from a young age that I and everyone I knew, swam in it without a problem. I was taught how to swim in very deep waters. I can't even remember learning to swim, I learned it from such a young age. My daughter is 15 months now, and already getting the kicking and floating down pretty well.

I was very surprised when I went to Japan and the pools had no 'deep end'. =

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Learning to swim without a deep end doesn't help people's confidence when they encounter deep water. This much makes sense

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

It is not part of the culture to teach children to swim at a very young age. Some women in the USA prefer to deliver their babies under water. Swimming lessons are very popular

And yet the USA has 3600 drowning deaths (excluding boat-related drownings) very year. A much higher rate than in Japan. How can that be?

Teaching is taught in most schools here, as far as I know, in addition classes at city pools and private pools.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@ Garthgoyle - Thank you (and other lifeguards) for your service. I wouldn't be posting this if it weren't for somebody like you. As a child, I was at a local lake which had a pier. There was a line of kids jumping off the pier, and a lifeguard right there watching them. The kids were all having fun, so I got in line, and jumped in. Thing is, I didn't know how to swim. Thankfully, the lifeguard reacted quickly and dragged me into the shallower water none the worse for wear.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

And yet the USA has 3600 drowning deaths (excluding boat-related drownings) very year. A much higher rate than in Japan. How can that be?

Perhaps because America has more than twice the population. As for the "high rate" maybe the swimming classes aren't that great. Australia on the other hand has very few drowning related deaths each year

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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