Photo/Illutration Tomohiro Tsubota, the head of the secretariat for Nagoya city’s board of education, center, and others speak to reporters at a news conference in the Nagoya city government building on July 26. (Chika Urashima)

NAGOYA--The city’s board of education acknowledged that a deceased first-year junior high school student was bullied in a group chat, but said it could not determine if bullying was the direct cause of her suicide.

The education board released the results on July 26 from its anti-bullying investigative panel, consisting of doctors, lawyers and experts, that looked into the death of Kako Saito, who was 13.

The results showed that several students teased Kako in a Line group chat of up to about 100 students in her grade in November 2020.

She complained to her parents, homeroom teacher and guidance counselor at school that she had been bullied in the Line group chat, saying other students posted rumors about her. 

Kako gradually started to be absent from school and killed herself on March 9, 2021.

The expert panel identified that she was being bullied since the girl suffered mental distress from what occurred in the Line group.

But the panel said that bullying alone cannot be determined as the direct cause of her death, since she ended her life more than three months after being bullied in the group chat.

Kako also complained that her feelings were not being understood and that she wanted to spend time alone in a separate room after she went to school.

The expert panel concluded that her anxiety over the group chat combined with her uneasiness with the school environment, where she did not feel safe, led to her suicide.

The panel questioned the school's response. It said the school didn’t deal with the girl's concerns as an organization and left it to her homeroom teacher whom she confided in.

The school also set a time limit for the usage of the private room reserved for students who have difficulty staying in their classrooms, even though Kako had requested the unlimited use of the room.

The panel also pointed out the school did not work well with the school counselor and other staff.

Kako's bereaved family sued the city government on July 19, claiming that the school was responsible for her suicide because it ignored her complaints that she was being bullied.

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