Photo/Illutration Tatsuyoshi Masuda, board chairman of Kawasaki Kindergarten School, speaks at a news conference on Sept. 7 in Makinohara, Shizuoka Prefecture. (Takuya Yamazaki)

MAKINOHARA, Shizuoka Prefecture--The head of the Kawasaki Kindergarten School said he will resign over the tragic death of a 3-year-old child who was left on the school bus in the scorching summer heat.

Tatsuyoshi Masuda, 73, the school’s board chairman who drove the bus that day, made the announcement at a Sept. 7 news conference where he offered his condolences.

“I apologize to the bereaved family for the child’s death,” he said. “I take it that the cause of this sad accident was that we did not conduct thorough safety management.” 

Masuda pledged to investigate the matter further.

The school found young China Kawamoto unconscious with no vital signs after she was left alone on the school bus for five hours on Sept. 5. She later died.

According to the kindergarten, China’s water bottle was found in the empty bus. Officials said she likely drank all the water from the bottle while she was trapped in the sweltering vehicle.

“I feel sorry for making the child suffer,” Masuda said.

He said he has met with the bereaved family, who urged him to shut down the kindergarten.

But Masuda said he will leave that decision to the prefectural and city governments, which are scheduled to conduct a special audit early next week.

China's parents are not the only ones in shock.

The kindergarten held an emotional meeting on the same day as the news conference, where they explained the details of the accident to other parents and guardians of children who go to the school.

Many of the attendees became sick during that meeting. Ten ambulances transported 13 people to hospitals.

According to one attendee, people there sobbed as they asked questions and some even hyperventilated when they tried to speak.

According to the kindergarten, the usual bus driver had taken unexpected leave on Sept. 5, so Masuda drove the bus that day to fill in.

The kindergarten has a rule that staff must check the list of names of children on board and keep track of them as they exit the bus.

But Masuda and a temporary staffer in her 70s who was also on the bus neglected to check off names on the list. The two did not check to see if any children were left on the bus when they exited, either.

Masuda said he has driven the bus only several times in recent years.

“I was unaccustomed” to the task, Masuda said.

He added he had scheduled a hospital visit for himself that day, so he “was tight on time and was in a hurry.”

Under the kindergarten’s roll call system for keeping track of children, China was recorded as “present” because the kindergarten staff had entered her information together with the other children.

China’s homeroom teacher noticed her absence but did not contact her parents.

The teacher did not check the roll call system and did not notice the discrepancy.

(This article was written by Kaho Matsuda, Akari Uozumi, Takuya Yamazaki and Hideaki Sato.)

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