Photo/Illutration Shinichi Kurowarabi, head of the secretariat for the Asahikawa board of education in Hokkaido, speaks at a city assembly meeting on Sept. 20 about the death of a local girl. (Kengo Hiyoshi)

ASAHIKAWA, Hokkaido--Asahikawa Mayor Hirosuke Imazu is vowing to launch a new probe into the death of a local girl who was bullied at school, after her bereaved family blasted a third-party investigation for falling short.

The panel looking into the incident submitted its final report on Sept. 20, which found that Saaya Hirose, 14, was bullied by senior students at her junior high school in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, before she froze to death in a local park in March 2021.

But while the report determined that she took her own life, the panel said it could not clearly establish whether her death was caused by the bullying.

It also found the city’s board of education broke the law in the way it handled the matter.

“I take the investigation results seriously, regret deeply the ways the board of education and the school handled the matter and apologize not only to her bereaved family but also to the people of the city,” said Shinichi Kurowarabi, head of the secretariat for the Asahikawa board of education.

The lawyers representing Hirose’s family released a summary of their own findings the same day that the report was released, which criticized the panel’s investigation and demanded that another be launched.

The panel, set up by the city’s board of education, began its investigation in June 2021 into whether the girl was bullied, what had happened leading up to her death, how the school and the board handled the matter and what anti-bullying measures should be taken in the future.

It found in its interim report released in April that the bullies had forced the young girl to send them a video of her conducting a sexual act and that they had also made her buy snacks for them.

It submitted its final report to the city’s board of education on Sept. 12 and the board released it on Sept. 20 with some of the portions redacted.

The report concluded she was bullied, and that the school and the board of education’s handling of the matter was problematic.

According to the report, Hirose entered the public junior high school in April 2019. Senior students and others soon started bullying her.

In June, she attempted to kill herself at a local river.

The school and the city’s board of education made the students in question apologize, according to the report. But the institutions did not handle the matter in accordance with the law to prevent bullying, and they did not provide care to Hirose.

The report said these acts “were clearly a violation of the law,” and the officials “lacked basic understanding of the legal system regarding bullying.”

Hirose later transferred to a different school but stopped attending.

She went missing in February 2021. In March the next month, she was found frozen to death.

The report said the death was “likely by suicide” because Hirose went outside in the bitter cold wearing only light clothing.

It said Hirose was in a state of depression and it appeared that the bullying had something to do with it.

But the report also said there were other factors regarding her school life, so it is “unknown” if a clear causal link can be established between the bullying and her death.

But her bereaved family said in the summary that the panel has narrowly interpreted the definition of bullying.

The family said her suffering from the bullying had become prolonged and “it is consistent to think that her mental health continued to suffer.”

They criticized that experts were not part of the investigation and urged the city to reopen the case.

Imazu said at a plenary session of the city assembly meeting that he has heard from the family about how it feels about the investigation and said he will directly oversee a new one.

A new committee is expected to soon be struck, consisting of lawyers from outside of Hokkaido, psychiatrists and others in the field of education. It will hold its first meeting in October.

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