Photo/Illutration A portrait of Saaya Hirose is surrounded by flowers on a stand set up at the Nagayama Chuo Koen park in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, on June 30. (Masatoshi Narayama)

ASAHIKAWA, Hokkaido--A junior high school student found frozen to death at a park here in 2021 almost certainly put her life in such danger because she was so distraught over being bullied at school, a committee re-investigating the tragedy concluded June 30.

“It is highly likely that bullying was the primary cause behind the student’s suicide,” the committee said about the death of 14-year-old Saaya Hirose. “She would not have taken her life if there had not been bullying.”

A separate investigation committee in 2022 determined the cause-and-effect relationship between the bullying and the suicide is “unknown.”

Hirose, a second-year student at a municipal junior high school, was found dead from exposure to the cold in March 2021 at the Nagayama Chuo Koen park.

She transferred to the school following an attempted suicide in June 2019. 

The girl had been subjected to bullying of a sexual nature from her seniors at the previous school. She was listed as missing after running away from her home the previous month.

The committee said Hirose repeatedly posted on social media about repeated bullying.

“It is not difficult to determine that the student could not shake off the effects of the bullying and continued to be tormented by it, leading to her decision to kill herself, as the desire to die arose again and again,” the committee said.

It said Hirose developed post-traumatic stress disorder because of the bullying and that her symptoms were still apparent when she committed suicide.

The panel’s report also cited problems in the way her original junior high school and the city’s board of education responded to the problem as it unfolded.

It pointed out that the school treated the situation only as the student’s problematic behavior, instead of bullying, and failed to address the issue of bullying.

The committee said the new junior high school was not informed of the bullying she had been subjected to and did not take it into consideration.

It also said the board of education provided advice on Hirose’s developmental illness but failed to adequately recognize the PTSD caused by bullying.

In its final report released in September 2022, a third-party investigation committee established by the board of education said Hirose froze to death deliberately.

But the committee said the cause-and-effect relationship between bullying and suicide is “unknown” because other factors, such as school maladjustment and a sense of loneliness, were also involved.

Hirose’s bereaved family demanded a re-investigation on grounds the committee narrowly interpreted the definition of bullying.

Asahikawa Mayor Hirosuke Imazu established a five-member re-investigation committee headed by Naoki Ogi, a critic on education issues, in December 2022.

The committee, which reports to the mayor, has been examining three issues, with the top priority being a review of the relationship between bullying and suicide.

Related News