suicide letters

[Davey]

A pretty big item in Japan now;

Education ministry gets letter from student indicating suicide intent on Saturday

Tuesday, November 7, 2006 at 07:20 EST
TOKYO ﾂ― The education ministry has received a letter from a student who warns that he plans to commit suicide on this coming Saturday inside his school because of bullying, officials said early Tuesday. The letter addressed to Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Bummei Ibuki was delivered on Monday. It bore a Chinese character in its postmark that may help identify the area of origin, they said.
The education ministry said the letter, written apparently by a boy, also enclosed five other letters addressed to an education board, school principal, homeroom teacher, classmates and parents. "Those who bullied me did not receive any punishment. I notified the teacher but nothing was done," he wrote without referring to specific names.

Education boards search for sender of suicide warning



Wednesday, November 8, 2006 at 07:04 EST
TOKYO ﾂ― A number of education boards across Japan ordered local elementary and junior high schools Tuesday to check for possible problems after the education ministry received a note purportedly written by a boy warning he will commit suicide this coming Saturday inside his school because of bullying.


<!-- google_ad_client = &quot;pub-0710211849249173&quot;; google_ad_width = 180; google_ad_height = 150; google_ad_format = &quot;180x150_as&quot;; google_ad_type = &quot;text_image&quot;; google_ad_channel =&quot;0853687478&quot;; google_color_border = &quot;FFFFFF&quot;; google_color_bg = &quot;FFFFFF&quot;; google_color_link = &quot;00437B&quot;; google_color_url = &quot;00437B&quot;; google_color_text = &quot;000000&quot;; google_alternate_ad_url = &quot;http://www.japantoday.com/banners/google_adsense_script.htm&quot;; //--> The letter addressed to Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Bummei Ibuki was delivered Monday. It bore the Chinese character that means "affluence" in its postmark that may help identify the area of origin, government officials said.

Police to boost patrols near schools over suicide-threatening letter

Friday, November 10, 2006 at 16:11 EST
TOKYO ﾂ― Three police stations in Tokyo's Toshima Ward have decided to boost patrols near schools, as a letter the education minister received Monday from a student threatening to commit suicide over bullying bears signs that it was sent from the ward, officials said Friday.
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The Ikebukuro, Mejiro and Sugamo police stations will carry out patrols near elementary, junior high and high schools in their jurisdictions on Saturday, the day on which the sender of the letter threatened to commit suicide inside a school because of bullying. Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Bummei Ibuki got the letter which appears to have been written by a boy in elementary or junior high school. The envelope had a postmark indicating Toshima Ward.

Education minister gets 2nd letter warning of suicide

Friday, November 10, 2006 at 05:00 EST
TOKYO ﾂ― Education minister Bummei Ibuki received a letter Thursday supposedly from a student threatening to commit suicide because she is being bullied, following a similar letter on Monday apparently from a male student, ministry officials said Thursday.

The second letter, addressed to the minister, was postmarked Wednesday and reached the ministry Thursday morning. Besides threatening suicide Saturday, the letter says, "I cannot condone those who bullied me. I will kill them," according to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The letter also suggested that the person was motivated to write after a TV report about the first letter. The first letter said the writer would kill himself on Saturday.

Some pretty crazy stuff if you ask me, tomorrow is the day, I hope nothing will happen but it sure realizes Japan even more that they have to change certain things in their Education system!! (or are it the bloody moms who shouldn't spoil their sweet kids)

 

[Thunderthief]

Mmm... I never understood why people get like this, when people pissed me off I just kicked the **** out of them, works wonders in shutting people up.

 

[Cue]

Heh.
I don't think it's no use threatening Minister by sending letters.
I mean, what could he do for him/her!?
There are hundreds and thousands of students out there... o_o

They recieved 5 more letters by now, but I don't think it would help change anything.
If I were one of them, I'd rather send a letter to those who has bullied me and kill myself, not the minister.

Am I wrong? o.o

 

[Davey]

Mmm, but to get the Media attention, I do think that the Board of Education would be the best place to send them, and not the people who has bullied the person.

I do think it is a useful to send this kind of letters, because this week there has been a lot of discussions on tv about the Education system, and it has been covered in the news.

 

[Cue]

Hmm. I understand.
But then... I'd send it TO the one who bullied me and then CC to the police and media... I mean, the one who bullys is to blame.
Or do you think Minister is also at fault?

 

[DoctorP]

Suicide is nothing but murder in my books and if the police intervene, then the person should be charged with attempted murder.

 

[Cue]

Okay, now that I've read his letter, I changed my opinion a bit.
I didn't know what's written in the letter when I posted above two posts. I thought he's blaming the minister.
Now I see, he did try to tell them all and asked people around him for help beforehand.

So I think what he did can be somewhat understandable.

 

[dreamer]

( )...

Why would anyone need to send a letter saying that he/she plans to comit a suicide? Wouldn't it be more like something to distract the attention while something else is commited?

 

[RockLee]

I can all too well understand nothing is done about it, well...that's Japan for ya! I hope for their sake "Bully", RockStar's new game that came out a while ago won't be sold in Japan. (RockStar is known from Grand Theft Auto series) The game involves being a bully and harass other kids, quite sick if you ask me.

 

[Gentleman10]

I think the reason why these people are writing to the ministry is because suicide is essentially a cry for help. Maybe these students are unable to confront their peer or family because of the shame/embarrassment of going through the process of confronting the bullies etc. Instead, they send it to the high authorities, which essentially is a shout to all of Japan to say 'help me' (in the case of multiple letters, 'help us').
These students are giving a wakeup call to Japan saying that something needs to be done about Ijime (and from what I've heard this is a most serious problem). I think what these students really want is something done to the school system rather then just get revenge on their schoolmates. But at the same time, I think it is a very unfortunate thing that things have to come to this point for this problem to be addressed.

 

[Riyko]

I think that they need to do something over in japan to stop the bullying over there. So many students over in japan lately have committed suicide from bullying which is really sad. Anyways, the letter is a good thing for the ministry to see and read themselves so they can help the student out and stop him from doing it. Bummei Ibuki (did I spell his name right?) needs to also focus on bullying as well and maybe the letter will make him realize that it's a bigger problem then what they thought it was originally.

It's never really made sense to me why japanese kids commit suicide when their being bullied, but then things are alot different over in japan then anywhere else =(

 

[Gentleman10]

It's never really made sense to me why japanese kids commit suicide when their being bullied, but then things are alot different over in japan then anywhere else =(

I think it's the Japanese alternative when it comes to an extremely shameful situation. I'm not very well educated on this subject, but from what I can tell, it seems to be a hard subject to approach other adults about.

 

[Davey]

I think this is going to take some more weeks:

5 more letters threatening suicide sent to education minister; police to boost school patrols

Friday, November 10, 2006 at 18:52 EST

TOKYO ﾂ― The education ministry, struggling to deal with cases of school bullying, received five more letters Friday purportedly from students threatening to commit suicide because they have been bullied, ministry officials said.

The five letters were addressed to Bummei Ibuki, minister of education, sports, culture, science and technology, and were similar to two others he received earlier this week, the officials said.

Of the five letters, one bore a postmark for "Machida" and another for "Seijo" ﾂ― both located in Tokyo ﾂ― while a third was stamped "Amagasaki-Kita," which is located in Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan. Comments included, "I've been bullied" and "I'm killing myself," according to the officials.

The officials did not disclose details about the two other letters Ibuki received Friday, as the names of schools and teachers were mentioned in them and the ministry has already instructed the principal of one of the two schools to deal with the alleged bulling.

...Read all by clicking the headline

© 2006 Kyodo News. All rights reserved.

 

[DoctorP]

( )...
Why would anyone need to send a letter saying that he/she plans to comit a suicide? Wouldn't it be more like something to distract the attention while something else is commited?

They are sending the letter because they really don't want to do it and are hoping for attention. Sadly they are too weak to not do it and will eventually kill themselves for absolutely no reason!

 

[breez]

Suicide is nothing but murder in my books and if the police intervene, then the person should be charged with attempted murder.

I hope you are kidding. If a person is so troubled to actually attempt suicide, they need help, not murder charges!

 

[DoctorP]

They need both! You may not like it, but it is the truth!

 

[breez]

They need both! You may not like it, but it is the truth!

Fortunately the person can plead insanity!

 

[jieshi]

They need both! You may not like it, but it is the truth!

I think charging someone trying to take their own life with attempted murder is harsh to say in the least. CC1 obviously has their own opinion but can you imagine if you charge the person and put them in jail, they are most likely going to continue to try and take their own life. Suicide is not something to take a stance on of zero tolerance, these people need a lot of help which also means being in the right environment to recieve that help- jail would not be an environment that encourages them to grow.
People who commit suicide do so because they feel there is nothing left to live for in life (mostly), they feel they have recieved no love, no help (like these students), and that life has no purpose to continue living for. Thus society needs to ensure that it has the right facilities, resources and programs setup to deal with, and also handle the influx of persons with suicidal tendancies(as the number is increasing each year). Mental disorders also contribute to suicidal tendancies so dealing with these is important too. These people need to be shown that there is much more to life than what they are currently seeing, there is a bigger picture which contains hope for them. It is almost inhumane to charge someone with attempted murder for trying to take their own life, as someone said before, these letters are a last cry for help- therefore the response should be one that doesn't judge but one that loves and shows caring towards the aformentioned person, and helps to build them.

 

[The-Beautiful-Roses]

Please give us an update Dutch!

 

[jieshi]

Please give us an update Dutch!

I've been keeping track of this story myself, but there is no news as yet on the most recent happenings, the students may not have killed themselves (we hope and pray)

 

[Davey]

Just as Jieshi says, there is no news about it yet.

I just hope that because of the letters the Japanese will take this problem more serious, and that certain things will be changed. Let's hope it are only letters and nothing will happen for real.

 

[DoctorP]

Jeishi...just so you know...it is only an opinion, and it happens to be mine. I realize that it may not be a popular opinion, but I am not willing to change my stance just so that I may be popular. You can get people help, and hold them accountable at the same time!

 

[jieshi]

Jeishi...just so you know...it is only an opinion, and it happens to be mine. I realize that it may not be a popular opinion, but I am not willing to change my stance just so that I may be popular. You can get people help, and hold them accountable at the same time!

And I noted that it is your opinion. Also I didn't specifically ask you to change your stance at all- I spoke my thoughts on the topic and that I disagreed with you, this is what forums are for and it is great we can debate our views on the topic. no ill intentions meant what so ever man

 

[jieshi]

Just talked to my friend today who is a reporter for the TBS news network in Japan. Nothing happened over the weekend so the police are now looking in to whether the letters were a hoax or not, the good thing is that the government has really responded to these letters and the ministry of education is seriously looking at ways to beat the bullying and other problems in schools

 

[RockLee]

That's good, as things need to change and need to change fast !!