TOKYO – Japan’s Education Ministry has received a letter believed to be from a student who says he plans to kill himself because of bullying at school, prompting officials to investigate, officials said Tuesday.
The letter was addressed to Education Minister Bunmei Ibuki and delivered Monday by mail, ministry official Miki Kuwata said.
The sender said he has been bullied at school and plans to kill himself on Saturday if the situation does not change by today, according to a copy of the letter provided by the ministry.
The letter did not contain the sender’s name, address or the name of his school.
The postmark may help identify the letter’s source, and the ministry has ordered education boards across the country to investigate, according to Kuwata.
The ministry said the sender mailed six other letters addressed to other people along with the letter to the minister. One of them, to his classmates, said, “Why do you bully me? Because I am ‘gross?’ … Why do you pull my trousers down?” All seven letters were in the same envelope marked for the minister.
The letter followed a recent string of suicides by children who said they had been bullied at school.
In early October, a boy in the eighth grade in southern Japan hanged himself inside a barn, leaving a note that he could no longer stand bullying at school.
A 14-year-old girl in central Japan hanged herself at home in late October. Japanese media reported that she had been bullied by members of the school basketball club.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he hoped that children thinking about suicide would realize how much their parents and others care for them.
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