On the anniversary of the death of the late Hayato Fukuura, his mother Saori explains to reporters about the current state of anti-bullying measures in Nagasaki Prefecture. (Photo by Kotaro Chigira)

On April 20, 2017, Hayato Fukuura, a second-year student at Kaisei Gakuen High School in Nagasaki, committed suicide due to bullying at school.

At the scene of his death, there was a suicide note addressed to the first person to find him. “I don’t want to cause trouble for my family.” It contained the following words:

“Don’t let the media find out.”

The family distrusted newspapers and other media, but they opened up to Yoichi Ishikawa, a then reporter of Kyodo News.

In his book, “The Sanctuary of Bullying: A Complete Record of Parents Who Challenged the Darkness of a Catholic School,” published by Bungeishunju, Ishikawa criticized the Nagasaki Shimbun for the collusion that had occurred in which the prefecture protected Kaisei High School, and the local newspaper, the Nagasaki Shimbun, protected the prefecture.

However, Ishikawa had his “publication approval” revoked by Kyodo News. This was because the Nagasaki Shimbun made a complaint to Kyodo News. The Nagasaki Shimbun is a member company of Kyodo News and a “customer” that pays membership fees. He was forced to resign from his job as a reporter.

The distrust of Hayato was confirmed. The media, Kyodo News and Nagasaki Shimbun, do not care about the feelings of the victims.

Eight years after Hayato’s death, his mother, Saori, submitted a written opinion to the Freedom of the Press Trial.

“The actions and words of Kyodo News, and the way they have distorted the truth through pressure from the Nagasaki Shimbun, seem to prove that even the truth can be erased from society as a whole.”

Why was the Nagasaki Shimbun the only one not to report this?

Saori submitted a written opinion to the 6th Civil Division of the Tokyo District Court on April 23. The following is a summary of the written opinion.

The bereaved family first met Ishikawa in February 2019, when a third-party committee issued a report acknowledging the causal relationship between Hayato being bullied and his suicide.

The family members had been told by their lawyers to allow the media to see the report but not to make copies. Even when reporters from various media companies asked for copies, they refused. The reporters gave up.

But Ishikawa was different. Together with his colleagues at Kyodo News, he worked typing up and transcribing the massive reports into a computer.

“We, the bereaved family, were very surprised at the time, and we got the impression that Kyodo News and reporter Ishikawa were very committed to reporting accurately.”

In November 2020, Ishikawa published a scoop from Kyodo News. In response to Kaisei High School proposing to the family that Hayato’s death be publicly announced as a “sudden death,” a Nagasaki prefectural official said it was “barely acceptable.” Other media outlets followed up with the story.

However, the local newspaper, Nagasaki Shimbun, did not report this.

“We were also interviewed by the Nagasaki Shimbun to confirm the facts. Naturally, we assumed that an article would be published, but it was not in the Nagasaki Shimbun the following day. We did not understand why it was not published in the paper when the behavior of a prefectural official had caused such a stir.”

Nagasaki Shimbun reporter Koichi Doshita: “The prefecture is not at fault”

The day after the “sudden death confirmation” report, the prefecture held a press conference and admitted that the confirmation was inappropriate. Each media outlet focused on this and reported critically about the prefecture.

Nonetheless, the Nagasaki Shimbun picked up the prefecture’s excuse that it “did not think that the prefecture had actively confirmed the proposal,” and did not publish the family’s version of story. While the family was wondering about this, they received a call from Koichi Doshita, a reporter in charge of Hayato’s case at the Nagasaki Shimbun.

“We were told one-sidedly, ‘Nagasaki prefecture is not at fault. It is the school that must comply with the Act on Promotion of Measures to Prevent Bullying, not the prefecture. Therefore, the Nagasaki Shimbun published this article.’ We received a message to that effect that he would be stepping down from the case going forward.”

“At the time, we, the bereaved family, could not understand the contents of the Nagasaki Shimbun’s report or the remarks made by Doshita. However, what we clearly felt was a fear that if we revealed facts that were inconvenient for the prefecture, we would be abandoned by the Nagasaki Shimbun, the local media.”

The bereaved family felt that the Nagasaki Shimbun had defended the prefecture. This was confirmed by Doshita’s column dated March 1, 2022. It was written when then-Governor Hodo Nakamura was replaced by the new governor. The headline was “Thanks from the bottom of my heart.”

“The article stated that he had been on friendly terms with the governor, and in his own words, ‘The news media plays an important role in monitoring the government, but seeing him seriously try to implement measures made me want to support him.’”

“We had always believed that the media was on the side of the weak, so when we read this column, we were shocked beyond words. It made us realize that the Nagasaki Shimbun was choosing to support the government rather than monitor it.”

“I feared that the issues regarding childrens’ lives and the dignity of my child who suffered from bullying would be erased not only by the school that proposed the sudden death but also by the prefecture that made the statement to confirm it, and the Nagasaki Shimbun that publically reported that the prefecture did not confirm it.”

Kyodo News completely ignores the bereaved family

In his book, “The Sanctuary of Bullying,” Ishikawa criticized the Nagasaki Shimbun for defending Nagasaki Prefecture. The Nagasaki Shimbun made a complaint to Kyodo News shortly after the book was released.

“The first thing that surprised me was how the Nagasaki Shimbun handled this publication. Ishikawa wrote the book, therefore if they had any feedback, they should have sent it directly to the author or Bungeishunju, the publisher. I couldn’t understand why they protested to Kyodo News, where Ishikawa worked.”

“Kyodo News also accepted the protest at face value, calling Ishikawa, who was on childcare leave, several times and bringing him to the office, conducting what appeared to be an interrogation, and even announcing the formation of an examination committee. As we, the bereaved family, learned more about Ishikawa’s position, we became increasingly concerned, thinking how unfair it was that they handled him so harshly simply because he wrote the facts as they were.”

In order to support Ishikawa, the family wrote a letter to Ichiro Masamura, the chief of the Chiba branch where Ishikawa worked at the time, and also submitted an opinion statement to the examination committee for Ishikawa’s book.

“The articles that Ishikawa has published through Kyodo News up until now, as well as the book ‘The Sanctuary of Bullying’, contain only the facts and are the true cry of us, the bereaved family. We wanted Kyodo News to understand this.”

“It appears that the testimony and arguments of us were not taken into consideration at all. During the examination, Kyodo News or its examination committee did not contact or ask us any questions. We are left with the suspicion that Kyodo News may have set up the examination committee with the assumption from the beginning that it would take disciplinary action against Ishikawa.”

Kyodo News, which has not listened to the family’s words, has made the blunder of submitting a document containing factual errors to the court. This is the Nagasaki Shimbun’s opinion paper on Ishikawa’s book, “The Sanctuary of Bullying.”

In its opinion paper, the Nagasaki Shimbun makes the absurd claim that the book is filled with Ishikawa’s personal grudge and deliberately distorts the facts to suit his own purposes, while stating incorrect facts about the bereaved family.

“Regarding the feelings of the bereaved family about Nagasaki Prefecture’s response, it was speculated that ‘it seems likely that, at least initially, the family did not see the prefecture’s response as problematic,’ but unfortunately we have not received any interview from the Nagasaki Shimbun about this. We would like you to realize that the Nagasaki Shimbun’s speculation is at odds with our thoughts.”

“If Kyodo News had interviewed or confirmed with us before taking disciplinary action against Ishikawa, they would have realized the above-mentioned misunderstanding of the facts. However, Kyodo News did not ask us any questions or contact us. I do not think that it was a fair decision to take such severe action against Ishikawa without a thorough investigation of the facts.”

“Will the voices of the weak never be heard by society?”

Hayato’s suicide note mentioned the media.

“To the first person to discover: If you find this, when you call the police, if possible, do so without using a siren so that the media doesn’t find me. I don’t want to cause trouble for the people around me or my family. I want to keep quiet and pretend it never happened.”

Saori understands her son’s feelings.

“My 16-year-old son seemed to be worried about being made into a fuss by the media right up until the moment he took his own life. The same was true for us. I assumed that the media was simply broadcasting unverified information, without regard for the victims’ personalities or feelings.”

However, she found hope when she met Ishikawa.

“When I met Ishikawa, I realized for the first time that the role of journalism is to convey the truth to society. I also learned that at the root of it is an attitude of empathy and understanding for the weak.”

Despite the fact that the matter began with Hayato’s suicide as a result of bullying, Kyodo News and Nagasaki Shimbun are now bullying Ishikawa. Saori asks, “What is journalism?”

“We, the victims, believe that this trial is not just about Ishikawa. We believe it is a serious matter that calls into question what journalism is.”

“If things like this are allowed to continue, the voices of those of us who are powerless and weak will never be heard in society.”

Tokyo District Court will question Kyodo News Executive Director Takehiko Egashira as witness on July 2

Witness questioning will take place in Courtroom 611 of the Tokyo District Court from 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 2.

Takehiko Egashira, Managing Director of Kyodo News, will appear as a witness for the defendant, and Ishikawa himself will appear as a witness for the plaintiff. The questioning time is as follows. The questioning by the plaintiff will be 10 minutes longer. This was decided based on the wishes of both sides and discussions with presiding judge Takako Osawa.

Egashira: 30 minutes for the defendant’s main examination, 40 minutes for the plaintiff’s cross-examination

Ishikawa: 40 minutes for the plaintiff’s main examination, 30 minutes for the defendant’s cross-examination

The defendant also requested that Akira Matsumoto of the Kyodo News’ editor be a witness, but the request was rejected. Matsumoto was Ishikawa’s superior when he worked at the Chiba branch office. The defendant attempted to criticize Ishikawa’s work attitude, but presiding judge Osawa did not recognize the need for him to be a witness.

The plaintiff also requested that Makoto Taniguchi, then head of the Fukuoka branch of Kyodo News, testify. It was decided that the necessity of Taniguchi’s testimony would be considered after questioning Egashira and Ishikawa.

(Originally published in Japanese on April 23, 2025. Translation by Mana Shibata.)

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