On November 26, 2025, the family of a student who committed suicide due to bullying at the private Kaisei Gakuen High School submitted 64,792 signatures calling for the revision of the Act for the Promotion of Measures to Prevent Bullying to the chairpersons of both the House of Representatives’ Committee and the House of Councillors’ Committee on Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

The Act for the Promotion of Measures to Prevent Bullying stipulates the responsibilities of schools and prefectures to protect children from bullying. However, there are no penalties for failing to do so under the current law. Kaisei Gakuen and Nagasaki Prefecture, which has jurisdiction over the school, have repeatedly violated the law in relation to the suicide of a student who committed bullying.

Since then, bullying-related suicides have continued in Nagasaki Prefecture and across the country. The bereaved family has spent the last two years collecting signatures in the hope of strengthening the law to protect children.

School and prefectures repeatedly violate the law

The petition was submitted by the parents of Hayato, who committed suicide in April 2017 due to bullying from his classmates. At the time, Hayato was a second-year student at Kaisei Gakuen High School, a private school in Nagasaki Prefecture.

At the time, Kaisei Gakuen attempted to cover up Hayato’s suicide. They suggested to his family that they make a false statement about his cause of death, saying, “The prefecture could say it was a sudden death or that he had transferred school.” A Nagasaki Prefecture official agreed, saying, “Sudden death is barely acceptable.” Concealing the cause of death is a violation of the Act on Promotion of Measures to Prevent Bullying.

Subsequently, the exchanges between Kaisei Gakuen and the prefecture regarding the cover-up came to light through the media. Kaisei Gakuen established a third-party committee to investigate the cause of the suicide. As a result of its investigation, the third-party committee concluded that “the main cause of the suicide was bullying.”

However, Kaisei Gakuen has refused to accept the third-party committee’s report, and the situation remains the same to this day.

Constitutional Democratic Party member Kumagai: “We will move forward with specific penal provisions”

In addition to attempting to conceal the cause of death, Kaisei Gakuen and Nagasaki Prefecture repeatedly violated the Act for the Promotion of Measures to Prevent Bullying. The school failed to establish a system for early detection and consultation of bullying, concealed the results of an investigation into bullying, and reported false information to the family. The governor, despite being in a position to guide and supervise private schools, stood by and watched Kaisei Gakuen’s response.

However, the law does not contain any penal provisions, and the petition called for support for reforming the law to include penal provisions for school operators and administrative agencies.

The online signature campaign began in December 2023, and in about two years, 64,792 signatures had been collected from across the country.

On November 26, 2025, the bereaved family submitted the signatures in Nagatacho, Tokyo.

Hiroto Kumagai (Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan), Chairman of the House of Councillors’ Committee on Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, who received the signatures, expressed a positive attitude toward legal reform. He pointed out that laws are normally revised every three to five years, but this law has been in effect for over ten years, and said:

“Even key members of the same political faction as me who were involved in the legislation at the time are saying, ‘It’s about time we reform the law.'”

“We will appeal to lawmakers and build a momentum towards revision. We will proceed with the details of what has to be reformed and what should be done about the penalty clauses.”

LDP lawmaker Saito: “First of all, I would like to accept it.”

Hiroaki Saito (LDP), chairman of the House of Representatives Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Committee, who also received the signatures, said the following:

“One committee chairman or one faction cannot do anything by itself, but we would like to accept this as a starting point.”

Hayato’s mother, Saori, said the following after submitting the signatures.

“When I was submitting the petition, the thought crossed my mind that even if I submitted it, it wouldn’t bring my son back. But I submitted it for the sake of future children and for those who cannot speak up.”

Four requests from the bereaved family to the MEXT

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) is responsible for educational administration based on the Act for the Promotion of Measures to Prevent Bullying. However, the ministry declined the request from the bereaved family to submit their signatures. As they were coordinating with the ministry’s representative to submit the signatures for this day, they were told the following:

“The Act for the Promotion of Measures to Prevent Bullying was enacted through a bill proposed by members of the Diet, so if you wish to reform it, we believe it makes sense to submit it to the members of the Diet.”

The bereaved family was shocked. The MEXT is in charge of administration in accordance with the law regardless of whether the bill was proposed by members of the Diet. Now that schools and prefectures are violating the law and children are becoming victims, it is only natural that the Ministry, as the head of educational administration, should pay attention to the voice of the bereaved family. However, the Ministry stubbornly refused to accept the signatures.

For this reason, the bereaved family did not submit the signature, but instead submitted a “Request for the National Response to Child Bullying.” After submitting the signatures to the chairpersons of the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Committees of the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors, they took the signatures to Yuki Fusazaki, Director of the Student Guidance Division of the Elementary and Secondary Education Bureau of the MEXT. The request included the following four points:

1.Mandatory training programs based on the Act for the Promotion of Measures to Prevent Bullying and the Guidelines for Investigating Serious Incidents of Bullying for all schools, school operators, and teachers, and thoroughly publicizing this to children and parents.

 

2.Centralized management of information on bullying cases across public and private schools.

 

3.Clarifying measures to be taken when schools and local governments violate the Act for the Promotion of Measures to Prevent Bullying and the Guidelines for Investigating Serious Incidents of Bullying

 

4.Permanently preserve records of serious bullying investigations and use them to prevent recurrence.

Nevertheless, in response to the request, Director Fusazaki stated, “The MEXT should take note of the fact that serious cases of bullying are not decreasing but are actually increasing. We would like to work hard to prevent suicides as a result of bullying,” but she did not seem serious about this.

For example, regarding training on the legal system regarding bullying, Director Fusazaki pointed out that the MEXT has created fundamental policies, guidelines, and a collection of training case studies, and is holding explanatory meetings, and responded, “We have already made this widely known and thoroughly implemented.” Furthermore, she said that the Act for the the Promotion of Measures to Prevent Bullying “was not submitted by us on the government side, but was created through discussion among lawmakers because they felt it was necessary,” and reiterated her previous view that “the first priority is for it to be discussed in the Diet, which is the legislator.”

At the end of the meeting, the family members made a final confirmation, saying, “The House of Representatives and House of Councillors committee chairpersons accepted it, but the MEXT will not accept it, right?”

Director Fusazaki said, “You brought it to us, so we’ll receive it.”

“We want to continue collecting signatures until the law is reformed”

The bereaved family held a press conference after submitting signatures to the chairpersons of the House of Representatives and House of Councillors education committees and a request to the MEXT.

Hayato’s father, Daisuke, said the following about submitting the signatures to lawmakers:

“We received positive comments from both the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors, so this is a step forward. I believe submitting the signatures was worthwhile.”

On the other hand, he criticized the MEXT’s response.

“The MEXT kept saying, ‘The government is implementing this system, and that system,’ but it seems like they just created the system and nothing more. There’s little intention to ensure that it’s implemented properly on the ground.”

The family is still collecting signatures. Saori, the mother, said:

“We want to continue collecting signatures until the law is reformed. We will continue advocating for changes to the law that will benefit children rather than merely provide a band-aid solution. It will not only help our child, but all children who have suffered from bullying, and I believe it will also benefit children of the future.”

The signature campaign site is here.

(Originally published in Japanese on November 26, 2025. Translation by Mana Shibata.)

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