On April 22, 2017, teachers from Kaisei Gakuen, the school Hayato Fukuura attended, arrived at the funeral home.

Hayato’s mother, Saori, and father, Daisuke, showed everyone Hayato’s suicide note, in which he had written about the hardships he faced at school.

“Please make sure this never happens again at Kaisei!”

After a brief silence, Shinichiro Takegawa, the vice principal of Kaisei High School, spoke.

“How should we handle the media?”

“The school has received inquiries from the media”

From April 21 to 22, Daisuke, Saori, and Naoto—Hayato’s older brother—stayed at the funeral home, continuously offering incense.

Saori couldn’t stop crying and was consumed by guilt. Naoto couldn’t quite believe that his younger brother was gone.

After dawn, Daisuke rushed about making preparations for the wake and funeral with the help of his relatives.

Early that morning, Daisuke’s cell phone rang. It was Shinichiro Takegawa, the vice principal of Kaisei High School.

This was his first interaction with the school since his son’s death. But Takegawa barely even greeted him; instead, he stammered nervously and said the following.

“The school has received inquiries from the media. We want to meet you as soon as possible.”

The day before, Daisuke had been told by the assistant inspector in charge at the Oura Police Station of the Nagasaki Prefectural Police, “Once the funeral arrangements have been finalized and things have settled down, please contact the school.”

They were in discussions with the funeral home and the time and details of the funeral hadn’t been decided yet.

However, Takegawa sounded flustered over the phone, and his tone was oppressive.

Without thinking, Daisuke blurted out, “I’m sorry.”

After hanging up and finishing the meeting, Daisuke called back.

Takegawa was still insisting, “I want to see you.” When asked where the funeral home was, Daisuke had no choice but to tell him.

However, he and his family were in a state of confusion. To make matters worse, that morning’s edition of the Nishinippon Shimbun, a regional newspaper covering Kyushu, carried a headline reading, “High School Boy Found Dead in Nagasaki City Park, Suspected Suicide.” His anxiety was growing that Hayato’s death might be sensationalized by the media. He even asked the funeral home not to display Hayato’s name in the lobby and decided to hold a private funeral.

Daisuke asked Takegawa, “Please come without anyone noticing.”

Neither the chairman, the principal, nor the homeroom teacher came

Shortly after noon, the teachers from Kaisei Gakuen arrived at the funeral home.

There were Takegawa, the high school vice principal; Kawashima, the junior high school vice principal; and Omori, the assistant high school vice principal.

Saori exchanged greetings with the three of them, wondering, “Why aren’t the principal and the chairman here?”

Kaisei Gakuen is a Catholic private school that has been in operation since 1892. Its parent organization, the Society of Mary, is headquartered in Rome. In Japan, the Society has primarily carried out its missionary work through education. In addition to Kaisei Gakuen, it teaches at Gyosei Gakuen in Tokyo, Meisei Gakuen in Osaka, and Kosei Gakuen in Hokkaido.

Masachika Tsuboko, chairman of Kaisei Gakuen, served as president of the Osaka Private Junior and Senior High School Athletic Federation and the Osaka Private Junior and Senior High School Association. Since 2015, he has also served as chairman of the Japan Catholic School Federation, which comprises more than 1,000 educational institutions nationwide. The school has praised Tsuboko’s achievements and highlighted them on its website and other platforms.

When a student at their school took their own life, he did not show up. Not only the chairman, but also the principal, Masayuki Shimizu, and the homeroom teacher, Koji Iwasaki, were nowhere to be seen. Saori found this strange.

After they finished offering the incense, Omori was crying.

The three members of Kaisei, along with Daisuke, were leaving the room where Hayato was lying.

Saori stopped them.

“Please read Hayato’s suicide note in front of him.”

Hayato was carrying a shoulder bag with his suicide note in it when he died.

“I’d get a headache that felt like a trauma every time I went to school.” “Right now is the hardest.”  “I’m afraid of being dissed, my breathing gets heavy and ragged, I feel tense, and my mouth is watering.”

Saori wanted the teachers at Kaisei to know that Hayato had been struggling there. She handed the suicide note to Takegawa and the others and urged them to read it one by one.

Holding the suicide note, Takegawa began to tear up.

Saori said this in a firm tone, even as she cried.

“Please make sure this never happens again at Kaisei!”

“Please make Hayato the last one to go through something like this!”

Suddenly softening the tone when told, “No interviews”

However, no one responded to Saori’s plea.

She couldn’t believe her ears when she heard the words that came out of Takegawa’s mouth as he wept.

“The media is sniffing around. We’ve been getting calls at the school since yesterday. How should we handle the media?”

They have just lost their son to suicide. Even so, they have to deal with the police and make arrangements for the funeral. When asked how to handle the media—something they’ve never had to deal with before—they simply didn’t know what to do.

The parents couldn’t answer right away.

Then Kawashima said in a firm tone.

“What do you want to do?!”

Both Saori and Daisuke felt as if they were being blamed and rushed.

“We don’t want the media to find out, so please don’t mention Hayato’s name,” they replied.

Based on what they’d seen on talk shows and the like, they had the impression that “the media would make a big fuss.” They wanted to avoid things like reporters swarming the funeral home or having Hayato’s name and face published in the news. They just wanted to hold the funeral without any disruptions and quietly see Hayato off.

“We don’t want to be interviewed. Please don’t reveal Hayato’s name, even if you’re asked.”

When Daisuke said that, Takegawa and Kawashima—who had been ranting just moments before—calmed down.

“Got it. Leave it to us.”

“If you invite the students, the information will leak to the media”

However, Saori had something on her mind.

Judging by his suicide note, Hayato was struggling at school. Even so, she thought it might have been better for Hayato if she had at least invited his close friends or the class representatives.

Saori asked, “Since this will be our final farewell, why don’t we invite some friends?”

It was Kawashima who answered.

“Let’s not call the students. If we do, the information will inevitably leak to the media.”

Both Saori and Daisuke had become sensitive to the word “media.” They decided to follow Kawashima’s lead.

But after the teachers had left, Saori consulted Daisuke once more.

Hayato had a friend whom his family has been close with since his first year of middle school through his first year of high school. She wondered if she could at least invite that friend.

However, Daisuke felt he couldn’t betray the school, which was trying to protect them from the media.

“It’s a promise we made to the school,” he said, cutting Saori off.

The bereaved family would later come to regret this decision.

To be continued.

(Originally published in Japanese on December 18, 2025. Translation by Mana Shibata.)

Adults in the Student Suicide Case ~School Edition~: All articles