“Please feel free to make details of the suicide note and the identities of the bereaved family public. We want our child to be the last victim, so that tragedy never happens again.”

Daisuke Fukuura and Saori Fukuura head to the school their son Hayato used to attend to express their feelings.

*The classmates’ names have been withheld.

“What if I become the next target?”

It was on May 4, 2017, that Saori picked up the notebook Hayato had left behind.

Daisuke and Naoto found the notebook while searching Hayato’s room. On the sheet of paper he had been carrying when he died were lines such as, “Every time I go to school, I get a headache like a trauma,” and “This is the hardest time of my life.” On the other hand, he hadn’t written much, saying only, “I don’t want to be a burden to my family.” “Hayato might have left something else behind,” Daisuke and Naoto thought.

Their hunch turned out to be right.

The notebook detailed the bullying he had experienced at the hands of his classmates, as well as his own feelings. Some pages, like those in a diary, listed the date and weather. The entry read: “I’m sick of it. I’m exhausted” was written precisely six months before his death.

The pain was palpable in the words written in Hayato’s familiar handwriting. It was painful to read. But she couldn’t look away from the words of her own child, who had been driven to the point of taking his own life. Saori kept reading.

The names of the bullies were also listed. It was clear that he had been bullied by a group.

Among them, she spotted a familiar name.

“This child…”

About three years ago, when Hayato was moving up from seventh to eighth grade at Kaisei Junior High School, he had expressed a concern.

“What if I end up in the same class as ■■?”

“What do you mean?” Saori asked, and Hayato told her that there was bullying going on in the class next door.

“■■ was bullying △△. Because of that, △△ ended up transferring schools.”

Like Hayato, the student who had been bullied had a quiet personality. Hayato voiced his concerns.

“What if I become the next target?”

After hearing what Hayato had to say, Saori asked about it during the parent and child meeting with his homeroom teacher.

“I heard a rumor that △△ from the class next door transferred schools because he was being bullied by ■■. Is that true?”

However, his homeroom teacher, Masahiko Hamasaki, insisted that “it wasn’t bullying” and refused to take the matter seriously. All Saori could do was ask Hamasaki to make sure Hayato and ■■ weren’t placed in the same class.

Hayato’s anxiety wouldn’t go away. So, during spring break before the new school year began, Saori went to the school with Hayato. If they checked his locker, they’d find out which class he was in.

Hayato and ■■ were in different classes. Hayato finally felt relieved.

However, a year later, in their third year of junior high school, Hayato and ■■ ended up in the same class.

The bullying against Hayato also began in his third year of junior high school.

“No need for ‘witch hunt’”

On May 6, 2017, two days after the notebook was found, Saori and Daisuke headed to Kaisei Gakuen.

They met with Shinichiro Takegawa, the high school vice principal, and Kawashima, the junior high school vice principal.

Takegawa started the conversation by saying, “A parent has contacted the president of the PTA. I also told Kawashima that it would be better to make the announcement sooner rather than later. As for the procedure…”

Before listening to what Saori and Daisuke had to say, Takegawa spoke at length. In short, he explained that they had been receiving inquiries from parents regarding Hayato’s death and wanted to get the explanations to the parents over with as soon as possible.

However, there was something about Takegawa’s proposal that didn’t sit right with the bereaved family. He had limited the scope of the announcement regarding Hayato’s suicide to Hayato’s class (S3).

Nonetheless, the bullying extended beyond Hayato’s class. The list of about ten bullies recorded in Hayato’s notebook included not only students from his own class (S3) but also students from other classes (S1 and S2) and students who had already transferred schools.

Daisuke handed copies of the notebook he had brought with him to Takegawa and Kawashima. He read out the students’ real names and said, “I don’t think we should limit the explanation to just S3.”

Saori also mentioned that there were students in other classes who were reaching out to Hayato’s phone, out of concern, and she emphasized the need to make the facts known widely across all classes.

However, Takegawa hesitated.

“As for the plan, we’ll start by talking to the parents of the S3 students, followed by the parents of students who have been attending Kaisei since junior high to high school. Right now, our biggest concern is the S3 students. Their parents are worried too. We don’t want any strange rumors to start. So, we’ll proceed in the following order: S3 parents, S3 students, and students who have been attending Kaisei since junior high to high school.”

They didn’t quite understand Takegawa’s intentions. Saori expressed her feelings as a bereaved family.

“If you limit it to just students who have been attending Kaisei since junior high or only those in S3, it will eventually be forgotten. The fact is, my child has been a student here since junior high. I don’t want this to fade from memory before we know it. It’s fine if you publish the entire details (of the suicide note and notebooks), and it’s fine if our names are mentioned. I want this to serve as a lesson—that a child died because of bullying—so that something like this never happens again.”

Daisuke also emphasized that he didn’t want this to turn into a “witch hunt,” and then said the following.

“I want you to tell everyone the facts.”

“I want [the student who bullied others] to realize that they were the one doing the bullying. There’s no need to make a public spectacle of them, but I want them—and their parents—to be aware of what they did.”

However, Takegawa refuses to accept.

“I’ll give a general address at the all-school assembly. I’ll have to mention Fukuura eventually. If I bring it up too soon, the students will be shocked, and I need to talk about it from someone close to him first.”

Since Takegawa had said, “From someone close to him,” Saori asked, “Are you going to take it step by step and tell the entire student body that my child passed away in this way?”

Takegawa answers, “When it comes to the whole school, I can’t decide on my own.”

Homeroom teacher showed up wearing shorts from club activity

Takegawa’s remarks only served to reinforce Saori and Daisuke’s suspicion that “the school might be trying to avoid disclosing the facts.”

On May 2, four days prior, the two visited Kaisei for the first time since Hayato’s death. Just as he had done this time, Takegawa had failed to heed the bereaved family’s wish that “the truth be made public.”

By May 2, twelve days had passed since Hayato’s suicide. Even at this point, the bereaved family had not yet informed Hayato’s classmates of what had happened. This was because they were following a suggestion from Kaisei High School: “Let’s not invite the students [to the wake or funeral]. If we do, the information will inevitably leak to the media.”

However, the school should inform students and parents about the suicide caused by bullying. The students think Hayato is just taking a few days off from school.

They felt it would be best to meet with school officials in person to discuss the matter with the students, so the bereaved family requested a face-to-face meeting. They had made arrangements in advance for Koji Iwasaki, the homeroom teacher who knows the students well, to attend the meeting alongside Takegawa.

But on the day of the event, although Daisuke and Saori arrived on time, only Takegawa was there.

When Daisuke asked, “Hey, where’s the homeroom teacher?” Takegawa replied,

“We’re going to go get him right now. He’s the basketball team coach, and he has to be up early tomorrow morning.”

Daisuke, Saori, and Takegawa entered the conference room and had just started talking when the door opened.

Iwasaki showed up wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts. It looked like he had skipped club activity and rushed over.

Both Saori and Daisuke were taken aback. Not only had he been late to the first meeting with the bereaved family following a student’s suicide in his class, but he was still wearing his gym clothes.

They felt like he was being thoughtless towards Hayato’s death, but didn’t say anything.

Takegawa “I worry about family members and students committing follow-up suicides”

Before Iwasaki arrived, Daisuke had asked how the school planned to inform the students and parents about Hayato’s suicide.

Takegawa’s response was off the mark.

“The Nagasaki Shimbun came by today. They asked, ‘This is your school, isn’t it?’ I think they’re probably using a process of elimination. I suspect they’ve checked all the schools in the area, and since ours is the only one that’s replied, ‘We don’t know,’ they’ve zeroed in on us. The reporter didn’t seem to have all the information yet. We firmly denied it. Once the media identifies the school, they’ll start asking for the student’s name. I think we need to shut them down before it gets to that point. At this stage, the Mainichi Shimbun and the Nagasaki Shimbun have contacted us.”

Why is he worrying about dealing with the media instead of focusing on the students and their parents? Even after Iwasaki arrived, Takegawa kept making remarks that seemed tailored for the media.

“What struck me during my conversation with the Nagasaki Shimbun today was the topic of social media. I wondered if the media might be deliberately suggesting on social media that it was ‘Kaisei.’”

After Hayato’s death, media reports began circulating with headlines like “High school student commits suicide in Nagasaki City,” though the name of the school was withheld. Since there is no definitive proof that the student was from Kaisei, the reports couldn’t name the school, but Takegawa is making a wild guess that reporters might be posting on social media, speculating, “It must be Kaisei.”

Takegawa continues.

“The parents’ feelings are our top priority. We need to consider different options about how, when, and in what sequence to make the announcement, and we should select the method that works best for you. It would be strange for the school to go ahead on its own. Eventually, the announcement will have to be made. Until then, I plan to serve as a buffer. That’s why, even today when the Nagasaki Shimbun visited, I spoke very firmly—so much so that I even worried the newspaper might sue me.”

Daisuke then asked, “In other words, does that mean you’ll respect our wishes?”

Takegawa replied, “If you find it too difficult, the school could prepare a way to present the information for you to review. The same applies to the timing.”

As the bereaved family, they have been saying all along that they want everything to be made public from the very beginning. Why won’t he state unequivocally that he will act in accordance with their wishes?

“Once it goes online, it’s all over. The class is calm right now. The longer this drags on, the more unsettled the students will become. Right now, the dots haven’t been connected yet. We could say that this is something that should be kept within the class, as the bereaved family wished.”

He’s worrying about social media again, but what exactly is “all over”? It sounds like a proposal designed to prevent information from being shared outside the class by invoking the phrase “the wishes of the bereaved family.” Furthermore, Takegawa brought up a past case that has absolutely nothing to do with this.

“I had a student was hospitalized after attempting suicide. The cause was domestic violence. The Child Guidance Center got involved. I told the class about it at the time, but I didn’t mention the Child Guidance Center.”

“The question this time is how much to reveal—within the class, for example. Back when (pop singer) Yukiko Okada committed suicide, there were suicides following her death. My biggest concern is you, mother, followed by his older brother, and then his classmates. I don’t think Hayato would want anyone to follow in his footsteps.”

Neither Daisuke nor Saori could keep up with Takegawa’s arguments. While he spoke as if he were concerned for the students, he stoked fears about information being posted online, hinted that it might be better not to tell the students the truth, and even cited cases of celebrities committing suicide in imitation of others. It felt as though he was trying to prevent the facts from being made public.

No matter how many strange claims Takegawa made, Iwasaki, sitting next to him, remained silent.

Daisuke said, “I don’t want the students to be shocked, but I don’t want to distort the truth either.”

Takegawa retorted, “In that case, we’ll have to figure out how to talk to the children—maybe through counseling—and bring the parents together, and we’ll need to work out exactly what to discuss.”

Saori said, “Please feel free to tell them everything. My child died because of bullying. I want to know the truth, and even if we just sweep this under the rug here, nothing will change at the school, will it? I want my child to be the last victim, so that this never happens again. To that end, I believe we have a duty to share the facts, not distort them.”

As such, the bereaved family repeatedly expressed their clear wish that “the truth be revealed” on May 2 and 6.

To be continued.

(Originally published in Japanese on January 8 2026. Translation by Mana Shibata.)

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