crime

14-year-old boy dies after apparent assault in Chiba park

26 Comments

A 14-year-old boy died after apparently being assaulted in a Chiba park on Monday night, police said Tuesday.

According to police, the fire brigade received an emergency call at around 7:30 p.m. from an unidentified person, reporting that there was a boy unconscious in a park in Wakaba Ward. The boy, who has been identified as Hiroki Saito, was found lying face up on a public bench. He was taken to hospital where he was confirmed dead around an hour and a half later, police said.

Saito had sustained an injury to his left eye and was bleeding from the nose when he was found. Police said they found a group of four boys aged 14 to 16 in the park, and believe one of them made the phone call.

Police are currently trying to piece together the events that led to the boy's death.

© Compiled from news reports

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26 Comments
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Looks like the boy was invited into an ambush. Again, another classic example of "ganging up" & "beat down" someone. Sometimes fights like this can be avoided if your "street smart" or wise to your friend's attitude.

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@whiskey sour- or are carrying a baseball bat.

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Poor kid. RIP. If it was the other kids who ganged up on him I would imagine it will come to light.

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You'd think people in Japan would be a little more caring, etc., in light of the recent events. Responsibility for this falls straight on the absent parents.

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Kaptainkichigai - Last Sunday, ( CHIBA ) three very stylish 20 year olds tried to intimidate my wife & I after coming from a movie theater. 2 of the young men had video game style hair with assort colors. For example NEON ORANGE & YELLOW MOHAWK style do. They were yelling and screaming trying to be tough. Yes, I was prepared to go at it with them with only a movie news magazine. I sh!t you not !!! Chiba has alot of gangsta wannabes

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Little cowards. I'm hoping prosecutors try the perpetrators as adults - if they really are guilty of murder, it would be a disgrace to just let them out of a kids jail when they are 20. Rest in Peace.

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little cowards or big cowards...this sotry is so sad...

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@whiskeysour- granted, I dont live anywhere near Tokyo, but I have never seen anything like that. That is nuts as is this situation in the park. I had and saw plenty of fights in Junior H.S and H.S., but none EVER resulted in a hospital visit much less death. I cant imagine what these tools were trying to accomplish by harassing a man with his wife. I have never been involved in anything remotely resembling your situation in my 8 years here. And I have never witnessed a fight amongst locals (kids or adults). The most violence I have seen in Japan is the random drunk guy on the last train talking/yelling to the wall or a station toilet.

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If this is like these stories typically go, then he was "invited" to meet a group of these little thugs and then they all ganged up on him, like the typical heroes.

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Responsibility for this falls straight on the absent parents.

I wouldn't say so. At 14 my parents didn't accompany me to and from soccer practice. I went by myself.

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@2020hindsight "I wouldn't say so. At 14 my parents didn't accompany me to and from soccer practice. I went by myself" I think the point was that the parents should have taught them some moral values, not that they should have followed them around everywhere.

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I wish it weren't so, but the power of groupthink in Japan supersedes everything - even the best of parenting. If the "friends" said let's go gang up on so and so, I don't think there is anyone in Japan who wouldn't just go with the flow. It is a very sad aspect of the culture and especially at 14 they know this. Wouldn't be surprised if half of the kids giving the beating didn't wanna do it, but couldn't just say "no."

PS Then again, in what culture isn't this true? Guess it is in our DNA.

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I think the point was that the parents should have taught them some moral values, not that they should have followed them around everywhere.

Sorry, I thought you were blaming the poor boy's parents. Agree.

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They should not have published his name. He is under adult age.

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To me it doesn't sound like an ambush. I think they were just hanging out and things got out of control. Otherwise they wouldn't have called the cops and waited around to see what happened. Plus the kid was laying on a bench, so maybe it was an unlucky kick to the head or something, and he quickly went south. I doubt they meant to kill him.

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Fights are going to happen, that's just nature... let the boys be boys, but Japanese boys need to learn when to stop. A few swings, knock down, all good, but just stop, you won, get on with it! no need to kill or injure your opponent. don't do on to others...

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Well, I guess my reading ability is not as good as some of the other people commenting on this thread because I find that nowhere in this article does it say that the four boys were that ones that attacked the victim. Proximity does not make them guilty of a crime.

The only thing that we can deduce from this article is that one of the kids may have done his civic duty by alerting the fire brigade to the victim's situation, nothing more, nothing less.

What's with all the negative comments? Give the police the time to investigate and make an arrest before you jump on someone who may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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Good point Peace. I was wondering if I missed something. For all we know, those four kids were not involved and did the right thing by calling it in.

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All involved will go unpunished. Paperwork and calling the parents is all that will happen. You see...when an underaged child commits a crime, they are freed because they are still "a child" in the eyes of Japan.

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I always find that interesting to be honest. Adoption is not highly regarded because of perhaps a "bad family" but when kids ARE bad, they get a slap on the wrist.

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Whiskeysour you couldn't divulge which cinema that was you got abused at could you? I know pretty much the whole area very well so I'm curious.

I too think it would be strange if these boys were the perpetrators. They would have to be monumentally stupid to call the police for a crime they had committed and then wait for them to arrive. If he'd been assaulted it should be incredibly easy to confirm someone's involvement through marks and fibres.

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Chiba is nice, but it is another toilet for Tokyo. Many of the yakuza, Japanese mafia, the scum of Japanese society must leave Tokyo and end up in dumps like Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama, many brothels, with whores and drugs you can only assume the yakuza are involed, maybe these youngsters are sons of local whores, bar maids etc..and this is their up bringing, violence and no respect for life etc..RIP young boy found dead out in Chiba.

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elbudamexicano, That's brilliant! A park in Chiba ... Yakuza ... sons of local whores. Case solved. You should be a detective!

you can only assume the yakuza are involved I can't stop laughing.

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RIP. it's a hard way to go. to be beaten to death.

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I think Godan is right on the money here: "I wish it weren't so, but the power of groupthink in Japan supersedes everything - even the best of parenting."

This kind of thing is so common, and then the group suddenly decides it may be time to call the authorities and let them deal with the results. They can say they did the right thing in calling for help, and they hope this will somehow be in their favor/favour.

Sadly I agree with many of the earlier posters. He probably got called out to the park where they needed to address some slight attitude problem towards them. By the time they had finished instructing him it was too late.

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Elbudamexicano,

Whoa pardner. Where do you get yaks involved in this? For all we know, this could have been ijime gone awry.

Taka

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