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A 16-year-old boy was hit and killed by a train in Hidaka, Saitama Prefecture, in an apparent suicide, police said Sunday.
According to police, the incident occurred at around 7 p.m. Saturday at a crossing on the JR Kawagoe line between Musashitakahagi and Komagawa stations, Fuji TV reported.
Police said a witness told them the boy walked under the crossing gate and onto the tracks in front of the train.
The driver told police he applied the emergency brake but couldn’t stop in time.
© Japan Today
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Maria
The poor boy, and his poor family. This is tragic.
Do the hustle
Final exams next week. Most Japanese high school are under way too much pressure to pass tests. This young fellow would have been 1st grade senior high. There is a huge amount of pressure for final exams to set up 2nd grade. I’m not going to go down the bullying road. It is stress related depression from to much pressure at school.
mmwkdw
The Parents of the boy concerned must be devastated - there's absolutely nothing that can be said by anyone here, that will help them. Just pray that you do not end up in a similar situation, and I hope, that the rail company concerned, doesn't add further insult to injury, by presenting a fine to the Family concerned. If they do, then that, would be a most heinous and callous act beyond belief.
The demands upon a 16 year old are great everywhere.. in my time it was the time to decide whether you went to College to study for the exams that would see whether you'd get to University. So was equally quite pressured.
11 Year olds here have it the hardest, they've lost their childhood time in order to study for those School entrance exams.
So I find it hard to comprehend how once Japanese Kids have been through these grueling tests that they end up being treated like mere robots in Companies doing mundane tasks. I think employers attitudes need to change there.
WilliB
Bullying again? It has happened so often.
William Bjornson
Does Japan still bill the grieving family for the costs of delay and disruption when a family member can no longer stand living in Japan or in this Human Reality at all? Are those people weak or are the rest of us either willfully and psychotically ignorant of what is happening in our world, or made functionally psychopathic by our 'Authorities' (see: Masters) manipulation of our milieu which teaches us that cruel and murderous behavior and blind competition is 'natural' to Human Beings and we must accept it? This lad didn't. Requiescate in pace, terminally sad soul, you were the best of us.
Strangerland
They never have billed the family. They’ve billed the estate of the deceased. If the estate does not have the means to pay, the debt is not passed to the family.
sensei258
It could have been stress or bullying but you can't tell that from this article,
mmwkdw
@Strangerland - that somewhat makes sense, though is that correct in the case of Children too ?
If so, then the Company can send in the bailiffs come into their home, and remove the Kids clothing, Toys, Bike, computer games, etc... ?
If the above is really true, then Japan should be Shamed, can you picture the above scene in your minds and place yourselves in the Parents position ?
mmwkdw
The Parents will be questioning whether they are to blame, just as any others would. Did they give the impression of setting too high an expectation ? Or did his class co-members exert some seriously negative pressure upon him - or did the School itself ? No one will probably ever know, but it's the Parents I feel for the most.