One girl dead, another injured after leaping from 5th floor of condo

No doubt the school principal, home room teacher, and anybody else in a position to know what was going on are busily rehearsing their standard Colonel Clink line.

Let me guess.... they were bullied and the teachers and parents didn't know about.

I meant Sergeant Schultz.

Police said they will wait until he 15-year-old girl recovers before asking her about the incident.

I think we all know the reason...

The life of a teenage high school student in Japan really sucks, big time! They have no fun or free time because of school club activities and ridiculous amounts of homework and they are always hassled by over-zealous teachers (and parents) pushing them to do more. Being bullied is only a small part of the problem. I know Japan has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the world, but sadly, I also know why. :-(

@disillusioned. It also applies to junior school students studying to get into high school. No youth life experiences in Japan.

Thanks, Disillusioned, for giving us a bit of the picture in Japan. I read Japan Today, mostly from my first edition Ipad which no longer lets me leave comments. back on my desktop, and really want to understand the insanity going on in Japan. I think some visits to schools by local leaders to encourage kids, to make them feel that they're not alone, that it's ok to flake once in a while, instead of this heavy drama they appear to me going through. Is it because of the younger years of fantasy and now it's erosion cause this malaise? What about overcrowding? Best...the guy from San Francisco...

I just don't get you people, the way you talk is truly disturbing to me. You seem to feel that suicide is an understandable reaction to your life being 'tough'. Let me tell you something, I grew up on a really depressing and oppressive South London housing estate, my single parent family was poorer than most of you could possibly imagine and some days my mother had no money to feed us, I got the crap kicked out of me regularly in my junior high school...and not once did it cross my mind to kill myself. Not once...

I'm meant to have sympathy for kids who think their lives are a bit on the 'tough' side, am I? I'm supposed to feel sorry for them because they are dumb enough to throw themselves of a building rather than to face up to and deal with these 'problems', am I? Well to do that is to condone them in some way and I can't and won't do that...and neither should all of you!

Geoff, it's called empathy and it's not a bad trait to have. You should be proud of enduring those hardships without slipping into depression but you should also understand some people don't have that mental fortitude.

Not “tough”, Geoff, “unbearable”.

There’s a big difference.

Vehement denials by school and administration that any bullying took place tomorrow or the next day. Admission that it happened next week. Vow to be transparent a few days later. Return to doing nothing in less than two weeks.

I hope the girl who survived, if she survives, uses this as a way to never forget how precious like this, and the pain and horror that will be forever with her serve to push her forward and perhaps help others who might wish to do the same as she and the other girl did.

I don’t know but they might have wanted to kill themselves. If so, people around the two girls should have noticed the reasons and cared about them before this terrible event happened. The 14-year-old girl will never ever come back, no matter how hard we try to find the reasons why they did it.

First and foremost, rest in peace!

However, living on the 5th floor myself, I find the situation a little suspicious (I don't feel it's high enough). Anyway, these days, life seems to be getting harder and more complex. I feel better support for teens in Japan is very important and all Japanese teens shouldn't just hold in their feelings.

you know, it's not always the environment that makes kids/people kill themselves. too many of you boil suicide into something so simplistic as bullying, but that is only one factor in suicide. there are a host of underlying factors, psychological being the most important, that drives people to commit suicide. but it's always the bullying ones that make the headlines because that makes it easier for us to cast blame or to try to understand the reason why people do it.

@Geoff Gillespie Because of your family and economical situation you probably grew up on the street where you and your friends protect each other and yourself. Maybe one of the problems here is the overprotection and the no free time to develop strong friendships with others. Some kids just don’t know how to face problems.

I hope for the best to the survivor and both of their parents. RIP