A junior high school student killed himself by jumping in front of a train in the town of Yahaba, Iwate Prefecture, earlier this month. Evidence strongly suggests that bullying at school drove him to commit suicide. The tragedy happened even though the 13-year-old boy had repeatedly sent signals about his plight to his homeroom teacher. The school's principal admitted that his death could have been prevented. The homeroom teacher, the principal and other teachers at the school should ask themselves if they drew the right lessons from past cases of school bullying.

According to media reports, Ryo Muramatsu, a second-year student, had started writing about his plight in spring last year in a notebook that he exchanged with his homeroom teacher. The evidence suggests that she did not take concrete action to save the boy although his notes indicated that the situation he found himself in was growing worse. In early May last year, he wrote, "I feel as if I was being bullied. I hate it. This is the limit." In July that year he wrote, "I again started feeling fed up with bullying." His entry in the notebook on Feb. 26 this year said, "There were quite a few times that I felt like dying." In writing back to him, the teacher suggested that he absent himself from school for a few days and "change his way of thinking." The boy wrote to her the next day: "I have received courage from you. I made up my mind anew to do my best."

But in and after April, new entries in his notebook such as "Violence is continuing" and "I cannot stand it any more" suggested that the bullying was continuing and that he was having suicidal thoughts. These strong signals should have prompted the teacher to take action, including informing other teachers and school officials of the problem.