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Two individuals have died within the Japanese metropolis of Yokohama after a teenage lady jumped to her loss of life from a purchasing centre, hitting a pedestrian beneath.
The 17-year-old highschool scholar jumped from a constructing in a crowded purchasing district, hitting a 32-year-old girl who was out along with her associates on Saturday night.
The 2 had been instantly taken to hospital round 18:00 native time (09:00 GMT), the place the lady died an hour later. The girl additionally died quickly after.
It is not clear why she may need killed herself, although extra individuals below the age of 18 in Japan kill themselves on 1 September – simply forward of the brand new faculty time period – than on every other day, in accordance with official statistics.
Final 12 months, 513 youngsters took their very own lives in Japan, with “faculty issues” cited as the most typical issue.
College students who do not wish to return to highschool are often known as futoko, or “individuals who don’t go to highschool.”
The primary the explanation why these futoko keep away from faculty embrace household circumstances, private points with associates, and bullying, in accordance with a earlier survey by the ministry of training.
Lately, authorities and media organisations have tried to lift public consciousness of the challenges college students face right now of 12 months.
Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK, for instance, mounted a marketing campaign on Twitter known as “on the evening of August 31″.
The newest incident in Yokohama mirrors the same episode in 2020, when a 17-year-old boy jumped from the roof of a purchasing centre, killing a 19-year-old feminine scholar in a busy district of Osaka.
On the time, the boy was posthumously charged with manslaughter, which means that his household owed compensation to the household of the sufferer he killed. Nonetheless, the cost was dropped shortly afterwards.
To date, the authorities haven’t indicated any culpability with reference to Saturday evening’s deaths.
Whereas Japan’s suicide charge is slowly reducing among the many basic inhabitants, it’s rising amongst younger Japanese individuals.
Japan is the one G7 nation the place suicide is the main reason for loss of life for youngsters.
Extra reporting by Chika Nakayama in Tokyo.