Japanese Boy Hangs Himself, Cites Bullies

Leaving a note saying that classmates’ bullying had made him “scared to live,” a 13-year-old boy hanged himself, becoming the latest victim of miseries heaped upon students seen as misfits in a conformist society.

The suicide Monday by Hisashi Itoh, in his own yard, came on the anniversary of another suicide that drew public attention to rampant bullying in schools.

Nobuyuki Saijo, the principal of Itoh’s junior high school in Niigata, about 160 miles north of Tokyo, said the boy wrote: “I have friends in school, but they made everyone ignore me. I was scared to live. They are bullying other classmates too. I will sacrifice myself, as they don’t know how bad bullying is.”