Japan goes on student suicide watch as school term starts

Sayoko is watching her 13-year-old son more closely than he probably realises as he settles into his first year of junior high school in Yokohama.

He is keeping up with his classes and is fortunate to be popular because of his sporting prowess. But Sayoko, who did not want to give her full name, remembers having a hard time at the same age, so she is alert to any sign that her son might be unhappy.

“I was not good at sport and did not have a large circle of friends and, of course, there were always the ‘cool girls’ of the class who could be unkind,” she said. “It was not too bad for me, and I came through it in the end, but no parent wants their son or daughter to be so desperate that the only choice they have is to kill themselves.”

A tragedy close to home has made that fear more palpable. The teenage son of one of her husband’s colleagues ended his own life about four years ago.

Since then, Sayoko has gone out of her way to avoid the man. “I don’t know what I would say to him,” she said. “Perhaps I am wrong not to try to be normal around him, but I fear anything I say will be the wrong thing.”