Newspaper articles of judo injuries resulting in death: 1984 – 2010 [11]
Prefectural police file charge on suspicion of inflicting injury resulting in death; student died from judo injury
The Asahi Shimbun
October 5, 1990
A first year student of a junior high school in Matsudo city died from injuries received during judo club practice in July of this year. The Chiba Prefectural Police Department and the Matudo Higashi Police Station decided to file charges against the five senior students who had practiced with him, on suspicion of causing bodily injuries resulting in death. They had carefully considered the appropriateness of charging the actions of students, however, they decided to move forward because it was recognized that the senior students had had a clear intention to physically injure the first year student who wanted to leave the club.
The question during the investigation was whether ‘bodily injury resulting in death’ under Article 205 or ‘causing death through negligence’ under Article 210 of the Penal Code would apply. To charge based on the former, the defendants must have had an intention to injure the victim or allowed the victim to be injured by others. The practice that day appeared to have been a general training of continuous attack, according to the findings of the Matsudo Higashi Police Station. Since the teacher of the judo club was not present, the investigation was based on testimonies of other students attending practice.
The Ministry of Education said it was exceptional to charge students for causing injury resulting in death and that it will affect the activities of sport clubs in general.
Parents file lawsuit against school for negligence of management; junior high school student died from judo injury
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun
December 28, 1990
The parents of Tatsuya Abe (12), a first year student of Daisan Junior High School, who died in July after six senior students physically abused him during judo practice, filed a lawsuit against Matudo city and the parents of the six senior students in the Chiba District Court Matkudo Branch on Dec. 28. They sought compensation of 50 million yen for negligence of management by the school.
The petition indicated that since Tatsuya wanted to leave the judo club to join another club, five third year students and one second year student used techniques including osoto-gari (large outer reap) against him for about 45 minutes in the judo training hall on July 12 at around 5 pm. Tatsuya hit his head severely and died two days later. The teacher of the club was in the teachers’ room, not in the training hall; in other words he was not managing the practice when the injury occurred.
The petition stated that the parents of the six senior students had joint responsibility to compensate, and that the school neglected the obligation to prevent injury by not having the teacher or substitute teacher attend the session while the judo club often encouraged severe training when a member wished to leave.
The Matsudo Police Station filed charges against five senior students, excluding one student under 14 years old, for inflicting bodily injury resulting in death through severe training. Conversely, the teacher was not charged with any wrong doing.
