Newspaper articles of judo injuries resulting in death: 1984 2010 [37]
Parents seek compensation from prefecture; high school student dies during judo training
The Asahi Shimbun, Akita
July 28, 2006
The parents of Ryo Tozawa (15), a first year high school student (at the time) of Omagari Agricultural High School, who died during practice with a judo club teacher on July 27, 2003, filed a civil lawsuit against the prefecture in the Akita District Court. They sought compensation of 65 million yen, claiming that there was a causal relationship between shime-waza (strangling technique) used by the teacher and their son’s death. The complaint stated that when Ryo was practicing judo with the male teacher of the club on July 22 in 2003, he tapped the floor a number of times to indicate surrender against the teacher’s shime-waza and other techniques. However, the teacher continued to use the techniques and Ryo died. While the postmortem certificate indicated that the cause of death was acute heart failure, the re-examination based on the request of the plaintiff revealed that the cause was suffocation. Ryo’s parents, therefore, claimed that his death was not due to an illness but was caused by the negligence of the teacher. They sought compensation from the prefecture based on the State Redress Act. Club activities under the control of a teacher are part of educational activities, which correspond to exercise of public authority.
Prior to the civil lawsuit, criminal charges had been brought against the teacher on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death, but they were dropped. Ryo’s mother explained that a civil lawsuit had been filed because they wanted to know the truth. She said she felt like time stopped since her son’s death. The prefectural board of education said, “We are discussing the complaint now and we have no comment yet.”
Prefecture apologize; agree to pay 12.5 million yen to parents whose son died during judo practice
The Asahi Shimbun, Akita
October 17, 2007
At the settlement talk on Oct. 16 in the Akita District Court concerning the charges filed by the parents of Ryo Tozawa (15 at the time), a first year student of Omagari High School, who died during judo practice in 2003, the prefecture apologized and agreed to pay them compensation of 12.5 million yen. The parents had filed a complaint against the prefecture claiming that their son’s death was caused by the strangling technique used by the teacher. It was 4 years and 3months ago that he died. While the parents said they finally received an apology, they showed frustration by adding, “Why didn’t they apologize from the beginning?” The parents held the picture of Ryo during the settlement talk. The manager of the High School Education Division of the Prefectural Board of Education said, “We are sorry and we’d like to apologize for Ryo’s death after he indicated surrender during the training with the teacher,” and bowed his head.
The parents initially brought criminal charges against the teacher but the Akita District Court dropped the case in 2004 due to insufficient grounds, because the autopsy indicated that acute heart failure was the cause of death. They requested the Inquest of Prosecution Committee of Akita to conduct reinvestigation in 2006 but the result was again non-prosecution. The parents, therefore, filed a civil lawsuit in July of last year to fight against the prefecture regarding the connection between shime-waza and the cause of death. The prefecture said they agreed to the settlement because they could not totally deny there was any connection between the practice, including shime-waza and the death.
After the settlement talks the parents said, “When the charges were dropped we thought we had to reexamine it ourselves. Some people said ‘If he’s dead there’s nothing more you can do,’ but we worked for 4 years to get an apology and finally we got it.”
The teacher has not apologized yet. “He was the last person who touched our son’s warm body. We want him to tell the truth; we’ll be waiting for his explanation,” the parents stated.
The High School Education Division of the Prefectural Board of Education stated that they will make an effort to prevent a recurrence of this tragedy.
