The suicide in early July of an Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, board of education official who heard complaints from a school principal about 10 days before he hanged himself in March, is triggering a raft of complications.
Blamed for their suicides are hard work and agony amid intensified state guidance on school management. Deputy school board head Shokichi Yamaoka, 55, and Kazuhiro Keitoku, 56, principal of the public Takasu Elementary School, both had no educational experience before assuming their duties and found the guidance hard to follow, sources said.
Keitoku was treated at a hospital for "uneasiness" only one month after assuming the post in May last year, when his vice principal collapsed from fatigue. The vice principal's successor also collapsed and was hospitalized.