A 14-year-old boy in Fujimi, Nagano Prefecture, who committed suicide on May 17 had been bullied at school days before he took his life, a municipal government panel said Friday, stopping short of concluding that the harassment directly led to his death.

Friends of the boy had slapped him in the face several times at their junior high school on or after May 6, the panel said in a report on its investigation into his death.

But a personal incident with another student at the school in April may have been behind his suicide, the panel said, while not specifying the incident for reasons of privacy.

It said he could have made the decision to kill himself before the slapping incidents occurred.

The boy's suicide note identified a number of students he hated, prompting his family to suspect he had been bullied and to call for an investigation.

The family plans to take legal advice before deciding what to do next, a relative said.