A year has passed since the lifeless body of a Bhutanese exchange student was discovered hanging from a tree in a public park in Fukuoka.
Sonam Tobgay, 24, was a student in the Learn and Earn Program, an exchange program created by the Bhutanese labor ministry in 2017. Its purpose — as the name implies — was to enroll and employ Bhutanese youth in schools and businesses across Japan.
More than 700 students joined the program to attend school and then find jobs in Japan. But what Tobgay really wanted, according to his family, was to send money back home to his wife and 3-year-old daughter. He had been studying Japanese at a language school in Fukuoka and working in a nearby factory before his body was found in December 2018.