Two teens kill themselves in Fukuoka

FUKUOKA (Kyodo) Two 14-year-old junior high school boys were found hanged Friday in separate and apparent suicide cases in Fukuoka Prefecture, police said.

In both cases, local education officials said there was no information on whether they had been bullied at school.

One of the boys was found hanged in a wooded area at around 10 a.m. in the town of Keisen, Fukuoka Prefecture, while the other was found hanged in the city of Munakata at around 5 p.m., police said.

No suicide note was found in either case.

The school the Keisen boy went to questioned all its students about what they may know about his death but has not been able to find out what led him to commit suicide, including whether he was bullied, school officials said.

"We have no idea what the motive was," one official said.

According to the school, he told a school librarian during a recess Monday, "If someone committed suicide at this school, I wonder if there would be a big fuss."

The woman said to him, "Don't tell me you are having strange thoughts," and he replied, "No way, I have no guts," according to the school.

He was last seen Wednesday morning when his mother and older brother left home, and his family asked police to search for him Thursday.

In the Munakata case, the local board of education, which said it had not confirmed if he had been bullied, said the boy went to school Friday and returned home at around 4 p.m.