Kirk here with an English-language article about the alleged hazing at Seiseiko. As I reported in my previous post, the judge found the school innocent:
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220531/p2a/00m/0na/012000c
The Mainichi article ends with the following quotes from Ryo Uchida of Nagoya University:
“I’d hoped the court would look at how the student felt (about the incident) rather than looking at the case as a mere formality to see whether there was a violent act. It should’ve taken into consideration that the school song training and head-shaving were done under peer pressure, in an environment where underclassmen could not resist upperclassmen’s demands. . . . The school should not try to justify these acts using tradition as an excuse, but review them in the context of changes in society and the circumstances that children face.”
These comments strike me as very reasonable.
