A tragic true story of a poisoned parent who stabbed his son in the thigh with a knife to make him study… “Excessive Examination Fever Took the Lives of a Family” Tragic true story of a family with a high academic background

I have in my possession a letter received from Nozomi Kiryu, the murderer of a mother of nine medical school graduates who was murdered in Shiga Prefecture in 2006.

She was ordered by her mother, who had an academic complex, to go to a national university medical school, and was forced to take 9 nani. After failing her entrance exams, she tried to pursue a career in nursing, but even there she was deprived of options, so she murdered her mother to escape the curse of her parents.

After the murder, she posted the following on Twitter

I defeated the monster. I feel safe now.

A short time after the murder, she was arrested by the police and brought to trial. Although she initially denied committing the crime, she later admitted to it and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In a letter Nozomi Kiryu sent to me, she wrote the following

I sincerely hope that those who are now being driven to the brink of mental illness will be saved, and that no new sufferers will arise.

Wielding the cause of education

Many of us, if not all of us, were subjected to Spartan education as children by parents who placed a high value on academic achievement.

For some, this may have caused lifelong emotional scars, broken relationships with their parents, or even mental illness.

–Educational abuse.

Today, over-education by parents is called such. Although it is medically considered to fall under the category of “child abuse,” it is still not fully recognized by society.

Why on earth do parents abuse their own children under the guise of education?

In my book, “Kyoiku Abuse: Kyoiku Kyoiku Kyoiku Dento” (“Educational Abuse: ‘Keen’ Parents Who Destroy Their Children”) (Hayakawa Shinsho), I have shown the process and mechanisms by which parents engage in educational abuse from various perspectives, thereby revealing the distortions in modern society.

In this article, we would like to consider some of the cases in which parental developmental disorders lead to educational abuse, using actual murder cases as examples.

The incident took place in Aichi Prefecture in ’16.

The perpetrator, Kengo Satake, was born the son of a pharmacy owner. His father, a pharmacist, wanted his eldest son, Kengo, to become a pharmacist and take over the store, and his second son to become a doctor. Therefore, his father gave his children a Spartan education.

Kengo’s gifted education enabled him to enter Tokai Junior High School, a prestigious school in Aichi Prefecture. However, as he was later diagnosed with ASD (autism spectrum disorder), he had various difficulties in life from that time onward. He was unable to build appropriate relationships with his classmates and became less enthusiastic about his studies along the way. And after graduating from high school, he did not go on to college, but became a truck driver.

His father called Kengo a “loser” for failing to live up to his expectations, but he also spoiled him by providing him with financial support even after he reached adulthood. Kengo used the money to buy an apartment and marry. The result is the future victim of the crime, Gyunda.

Kengo has been strict with Shunta since he was a small child, and in the fourth grade he starts studying hard for the entrance exam to Tokai Junior High School, which is the same school he entered. He takes it upon himself to teach him.

Parent-child study sessions take place every day, and Kengo’s instruction is strict and violent. He would throw things, punch and kick them, and sometimes even brandish a knife, in a fit of rage if they did not do as he taught them. All of these things were things my father used to do to me.

If I tell you to write, you write until you die!

The following is an exchange between Kengo and Shunta recorded on a drive recorder (from “Nagoya Educational Abuse and Murder Case: How a Father Stabbed His Son in the Middle School Entrance Exam”, Bunshun Online, July 20, 2007).

Kengo: If I tell you to write, write to the death. You should memorize everything I tell you to memorize. Don’t you understand that you are not to make fun of adults?

Shunta !　Ouch!

Kengo, it ‘s just a knife on your leg. What’s the pain? I’m being allowed to take the entrance exam, remember?

Shunta ! I’m sorry.

–This time Mr. Da was stabbed in the thigh with a kitchen knife.

Kengo, I said I was going to stab you. Stop your yammering, even if it hurts a little.

Shunta !

Kengo, did you think you could get away with just a leg wound, you little shit? What’s the point of an injury like this?

Kengo was convinced that if he studied according to his own study plan, his grades would improve. That is why he even threatened them with a knife to get them to do it.

However, there is no way that studying while being stabbed with a knife is effective. Why can’t they think of something so obvious?

During our interviews, we often heard from medical professionals that it has something to do with the developmental characteristics of the parents. Pediatricians, apart from this case, talk about cases in which developmental disabilities lead to educational abuse. The following is a quote from my book.

The following is a quote from my book: “There are many forms of developmental disabilities, so it is difficult to make a blanket statement, but in general, I feel that autistic/closing traits are more likely to be associated with educational abuse. People with autism tend to create their own molds and try to fit many things into them. When that mold becomes, “This is the way a child’s education should be,” they try to fit the child into it at all costs. That can lead to educational abuse.”

One of the most obvious characteristics of ASD is that it sets its own rules and repeats them incessantly. For example, he will walk only on the white line drawn on the road on his way to school, and if he steps off the line, he will go back to the beginning and start walking again, or he will decide the position of an object in his room to the millimeter and rush to correct it if it is even slightly out of place.

Stabbed his son with a kitchen knife: ……

They are extraordinarily attached to the rules they set for themselves, and if they are not followed, they become angry or panic.

For some people, this obsession is directed toward educating their children, imposing their own rules on everything from study time to methods. They set detailed schedules and procedures and demand that children follow them to the last detail. When these rules are broken, they panic and sometimes resort to violence.

To avoid any misunderstanding, the ASD trait does not necessarily lead to educational abuse. As I describe in detail in this book, it is up to each person to decide what they care about, and it does not absolutely lead to violence when it is oriented toward education. It is just that when we shine a light on the field of educational abuse, there are unfortunate cases where this is the case.

Returning to the case, Kengo was a case in which ASD characteristics turned in a bad way to educational abuse of children. In the summer of the year when Shunta was in the sixth grade of elementary school, Kengo, probably in a hurry to prepare for the upcoming entrance examinations, exploded in anger while teaching Shunta his studies. In a state of self-doubt, he stabbed Shunta with a kitchen knife with a blade of 18.5 cm in length, killing him.

Later in the trial, the lawyer argued that a factor in the case was his involvement with ASD, as mentioned above. The evaluation revealed that Kengo had ASD, and that he was obsessed with the study method he had decided on, and had tried to trap Shunta into it by threatening him with a knife, but when he could not get his way, he exploded with emotion and stabbed him.

The case ended in ’20 when the court confirmed “13 years in prison”. It is now positioned as one of the worst cases of ASD linked to and caused by educational abuse.

Even if it did not lead to such an important case, I have examined in detail in this book the cases in which parents’ developmental traits were oriented toward their children in their studies, resulting in tragedy. In Part 2, I will look at some of these incidents in the context of ordinary families.

Part 2: Report on the despair of children whose parents’ lack of understanding leads them to take heated entrance examinations.