KAWASAKI -- A 15-year-old girl who was bullied as an elementary school student was awarded 1 million yen in damages on Friday in a lawsuit filed against four parents of the girl's former classmates.

The ruling was handed down Friday in the Kawasaki branch of the Yokohama District Court, where the girl and her parents filed the lawsuit.

The girl and her parents had demanded 7.4 million yen in damages, saying that she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of bullying by her classmates during elementary school.

Presiding Judge Takao Komaya rejected the argument that the girl was suffering from PTSD, but acknowledged that she had been bullied over a long period of time and ordered the plaintiffs to pay a total of 1 million yen in damages.

The court said the girl, whose father is Chinese, was teased by her former classmates over a period of about 11 months from April 2000, when she was in her third year of elementary school, being called "Chinese." Her classmates would also physically bully her by hitting her in the head, according to the ruling.

The Kawasaki Municipal Board of Education conducted its own investigation, and in 2004 acknowledged that there had been malicious bullying based on ethnic discrimination. The education board has apologized to the girl and her parents.

（Mainichi Japan） December 21, 2007

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