Meiji University to disband cheering club after member kills self over bullying

The Mainichi Shimbun
January 25, 2008
Source: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080125p2a00m0na027000c.html

Meiji University has decided to dissolve the school's long-established cheering club after a 21-year-old member committed suicide because he was bullied.

Hiromi Naya, president of the university in Tokyo's Chiyoda-ku, was to announce the decision during a press conference to be held on Friday evening.

The then 21-year-old junior student at the School of Science and Technology, who belonged to the cheering club, killed himself last summer after he was beaten by senior club members.

The university set up an investigative committee after the student's suicide and questioned the other members of the 10-strong club.

As a result, the school found out that the senior members were very strict on the juniors, and several junior members, including the male student who took his own life, had been violently beaten by several senior members.

School officials had suspended the activities of the cheering club for an indefinite period of time since September last year, but have decided to disband the group after the in-house investigative committee filed a final report.

Some of the information provided to the investigative committee suggested that there was a videotape that recorded violence inside the club, while a spectator at a school match reported that younger members of the club were being beaten in front of the public.

"We should have taken measures earlier," said an official of the public relations department of the university.

The cheering club was established during the Taisho Era (1912-1926) and has cheered on numerous school teams including the school's brass band.

（Mainichi Japan） January 25, 2008

Bullied Japanese cheerleader killed himself

Reuters
Thursday, 27 December 2007
Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4337322a12.html

A male cheerleader at a Japanese university killed himself after being bullied by other cheerleaders, media reports have said.

An investigation by authorities at Tokyo's Meiji University found violence was rife in the group, the reports said.

Younger members were hit in the face, chased with fireworks and forced to eat grass, the Asahi newspaper said.

The dead student, whose name has not been released, was forced to strip naked and videotaped by senior students, the Sankei newspaper reported.

"I just wanted him to have a good time," the student's weeping father told TV Asahi on Tuesday. "It's so sad."

Besides women cheerleaders, many Japanese colleges have mixed or male cheerleading teams.

In the men's groups, their black uniforms, drums and salutes evoke their roots in the militarist 1920s.

Meiji University's male cheerleading squad ceased activities in September after the student committed suicide in July, media said. The university could not be reached for comment.

Bullying has long bedevilled Japan from schoolyards to workplaces. A government survey in November found 125,000 cases of bullying in elementary, middle and high schools in the year to March, but more cases are believed to go unreported.