TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese boy burned down his home, killing his stepmother and two younger siblings, for fear his parents would find out he had lied about his score on an English test.
The 16-year-old, whose name has not been released, is thought to have set fire to the house in Nara, western Japan, and left his stepmother to die along with his 7-year-old brother and 5-year-old sister, domestic media reports said on Saturday.
The boy’s parents had been due to attend a meeting with teachers about his exam results that same day, reports said. The teen-ager told police his father, a doctor, had put him under extreme pressure over his academic performance, Kyodo news agency said.
Oh yes, I’m afraid my parents might be upset with me, so I’ll burn down my house!!
Its not that the student was pissed. Its that he panicked and didn’t know what to do. The kid freaked out because of how psychologically damaging some parents can be.
Imagine going through a school system that maintains a national IQ twenty points higher than that of the U.S. It’s bound to be psychologically influential.
Sorry for sounding like an asshole but this is hilarious. This is another example that the Japanese are just too smart for their own good…or atleast their stepmother and 2 siblings own good.
(sorry dude…just a little playful joshing, hope you don’t take it too personally, not meant that way at all)
Well, it’s the old stereotype about how much pressure Japanese schoolkids are under. A+ Uber Alles, good grades OR ELSE, conditioned by his experience to be scared shitless of getting bad marks in school, and what the repurcussions of bad marks in school might be. “Oh my God my mom is gonna kill me” or “my life is over” except that while we are aware deep down that we’re exaggerating over here when we say those rather flippant things, it feels closer to the actual truth for them. Or so it would seem.
So he freaked. Snapped. And went to the irrational extreme. Attack what threatens and corners you. (Can’t let my mom find out…) Although not mentioned in that excerpt Setz quoted, I wouldn’t be too surprised, either, if it turned out the kid was also intending to catch himself up in that blaze (die to save face?) only maybe panicked again and survival instinct kicks in and he runs away from the fire, not thinking to warn his family inside (after all, how much more pissed would they be at him when they ask him how it started and he has to say “I set it”).
That sucks. Who the hell would want to go to school when its melting outside. So they do that and get uber grades I feel very unintellectual right now.To hell with that; atleast we start in August, which is basically Fall - Winter…Yay
I feel very unintellectual right now.To hell with that; atleast we start in August, which is basically Fall - Winter…Yay