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7-year old boy dies after violent shoulder throws in judo class

By on June 30, 2021

Huang, a seven-year-old boy in Taiwan mercilessly thrown to the ground 27 times at a Judo class in April, died on Tuesday, June 29.

On April 27, the 67-year old Judo instructor ordered a 10-year-old classmate to do 20 repeated shoulder throws on Huang. The instructor also slammed the boy to the ground seven more times.

At around 9 p.m., Huang was immediately rushed to the hospital after passing out and becoming unresponsive. The doctors who examined Huang’s injuries said the boy suffered severe intracranial hemorrhage, which prompted them to perform an emergency craniotomy.

The boy declared “brain dead” after the operation, was put on life support. The doctors said that even if the boy survives a coma, he would most likely be in a vegetative state.

After 70 days, the Fengyuan Hospital reported to the boy’s parents that his blood pressure and heart rate levels were dropping. The parents, according to Taipei Times, decided to withdraw life support.

On June 4, the Taichung District Prosecutor’s Office indicted the instructor for causing bodily harm punishable by three to ten years jail term. After the boy’s death, prosecutors will change the charge to “injury causing death” which, under Taiwan’s law. carries an imprisonment term of seven years to life.

Does this kind of violence happen in Japan too?

The Human Rights Watch with headquarters in New York investigates and monitors the human rights situation in more than 100 countries around the world. 

In July last year, it conducted an online survey on 800 people about child abuse and harassment in Japanese sports.

Of the 381 survey respondents under the age of 25, 19% said they had been violently hit during sports activities.

The report is summarized here. 

In 2010, Keiko Kobayashi, an active member of the “National Judo Accident Association of Victims,” investigated accidents in children’s sports abroad including France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Italy.

She said that there have never been reports of death or serious accident linked to child sports in these countries. In contrast, Japan, she said,  had 121 judo-linked reported deaths over a period of 20 years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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