Iwate assemblyman Koizumi Mitsuo has died in an apparent suicide.
When a prefectural assemblyman Koizumi Mitsuo’s blog went viral over his criticisms of a local hospital, netizens reacted strongly, disagreeing with his attitude towards hospital staff.
As news spread of the angry blog post, complaints flooded in — some calling for the assemblyman’s resignation.
But the story took a turn for the macabre when police announced recently that Koizumi’s body had been found in the water near the Oshida River dam in what appears to be a suicide.
Did Iwate Prefectural Assemblyman Commit Suicide Due To Blog Trending Over His Criticisms Of Hospital? — Prefectural Police
On June 25 at around 5:00 am, Assemblyman Koizumi Mitsuo (56) — of Kitayama, Morioka City — was found to have fallen to his death by a cousin of his in the area around the Oshida river dam, in Hiranuka, Ichinohemachi. This was reported to the Ninohe District Police Department. Police are investigating the case with the probable cause of death as suicide.
The Prefectural Assemblyman posted comments on his blog on June 5 such as “Is this a prison?” when he had been called by number at a prefectural hospital while awaiting a medical examination, and his blog consequently went viral. On June 9 he closed down his blog, and apologised at a press conference, saying “I did something that I cannot make amends for”.
According to the above-mentioned Police Department, the Prefectural Assembly was sharply dressed, and was already cold when it was found.
According to the Prefectural Assembly Office, by June 21 the volume of e-mails asking for the Assembly member’s resignation reached 762 messages. Mr. Koizumi was elected as the representative for the Ninohe electoral district, and this was his first election as an assemblyman.
Comments from Naver Matome:
カマツネ@tsunekama:
This wasn’t something he should have committed suicide over! In a sense, this makes you realise how frightening the internet can be.
まちゃゆ@matyayu:
This wasn’t something to die for, was it?
水瀬海人＠夏季仕様@ark_p_kai:
It was inevitable that the blog post would go viral, but no one wanted him to kill himself.
あきさか なゆた@akisaka_nayuta:
It’s precisely because this guy had nerves of tofu [i.e. he was mentally weak; wobbly like tofu] that he kicked off in the hospital and rather than being embarrassed by his own ignorance he put his his efforts into saving face. If these nerves of tofu, hardened by keeping up appearances, should disintegrate, then the tofu is never going to go back to how it was.
じゃんぽけ@jpsusu:
If the blog going viral was the cause of his suicide, then I guess he must have had a heart of glass.
感謝のくらくしょん@klaxon75:
Oh dear. His nerves were fragile, and on the other side of that there was the blog. Plus there was his pride and so stuff. Anyway, my sincere condolences.
礎@Mr_ishizue:
Rather than his blog trending being the dark side of the internet, wasn’t more damage caused by television and newspapers after it went viral?
深町秋生@ash0966:
I was surprised at this, but when I think about how childishly aggressive he was, boasting about his crime, and how he wasn’t protected, then this was probably one possible outcome.
黄金頭@goldhead:
He was a first term assemblyman, and when he became fodder for the internet and nationwide broadcasts, I guess he just couldn’t see a way out.
Isseki Nagae@Isseki3:
Ah, they were too hard on him…
落合洋司@yjochi:
I don’t think there was any reason for him to die though.
かわぐ@kawa_gu_uso:
Even though his attitude was so arrogant, he was mentally weak…If he was that easily hurt, then why did he write such things…RT @htmk73
ウヒョ助／塚脇永久@uhyoneko:
I guess that this guy was probably already in a weak state when he lost it at the hospital. It’s just like when that lady who’s a manga artist flipped out on a plane before, it’s better to cut people some slack when they get excessively angry at strange things.
パプリカ@papurika_dreams:
This has just reconfirmed that people who are aggressive towards others are also aggressive towards themselves. I’m not justifying what he did, but we should probably treat his excessive complaints as pathological.
匿名希望@Billie_Jean0000:
WTF!? I knew this guy’s blog had gone viral, but I never thought in a million years it would lead to suicide…
コーロ@_5_6:
Oh that assemblyman…Was it internet society that hounded him to the bitter end…?
MASAHIKO HIRONAGA@jpmozart:
I was surprised at such a thing, but there are also examples where police chiefs or school principals have killed themselves because of complaints about misconduct of their staff. Ishihara’s mentor, Nakagawa Ichiro killed himself, as did Arai Shohei. The fact is that old guys are way weaker beings than women…
