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.


I swear to god the only thing I can say about this is holy shit.

Haha, those silly japanese and their constant obsessions over grades, education, and work!

Wow, thats sad but wierd. Jap or not that kids just crazy! Too bad the siblings had to get caught in it. That grade better have been a 40% or bellow take some lives over.

Edited by saiyanprince5 on June 28, 2006 at 23:48:59.

Well hey, at least nobody cares about his grades, right? I mean, wasn't that the plan?

>_>

So, actually, we can say he succeeded. >_>

Well, it could've been worse... he could've burned down all houses in the street.

Well his father could have put him under extreme pressure but that's not good.

I do okay to horrible in English (lowest I got was a C; lowest test grade was an F) and yet my parents really don't care all that much. I mean they will if I get a D or F, but ya, on my report card. Tests or just something that either improves or drops your grade. It's not like it's the final one or anything.

Actually I have failed a few English tests (that lady graded WAY to out of line) but my parents just encouraged me to do better.

My parents don't tell me to study, they only tell me to do better. Which I do so I can make them happy. =) But if this kid's dad was obsessing over it, maybe that was the wrong way for him to go. He's just going to stress the child out, and in this case, he did.

That stress led to destruction, althought the kid did go to an extreme.

They should have done the American thing, and just sued the school for giving the kid bad grades.

Post redacted

Wow, I wouldn't expect this from a Japanese kid. American, yes. Actually, I wouldn't expect this in pretty much any major developed nation other than America.

Anyways, I'd say this kid either had some personality or mental disorders or his father was way too overbearing. For all we know he could have been one of those messed up dads who screams and berates a kid for getting 90% instead of 100%. That would be enough to make a lot of people freak out if they had lied about a test score and they were about to be found out.

It's not all that surprising. Good grades are pretty important in their culture. In fact, I once read in the news that some mothers would give their sons blowjobs in exchange for them getting A's. That's just how important the whole thing is to them.

Is it so surprising that for all the bells and whistles of technology, Japan has a dark side?

So, let's see, he was worried that his father was going to give him crap about the grades.

When NOW he's gonna give them crap about setting their house on fire and killing their family.

Either way, he's f***ed.

-o- OH NO I GOT 99 ON MY LANGUAGE EXAM I WILL NOT HAVE RAMEN FOR A WEEK

Man, I wish I had those crazy ideas when I was young...no need to show how badly I failed all those math tests :x

Well, Japanese students ARE put under a lot of pressure in general to get good grades. Added pressure from his father, say more than is normal, would put a lot of stress on the kid. He probably snapped and did what he did. Mind obviously wasn't clear and logical when he did it, but as I said... He probably snapped.

Poor kids, their parents should be less strict. ]:>

No, you just live by my crazy, drunken Canadian cousins who run over their own lawn chairs. Good luck avoiding them. =)

Only Narutards eat ramen.

Don't forget broke college kids.

And my dog, apparently. She has a taste for uncooked ramen blocks. Aurgh.

Or Any fanboy.

I get mad about bad grade and that shit, but I just rock on my guitar, not burn my house down.

I really don't see why there's so much ramen-hating going on.

Nahh Doc I was just kidding. Well if it were a 30%, now thats a different story.

Don't look at me. I was just capitalizing on a stereotype for the sake of humor. ^o^

Naw man, I could never be angry at you, we're like *brothers* man.

*glares at Sage for absolutely no reason at all*

I dunno. Ramen can be tasty.

...though, I started eating ramen before I ever saw Naruto. I don't really like the broth or water with the ramen. XP All I do is just cook the noodles and drain the water and eat it with soy sauce.

...or I'll cook meat and vegetables to go with the noodles. :D;

Man, I feel bad for him....

XD Same here. I drain the water out and either eat it that way or with some meat. =D

I used to just call Ramen, 3-minute noodles. I was eating it as a little kid. Some years ago, I kind of went over board eating it though and got sick of it, so I haven't eaten it very much since. This was all well before Naruto was even started. Ramen is good because it's cheap and filling. Also, you can apparently mix it with anything. My personal preference is to drain most the water out and mix in the seasonings (Mushroom is my favorite flavor; I used to completely drain the water but that was when I was too young to have any sense of what actually tasted good; this is further evidenced by other choices of foods I thought were great).

Because ramen is soggy, nasty noodles.
Hell, it's even supposed to have two A's in it.
And Narutards eat it all the time.

So I don't like it.