Japanese high school kendo coach caught forcing students to pay birthday-tribute money

Typically, students are encouraged to report bullying to the adults, but what do you do when the adult is the bully?

Extracurricular activities are common, if not sometimes mandatory, in Japan for middle school and high school students. Whether it’s getting some exercise or pursuing something one is personally interested in, club time should ideally be fun and engaging. However, for one kendo club, participating students were forced to cough up money for their coach’s birthday.

▼ No mercy on those who choose to pick on the elderly or the kids.

Supervising a kendo club in Ehime Prefecture’s Ozu city, the 61-year-old individual was recently caught by school authorities for making all 29 members pay 5,000 yen (US$48)  each in tribute for his birthday. In total, he pocketed 145,000 yen from the poor students. And while this event itself is horrifying, the extortion didn’t end there.

Since 2009, the offending coach has demanded money from high school students to celebrate his birthday six times. Students who didn’t pay were excluded from participating in kendo competitions whereas students who paid more money than was demanded were treated favorably. and if the total amount of money collected was not to the coach’s liking, he would rebuke the club captain as a show of aggression.

Netizens quickly took to Twitter to express their shock and disgust at the man’s horrendous behavior:

“Wow, his heart must be strong… to not die from the shame of extorting students for money.”
“Soooo is he gonna get arrested or not?”
“Like a high school bully shaking down the pockets of his kouhai…”

Thankfully, the school has already dismissed the coach as of April 16 though it’s unknown whether he will be pursued with further charges or be even arrested. Hopefully he never supervises youngsters again and the affected students receive a new and much kinder coach in the near future for an amazing form of martial arts.

Source: YouTube/ANNnewsCH via Livedoor News/Abema Times via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Wikipedia/Lionel Rigal
Insert images: Pakutaso, SoraNews24
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