Japan mourns girl slashed to death by elementary school classmate as

TOKYO -- Police examined e-mails and cell phone messages and investigated reports of a playground dispute in a search Wednesday for the motive behind the killing of a 12-year-old girl who was slashed with a box-cutter by a classmate in southern Japan.

Shocked education officials, meanwhile, called for teachers to review school curriculums emphasizing compassion and respect for human life.

"It is a terrible pity that an incident like this occurred within school grounds. I would like to ask you all to once again take extra measures to ensure an incident like this never happens again," said Yasunao Seki, an official at the Education Ministry, speaking at a meeting convened for school authorities.

Some schools said they would carry out classroom inspections and lock up sharp tools.

"We're taking another look at how to teach the children about the preciousness of human life," said Hidehito Komori, headmaster of an elementary school just north of Tokyo.

On Tuesday, the 11-year-old killer led Satomi Mitarai to an empty classroom during their lunch hour, slit her neck and arms with a box- cutter, and left her to bleed to death.

Mitarai's body was discovered in the third-floor classroom by a teacher after the suspect returned smeared in blood, said principal Eiko Desaki.

An official involved with the investigation, Masanori Nakamura, told reporters the suspect's parents were shocked by their daughter's actions.

"Her parents said they haven't had any trouble raising her, and that her grades were good, she is a reliable kid and tries hard," he said.

Police were investigating the possibility that the killing stemmed from a dispute the two girls had over the Internet.

Local media reports told the story of a friendship between two classmates -- who regularly left notes on each other's home pages and used text messaging -- suddenly going awry.

The daily Asahi Shimbun's Web site quoted the suspect as telling investigators that, "I didn't think what she wrote on the home page was funny, so I called her out (of the classroom). I meant to kill her."

Other students recalled the two girls fighting during a recent school sporting event, Nippon Television Network reported.

The suspect was transferred from police custody to juvenile detention while her case goes to family court. Police did not release her name, in accordance with Japanese legal protections for juvenile offenders.

Parents, teachers and students shaken by the tragedy grieved at Okubo Elementary School, in Sasebo, 650 miles southwest of Tokyo, at a special assembly.

"We're worried about how to take care of children who were traumatized by it," said Junichiro Kamogawa, Sasebo city board of education official.

The murder has appalled Japan, where a dramatic spike in juvenile delinquency and school violence in the past decade has shaken deeply held beliefs that the country is largely immune to the violence of Europe and the United States.

Last July, a 12-year-old boy in Nagasaki -- a city just north of Sasebo -- was accused of kidnapping, molesting and killing a 4-year- old by shoving him off the roof of a car garage.

Three years ago, lawmakers lowered the age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 14 amid public outrage over the beheading of a 10-year-old boy by a 14-year-old in 1997.

According to the National Police Agency, 21,539 children under age 14 were arrested in 2003, up 5.2 percent from the previous year. The number of serious crimes -- murder and robbery -- was still small, however, at 212 cases, although it was a 32 percent increase from the previous year.

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