Two people have died in Yokohama, Japan, after a teenage girl jumped to her death from a shopping center, striking a pedestrian below. The 17-year-old high school student leapt from a building in a busy shopping area, hitting a 32-year-old woman who was out with friends on Saturday evening.

Both were rushed to the hospital around 6:00 pm local time (09:00 GMT), where the girl succumbed to her injuries an hour later. The woman also died shortly after.

The motive behind the girl’s actions is unclear, though official statistics indicate that more suicides among people under 18 occur on September 1, just before the start of the new school term, than on any other day in Japan. Last year, 513 children took their own lives in the country, with “school problems” being the most commonly cited factor.

Students reluctant to return to school are known as futoko, meaning “people who don’t go to school.” Key reasons for this include family issues, personal conflicts with friends, and bullying, as identified in a survey by the Ministry of Education.

In recent years, authorities and media outlets have sought to raise awareness of the pressures faced by students, particularly around this time of year. For instance, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK has run a campaign on Twitter called “On the Night of August 31.”

This latest tragedy in Yokohama echoes a similar incident in 2020, when a 17-year-old boy jumped from the roof of a shopping center, killing a 19-year-old female student in a crowded Osaka district. The boy was posthumously charged with manslaughter, leading to compensation claims for the victim’s family, though the charge was later dropped.

So far, authorities have not suggested any culpability in the recent Yokohama deaths. While Japan’s overall suicide rate has been declining, it remains a growing concern among the country’s youth. Notably, Japan is the only G7 nation where suicide is the leading cause of death among teenagers.