'Terrace House' star Hana Kimura dies at 22, leaves suicide note
Hana Kimura, a 22-year old professional wrestler and cast of the popular reality show Terrace House, has reportedly killed herself using toxic gas at her house in Tokyo yesterday, May 25.
Hana was found lying on her bed with a plastic bag on her head early Saturday.
The container used to generate toxic gas was discovered nearby, along with several suicide notes found in her room. According to sources, one of the notes was addressed to her mother read, "Thank you for giving birth to me."
Hana Kimura was among the six cast members of Terrace House Tokyo 2019-2020 which garnered a huge following overseas as it is distributed by video streaming site Netflix with English subtitles.
The series, which first aired in 2019, features three women and three men sharing a house in Tokyo. According to the streaming site, the cast members are there to "look for love while living under the same roof" with no scripts involved.
And for the past months, Hana has been the target of hateful messages on social media who criticized her remarks and behavior during the show.
In particular, there was an episode in which she had lost her temper after one of the male cast members shrank one of her expensive wrestling costumes.
After this episode, Hana began receiving tweets such as "Everybody will be happier if you were gone," and "never appear on TV again."
Reports of her death sparked an outpouring of messages from fans and a public outcry against cyberbullying, including tweets from WWE women wrestlers Bayley and Nia Jax.
Bayley wrote, "I didn't personally know Hana Kimura, but it's still very painful to learn about what happened. When it comes to cyberbullying -- don't do it, don't partake in it, and do not respond to it... Stand for something better."
Meanwhile, Nia Jax wrote, "I did not know Hana Kimura, as I am reading all the incredible things said about her, I can tell she left a great impact on this world. It's incredibly tragic that a young woman had to be subjected to such horrific hate from people who didn't even know her."
The broadcasting team behind Terrace House, Fuji Television network Inc., had already stopped shooting the show due to the coronavirus pandemic. Following Kimura's death, the network has released a statement which read: "We are at loss for word upon learning the loss of Hana Kimura and extend our condolence to her family."
Terrace House Tokyo 2019-2020 will resume its airing on May 26 and June 2 on Netflix.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication in Japan, they are discussing ways to simplify procedures to identify individuals who make defamatory posts online. "We will act appropriately based on discussions (of the group)," the government spokesman said.