On the 5th, Ozu Town in Kumamoto Prefecture announced that a female junior high school student who had drowned in a pool while visiting the Midwestern US state of Nebraska as part of an international exchange program organized by the town and was in critical condition and unconscious had died in the early hours of the 4th local time (afternoon of the same day in Japan time). Water had gotten into her lungs and she was unable to breathe on her own, and she was receiving treatment in the intensive care unit.

A town official said, “We express our condolences to the student who passed away.”

The international exchange program was attended by 10 junior and senior high school students from the town, along with town officials. After a junior high school girl drowned and was taken to the hospital on July 31 local time, the town suspended the program and sent the participants back home.