On the morning of March 21, 17-year-old Ayano Iguchi was walking through Niigata City on her way to Niigata Higashi High School to attend class.

Part of her on-foot commute takes her over the Agano River, at a point near its mouth where the water runs deep. While Iguchi made her way across the bridge, she noticed a man stopped at the railing, staring down at the water far below.

The man already had one foot up on the lower part of the rail, and as Ayano approached he glanced back at her a few times. Then he suddenly swung his legs over the rail, with nothing any longer between the man and the drop. “If I don’t do something as fast as I can, he’s going to jump, and die,” Iguchi thought. Sprinting over to where the man was, she reached her arms through the railing to hold him in place, while frantically telling him not to throw his life away. ...continue reading