Hana Kimura, Professional Wrestler And Terrace House Cast Member, Has Passed Away At 22

Hana Kimura, Japanese professional wrestler and cast member of the Japanese reality television show Terrace House, has passed away. She was 22 years old.

The news was announced by Stardom, the company she wrestled with, on Saturday.

Stardom fans,

We are very sorry to report that our Hana Kimura has passed away.

Please be respectful and allow some time for things to process, and keep your thoughts and prayers with her family and friends.

We appreciate your support during this difficult time.

— We Are Stardom (@we_are_stardom) May 23, 2020

While there was no official cause of death given at the time, it was widely understood that Kimura took her own life after receiving intense cyberbullying. She had posted several "goodbye" messages on social media, including a tweet on the day of her death which read, "Every day, I receive nearly 100 honest opinions and I cannot deny that I get hurt." She also wrote: "Thank you for giving birth to me, Mom. I wanted to be loved in life." It was later revealed that Kimura had passed away in her apartment from intentional toxic gas inhalation, and several suicide notes were discovered at the scene.

Kimura had been a cast member on Terrace House for much of the Tokyo 2019-20 season, and had reportedly received hate after recent episodes which had yet to air in the United States Terrace House showed her in a negative light. In one scene, she lost her temper at a male housemate after he had accidentally shrunk her wrestling costume in the washing machine.

Kimura's passing led to an outpouring of mourning from both the professional wrestling and Terrace House communities, as well as anger at the culture of cyberbullying that permeates both fandoms. Many of professional wrestling's biggest names voiced their grief and anger over the passing of Kimura, including stars Kevin Owens and Ronda Rousey. Terrace House cast members and commentators have voiced similar thoughts on their own social media plaforms. Reinda Treindl, one of the show's commentators, wrote on Instagram, "The death of Hana Kimura is a real tragedy and as a member of the Terrace House team I sincerely wonder whether I could have done more to better protect Hana in some way."

Netflix has postponed the U.S. release of the latest batch of episodes of Terrace House in light of Kimura's death. Her death has also stirred several Japanese politicians to call for legal actions to prevent cyberbullying. Communications minister Sanae Takaichi said earlier this morning that Japan is considering bolstering countermeasures against cyber-bullying, revising a current law to make it easier to identify people making hateful comments online.