national

Reported school bullying cases hit record high 414,378 in Japan

15 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© KYODO

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

15 Comments
Login to comment

Quite easy to imagine that in reality the number is probably closer to double than what has been reported here.

The pendulum swings wildly from one side to the other on issues like this. First nothing, ignoring it, and then going overboard that even the slightest thing gets called out as bullying.

A classmate refuses to talk with another boy or girl, that boy or girl runs home to Mommy and say's "Mommy Taro won't talk to me"....BAM...Taro is labeled a bully! (Yeah sometimes it gets that bad)

About a quarter of the surveyed schools said they had not identified a single case of bullying in the year.

Educating and training the educators to understand and identify is one thing, ACKNOWLEDGING there is a problem is another.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

The number of serious bullying cases resulting in students suffering severe physical and mental injuries rose to 474

I'd like some people to really think about this sentence before dismissing the problem with "kids will be kids" or "kids can be cruel".

Bullying is not the same thing as teasing, and can have life-long effect. These 474 children may take this trauma all the way to adulthood.

I'm glad to see it more reported, but more than 400,000 cases, damn... That's a plague.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

That’s just school, wait till they get a job!

6 ( +7 / -1 )

The real number is far higher than that. School is not a happy place for many students - especially junior high. One of the main problems is that teachers do not call out bad behavior early on, they will literally ignore something right in front of them and pretend it's a 'joke' (haha), when there clearly should have been words calling out bad behavior.

If a student complains about another student/s' behavior, in true Japanese style the victim will often, paradoxically, be singled out themselves as 'the problem'.

Of course, the pendulum might suddenly swing as Yubaru says, and the teacher might go postal at times. No early guidance, no balance.

I have seen kids sobbing through almost an entire lesson after something happened to them, only to be completely ignored by the teacher - on more than one occasion. When I asked the teacher why didn't they didn't help that kid out, the answer was that they 'didn't know'. Funny, because the entire class knew...

8 ( +9 / -1 )

How many of these cases were committed by teachers? Verbal abuse and ridicule are not discipline. They are bullying.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

It's a cultural epidemic. Where does the buck stop? At the top of every organization, small and big, NGO and corporate, education, and...ooh, heaven forbid, home. Sometimes I think it's the genes. But, in reality, it's about growing up, not old, and not worrying about being cut from the same cloth. Individualism begets wisdom.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Taken from the article above and ON POINT!

while 10 of the 250 students who committed suicide during the reporting year had been bullied at school...

Again, this number is so far under-reported and the problem glazed over that it's beyond belief! This snippet below taken from an article that I will link to.

"Since 2014, suicide has become Japan’s leading cause of death in children aged 10-19..."

Just stop and take that in for a minute.

There are some acute problems affecting Japan's youth and most of this stems from the culture and experiences at schools. Needless to say, the attitudes formed and traumas suffered as a child then extend into adult life. But with a culture that looks the other way and refuses to face these massive and ever-growing problems, or even talk about them, what hope is there for society in general?

Those efforts are instead placed into maintaining Japan's facade to the outside world. Photo-ops, propaganda, tatemae and the "shouganai" and apologist attitudes.

There is no way I would ever raise a child in Japan.

https://www.humanium.org/en/child-suicide-in-japan-the-leading-cause-of-death-in-children/

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Government doing nothing but collecting figures, how about addressing the issue.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Teachers, who are in the best position to know about it, either do nothing or contribute to the problem by bullying themselves. And the bullies themselves know the chances of getting caught are minimal, and of being disciplined for it even less. Alas, because of the culture of "gammon," it's ingrained behavior in Japan and may never be entirely eradicated.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Sorry, I wrote gaman but the spelling correcter beat me to the punch!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Adults must teach children to use their voices and bear witness.

Those in a position of authority over children must use their powers of observation and protect victims of bullying, even if the bullied child doesn't speak up.

Unfortunately, in my school, some of the teachers were the worst bullies.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Bullying is part of the fabric of Japanese culture... it goes on in school and the workplace, and happens to people that are viewed as weak or who don't conform to the silly cultural rules that permeate every single aspect of Japanese life. No wonder the government take no action, its part and parcel of life here.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Cyber bullying is a big thing worldwide now too. Kids need to toughen up, to sensitive, with all the PC culture going on..

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites