dorami23 comments

Besides which, in my parents school days they had more to fear from the nuns and monks teaching them than their fellow students. Some of the stories they told me would pin your ears back.

what can they do besides hope it will go away?

That's precisely the tactic that Canadian teachers use, especially if they don't feel too warmly toward the student being harassed. Bullying doesn't always manifest as fighting, it is a daily torment and often quietly done. Just because your schools in particular were a beacon of justice doesn't make them the rule. There were a number of suicides among my peers when I was in school, the reasons were often never discovered and honestly if bullying was cited as a reason, there is no precedent to prosecute parties responsible anyway. Too subjective, difficult to prove beyone a shadow of a doubt. I don't know if it's a Catholic problem or not, but in my experience with them (extensive, I assure you) they love nothing more than to ignore problems they are not inclined to care about. Let's not pretend that all adults are responsible and caring.

The DIFFERENCE is in how it is tolerated, and that's where Japan outweighs other nations in terms of failure.

You must be joking. I don't know about these days because it's been years since I've been in school, but in my day it was overlooked more often than not. Teachers would blame the bullying on the victims because they didn't try hard enough to be like eveyone else, especially in the Catholic system. In fact, the kind of bullying that goes on in those schools is so disturbing and most people in authority could care less, and often contribute to it thereby making it worse...I find it interesting that many people who leave their country for Japan are so ready to forget the bad they left behind and are so willing and eager to to point out the bad they find here. There is no such place as a utopia on this planet. Where you find humans, you will find atrocity plain and simple.