Record Number of School Bullying Cases Includes Abusive Remarks and a Shocking Background Report
Nonfiction writer Kota Ishii takes a close look at the society and incidents that are looming! Shocking Report
In Japan’s elementary, junior high, and high schools, the number of recognized bullying cases has reached an all-time high. According to national statistics for fiscal year 2022, the number of cases, including those from special needs schools, rose by 10.8% compared to the previous year, reaching 681,948 cases.
Over the years, Japanese schools have implemented various measures to prevent bullying. These include educational lessons on bullying, as well as coordinated efforts between teachers and parents to monitor and protect children—efforts that are far more extensive than those of decades ago.
Despite this, the number of recognized bullying cases continues to surge, even as the number of children decreases. The reason for this lies in the evolving nature of bullying itself.
Shinchosha recently published the book “Rupo Sumaho Ikuji ga Kodomo o Kowasu” (Report: Smartphone Parenting is Destroying Children). It is a non-fiction work that involved interviews with over 200 educators, revealing the impact modern society is having on children. Let’s explore modern-day bullying through insights from this book.
In the past, bullying typically involved a large group of children targeting one or two specific individuals.
For example, a group of 5 to 10 delinquent kids might use violence against one child, forcing them to run errands for the group, or all the girls in a class might collectively ignore a single student.
Of course, this kind of bullying still exists today.
Typical ‘’Systemic Bullying’’
However, overt forms of bullying have decreased compared to the past, with more incidents now occurring covertly online. For example, direct violence has shifted to verbal abuse on social media, and exclusion in classrooms has changed to being removed from group chats on LINE.
A representative example of a new form of bullying is “status message bullying.” Today’s children are well aware that blatant verbal abuse will be recognized as bullying and receive strict intervention. Consequently, if a child falls during a sports day, they might deliberately post a status message on their SNS saying something like, “If I fall like a doll, I’ll be too embarrassed to go to school.” Although teachers and parents may not see it, classmates connected on SNS will understand the message and secretly enjoy the situation.
However, teachers interviewed for this book pointed out another form of bullying that has increased. A teacher from a junior high school in Tokyo explains:
“What is characteristic of our students is bullying that stems from communication breakdown. Due to the pandemic, children’s communication skills have remarkably declined in recent years. As a result, they struggle with interacting with friends and engaging in normal conversation, leading to an increase in senselessly hurting others.”
In this teacher’s class, a student named A reportedly felt sick and vomited during lunch. When other students saw this, they simultaneously began saying things like “Gross,” “Smelly,” and “Disgusting.” Hearing this, A felt they were being verbally abused by classmates and became unable to attend school.
The teacher says:
“If the surrounding students had good communication skills, they wouldn’t use such harsh words typical of elementary school children. However, those without such skills recklessly spew out the rude language that circulates online. When there is a minor disagreement, they might say things like ‘Get lost, scum,’ or if someone makes a small mistake, they might call them ‘Disgusting, trash.’ They cannot imagine how their words affect the other person.
The same goes for those on the receiving end. With poor communication skills, they cannot brush off such remarks and take them to heart. As a result, they get deeply hurt, unable to recover, and end up not being able to come to school. Nowadays, there are many cases of unnecessary bullying like this.”
Children who are less mature tend to prefer using harsh language that circulates online. They do not consider how much it might hurt others.
Such issues could be avoided if children were able to communicate with proper language.
Additionally, it seems that bullying related to exams increases as the examination period approaches.
In particular, in elementary schools in the Tokyo metropolitan area, the “third wave of middle school entrance exam boom” has emerged, making it common for 70-80% of students in urban areas to take these exams. In such schools, social status is determined by the name of the cram school and the scores on academic tests, and those who do not take the exams become minorities.
In these schools, the following situations are reported:
- Children rank their own level based on the “cram school they attend,” the “class in the cram school,” and their “desired school.” For instance, a child attending a prestigious cram school A might say, “That kid goes to BODY cram school, so they’re worthless,” or highlight the difference by saying, “I’m in A class, but that kid is in C class.”
- Because cram schools and parents tell children that “whether you work hard now will determine your life” and “this is where the winners and losers are decided,” children come to believe this and say things like, “Your life is over” to those who do not take the exams.
- Parents evaluate each other’s children based on the cram school they attend and test scores, discussing things like, “That child is excellent because they’re from A cram school,” and “That child is a dropout who gave up on exams.” Children overhear these discussions and repeat the same things at school.
In this environment, not only the children but also the parents are competing for status, leading to a hierarchy among children. Those in lower social strata experience increased difficulties and a sense of alienation.
“It’s okay because it went viral.”
A teacher from an elementary school in Tokyo says:
“Recently, by fifth grade, conversations during recess are all about exams. The students who are taking exams talk about things like ‘If I fail the entrance exam and have to go to a public school, my life will be over’ or ‘That kid is amazing because they’re taking the exam for XX school.’ Students who are not taking the exams or who are struggling with their grades hear this and start thinking that studying at school is meaningless or that their own lives are over. It’s really sad.”
In the midst of this competitive atmosphere, some children end up unable to come to school.
What has been newly revealed in the research for this book is that there is also unconscious bullying resulting from changes in children’s values.
For example, at another middle school, students were asked to give speeches during class. Each student chose their own topic and spoke in front of the class.
When it was a certain boy’s turn, he mimicked the accent of a Nepalese girl in the class while giving his speech. He spoke in Japanese with a Nepalese accent, which made the entire class burst into laughter. The Nepalese girl was shocked and began to cry.
When the teacher scolded him for this, the boy responded:.
“It’s okay because it went viral. What’s wrong with that?”
He perceived making classmates laugh as “going viral” and believed anything was acceptable to achieve that. Thus, he couldn’t understand why the teacher was scolding him.
The teacher explained, “Even if you get laughs, if your actions hurt someone, it’s not acceptable.” However, not only the boy but also other classmates argued, “It’s okay because it went viral.”
The teacher commented:
“In the world of social media that children use daily, going viral is considered a great thing. Therefore, even extreme jokes are often tolerated. But that’s not the case in the real world. If children can’t distinguish between the two, they might engage in behavior that’s unacceptable in real life, leading to increased cases of hurting others.”
The ethics of the internet and those of the real world are different. If children cannot distinguish between them, such troubles are bound to occur.
For more details on why such issues are happening among children, refer to this book.
It’s important to consider that not only bullying but also the number of violent incidents in schools is at an all-time high. In the next section, “Part 2: School Violence 2.8 Times Higher Than 20 Years Ago Due to Minor Issues Dramatic Increase in Elementary Schools” we will explore what kinds of violence are occurring in schools.
Reporting and writing： Kota Ishii
Born in Tokyo in 1977. Nonfiction writer. He has reported and written about culture, history, and medicine in Japan and abroad. His books include "Absolute Poverty," "The Body," "The House of 'Demons'," "43 Killing Intent," "Let's Talk about Real Poverty," "Social Map of Disparity and Division," and "Reporto: Who Kills the Japanese Language?
