No More Bullying (Part 1)

Small matters cause bullying but have long-term consequences

Tomo, 38, is a man who maintains a website where children can share their experiences of being bullied and receive guidance. Tomo himself was a victim of bullying when he was in junior high school.

On the website, he recalls the days he was bullied while in his first year of junior high. The bullying began with insults about his physical appearance and gradually escalated from there. He found a pile of chalk dust on his desk and the word "die" written on his desk and on the wall. Once he was forced to take off his clothes and other children threw around his underwear.

Looking back on these incidents, Tomo told us about the trauma he still feels: "Being bullied made me lose confidence in myself and put distance between me and others. The effects of being bullied still remain even now."

Tomo launched his website in 2001. He first created it just for himself, but after he showed it to a close friend, he began to consider sharing his story with others and so he made the website accessible to all. He says that there were few websites sharing the experience of bullying at the time, so he decided to offer his account.

However, facing the pain of his past was difficult. Tomo told us: "To truthfully tell my story with the details I was afraid to let other people know about, I had to numb my feelings to write everything."

He offers advice to children through the site's bulletin board. For instance, in responding to a boy in his third year of junior high who now stays at home as a result of bullying, Tomo first showed sympathy based on his own experience. He then encouraged the boy with the words: "By facing yourself and your suffering, you will grow into a stronger person."

Tomo offers this advice to children: "Don't feel ashamed of being bullied and be sure to tell someone." He also hopes that others around the victims of bullying will understand their feelings and not overlook the signs of their pain.

(Shiori Kusuo, 16)

Yumiko Shibata, 14, was a junior high school student who lived in the city of Nagoya. In 2003, she committed suicide by jumping from the high floor of a condominium. Her parents suspected that bullying was behind Yumiko's death and they took the case to court to learn the truth.

Yumiko left a suicide note, which said: "I want to die because I'm so tired, mentally and physically. The biggest reason is A (a classmate's name). I can't stand her. To my teachers, this is the best way to put an end to this problem. Please understand."

According to her father, Yoji, 47, Yumiko was taunted by some classmates, who called her such things as "disgusting," and they would lie in wait in the bathroom to prevent her from using it.

On the day Yumiko committed suicide, Yoji heard about the bullying from one of Yumiko's classmates and he demanded that the school investigate. However, the school's conclusion apparently came without adequately interviewing her classmates. So Yumiko's parents carried out their own investigation and learned more of the facts behind the bullying. The school has never apologized for the incident.

Yoji told us: "Children hold everything inside because they don't want to worry their parents." In such cases it can be hard for parents to pick up on bullying. Therefore, he says, it's important that teachers are attentive to the daily atmosphere at school and classes need to discuss the issue of bullying seriously.

(Yusuke Suemoto, 13)

Shinji Kurihara, 49, is a professor at Hiroshima University and an expert on education. We spoke to him about the problem of bullying today. According to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, in fiscal year 2007, schools reported about 101,000 cases of bullying in Japan. These cases, though, were the ones schools were able to confirm so Professor Kurihara presumes that bullying is actually more pervasive.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology defines bullying as the emotional pain felt by children as a result of psychological or physical attack from someone with whom they have a relationship. Approximately 90% of bullying cases involve friends of the same grade. The largest proportion of bullying occurs in the first year of junior high school.

Professor Kurihara explains that "Everyone can be a bully and or be bullied." For example, in many cases, children become targets of bullying because they are somehow different from others, like a transfer student or a student who wears fashionable clothes.

Bullying can be classified into two types: physical attack, such as a fight, and psychological attack with words. Physical bullying is more common with boys and psychological bullying occurs more often with girls. The children who experience serious bullying are sometimes haunted by life-long distress.

The spread of cell phones among children has led to bullying on the Internet. On so-called "underground school websites," which children can access using their cell phones, they write insulting comments about others and even post video of bullying scenes. Finding the people responsible is difficult.

As a measure to prevent bullying, schools often carry out surveys of the students. However, Professor Kurihara emphasizes the importance of building relationships among the students to combat this problem.

"Friends bully another friend, and other friends ignore the bullying," Professor Kurihara says. Bullying usually occurs during break times at school or after school when teachers aren't in the classroom. Therefore, the students themselves must have the courage to stop incidents of bullying.

Professor Kurihara says that Japanese children seldom raise their voices when they witness bullying. A study that compared elementary and junior high school students from the Japan, the U.K. and the Netherlands showed that only the Japanese children became less likely to take action in regard to bullying as they got older. In the other two countries, however, the proportion of students willing to step in during such incidents actually increases once they reach their second or third year of junior high.

To build relationships among students, Professor Kurihara suggests employing "peer support."

Peer support began in Canada, in the late 1970s, and came to Japan about a decade ago. Through play and discussion, students learn to consider their peers' feelings and show compassion for them.

"If you can't speak up to stop bullying by yourself," says Professor Kurihara, "you can do it with other friends by your side. It's important to bring up children who are capable of helping their friends.

(Masashi Muro, 17 and Sachiko Kitayama, 13)