Ijime
Ijime in general
One of the main forms of student misbehavior is called ijime, or bullying. In the 1996-1997 school yard, some 51,544 incidents were reported from 13,693 public schools, although I could find no figures for private schools. The bullying can be found is some 27% of elementary school classes, over half of the junior high level classes, and 36% of senior high schools, along with 10% of schools for the handicapped. A 1995 study found the that junior highs had a higher rate of ijime then elementary schools or high schools. Overall about one-third of public school students say they have been victims of ijime.
What constitutes bullying is interesting in that it covers a wide range of behaviors. These include verbal threats, ridicule and/or name calling, hiding property, shunning by the group, "silent treatment" by the group, meddling, physical violence and coercion to obtain money.
By general order of frequency they go: ridicule and/or name calling (27.8%); verbal threats (17.3%); physical violence (16.4%); shunning by the group (16.3%); hiding property (7.4%); "silent treatment" by the group (6.1%); misc. (4.3%); coercion to obtain money/food (2.9%); meddling (1.5%).
In the U.S., some of these might not actually be considered bullying; rather, the ones involving physical violence and the threat of it would be, the others would generally be chalked up to "they behave that way at that age" type of thinking.
Some 37.8% of those students who were bullied did not tell anyone, including their parents. 19.3% of the parents who were told complained that the teachers did nothing about it, yet 96% of the teachers said they took concrete steps to end it once informed, establishing that there is a major gap in how the problem is perceived and dealt with.
Usually an individual student is targeted relating to his or her appearance, behavior or some other aspect of their personality. For girls, the targets are generally dress and hairstyle-related.
From An Insider's Guide to The Real Japan (2005)
”Historically, Japan's post-shogunate educational system had been designed to turn out people who had exactly the same store of knowledge, thought alike, and acted alike-all attributes that were enormously beneficial to the pre-1945 military regime that controlled the country, and for the first two-and-a-half decades after 1945, during which the government directed the rebuilding of Japan's war-ravaged economy and society.
”By the early 1970's students had begun to rebel against the system. Some students began refusing to attend school; some began a pattern of violence against fellow students; others began to attack their teachers while still others began destroying school property.
”During the rest of the 1980s and continuing on into the 1990s, a new element was introduced into Japanese schools that dramatically increased the volume and vehemence of ijime. This was the return to Japan of thousands of school-age children who had been overseas with their parents and educated abroad up to that point.
”All of them had developed foreign behavioral patterns that made them stand out like sore thumbs.
”In a shocking number of cases, the teachers of these children resented them and treated them badly.. In virtually every case, there were stay-at0-home students, both male and female, who took their resentment of the de-Japanized students to extremes, harassing and tormenting them endlessly.
”Finally, in 1998 the problem was taken up in the National Diet. Then Prime Ministers Ryutaro Hashimoto likened the country's schools to battlefields, and called for reforms that would end the mind-numbing competitive exams students are required to take.
”...each year well over 100,000 young people refuse to go to school out of fear.”
Although ijime is a problem, the actual numbers have been gone down since the 1980's.
"According to the Ministry of Education figures there are typically around 200 incidents of bullying reported each day in the 1990's, less than half the rate of the 1980's." Dimensions of Japanese Society: Gender, Margins and Mainstream, 1999
Forms of ijime
The forms of ijime include the following: (taken from The Japanese Self in Cultural Logic by takie Sugiyama Lebra, 2004)
1. Stealing, robbery and extortion. This can include stealing school supplies and even the student's lunch, or forcing the student to give the offender money.
2. Concealment and destruction of property. This can include hiding and/or destroying the student's school possessions and even clothes (for example, students have an extra pair of shoes at school they change into when they get there.) The student's desk might be moved or damaged, along with their books, notebooks, etc. Examples of this will even turn up in manga (such as Boys Over Flowers)
3. Bodily violence. This is just what it says, students being attacked physically.
4. Slavery. The victim can be forced to run errands for the abuser.
5. Social abuse from humiliation to isolation. This can be verbal or written forms of abuse, can include some forms of sexual harassment, and can also result in social isolation, something which would be even more important in Japan with its emphasis on the group then in the U.S. with its emphasis on individualism.
None of these, of course, are limited to Japan, and forms of bullying happen in the U.S., also, showing many of the same forms of behavior by the abusers.
One of the unsettling aspects is the reaction of officialdom to the abuse. Again, from The Japanese Self in Cultural Logic, :
"The homeroom teacher, when she (or he) finds ijime going on in her class (some victims do tell her), may suppress the information to protect the reputation of her class and herself; the school's top administration may also deny that ijime is taking place in the school."
From 1992 to 1996 the number of arrests in relation to bullying fluctuated. In 992 there were 322 persons involved in 105 incidents; both figures went down in 1993, then increased slightly in 1994. The figures took a jump, though, in 1995 when they went from 103 incidents in 1994 to 160 incidents, and from 372 persons to 534 persons detained or arrested. Interestingly enough, the number of incidents was almost exactly the same in 1996 (162), but the number of arrests declined to some 426.
By comparison, a 2003 study by the American Medical Association states that some 100,000 students miss school in the U.S. because they are afraid to show up. A 2001 study showed that, again in the U.S., about one-third of students in grades 6 through 10 were either classified as bullies or were victims of bullies.
"The details also suggest some differences between the two countries, however. The biggest difference is the accessibility American youths have to firearms-possibly an ultimate symbol of manhood-which allows the victim of abuse to vent his rage instantaneously and at a physical remove, with devastating consequences. A similar and instantaneous attack on collective targets would be out of the question for a Japanese avenger, who would have little more at his (or her) disposal than a knife or metal baseball bat." The Japanese Self in Cultural Logic
"In 1994 there were, according to Management and Coordination Agenfy figures, 396 reported cases of violence against teachers by junior high students and 124 by senior high students. ... By contrast, the National Education Association of American estimates that every day 100,000 students carry a gun to class, and every day 6,250 teachers are threatened with violence and 260 are actually injured. That is, in a mere two days in America there are more incidents of pupil violence against teachers than in an entire year in Japan." Dimensions of Japanese Society: Gender, Margins and Mainstream, 1999
The type of bullying is also much more violent in the U.S. and can also be sexual in nature. There is also the fact that guns are available to the kids and there are incidents like the Columbine shooting. So, although Japan still has a problem with bullying, their form of bullying is different from that experienced by American students in their schools.
Reaction to ijime
One of the expected reactions to ijime, on the part of some students, is a growing fear of going to school, resulting in what is called "school phobia." Students will miss school for a short time, perhaps a few days, or just plain stop going to school altogether.
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