School Bullying Remains A Major Issue In Japan, Taiwan

Japan last year recorded over 600,000 cases of bullying at schools across the country.

The number was almost 70,000 up from a year before according to a survey released by the nation’s Ministry of Education yesterday.

The survey had been sent to all the public and private elementary, junior high and high schools in Japan, in addition to all special education schools for those with disabilities.

Over 82% of schools identified at least one case of bullying according to the report.

These included 723 cases deemed “serious” by the ministry in which those affected suffered severe physical or psychological trauma – an increase of 20% from a year earlier.

The overall increase in numbers was said to be a result of increased efforts by teachers to work towards identifying cases of bullying rather than an increase in bullying itself according to reports from Japan.

In the most extreme cases, 10 suicides were directly linked to bullying but over 300 students across Japan killed themselves in 2019.

Broken down, elementary schools, had 484,545 cases of bullying compared 106,524 cases at junior high, and 18,352 cases at high schools.

Special education schools recorded 3,075 cases.

In Taiwan meanwhile, a report in April of 2019 revealed that 30.58% of school age children have either been victims of bullying or have seen it taking place.

In a survey carried out by the Taiwan International Association for Advancement of Children Rights, 59% of the 1,205 individuals responding to the survey attributed the bullying to a victim’s personality and that 13% of those responding were themselves victims.

Unfortunately the survey determined that up to 70% of those seeing bullying take place choose to ignore it or otherwise do not know how to respond.