Japan: frequent forms of bullying among students 2022

Schools in Japan reported close to 682 thousand bullying incidents among the student body in the academic year 2022, of which the majority of cases, over 57 percent, involved verbal abuse like threatening or insulting the victim. Following the enactment of the anti-bullying legislation in 2013, the government required schools to implement measures to identify bullying at an early stage and report even minor cases, such as teasing.

Why is bullying so prevalent in Japan?

“The nail that sticks out gets hammered down” is a well-known Japanese proverb. Standing out can be a difficult path to navigate, especially at a young age. Japan, a culture infamous for their quest for conformity, struggles with an upwards trend of bullying behavior across all school levels. Discrimination as well as physical and mental abuse among students is becoming a growing concern to school authorities and parents alike. Being different, and therefore being at a higher risk of being singled out and bullied, not only refers to deficits in appearance, behavior, or performance, but equally to children, who attract (unwanted) attention due to overachievement, unique talents, or exceptional looks. Opening up about their torment can be an almost unfeasible task for the victims, since the sense of not wanting to burden someone else with one's own problems appears to be deeply engrained into Japanese society.

Measures to prevent bullying in Japanese schools

Several cases of bullying among children made headlines due to them leading to fatal consequences. Despite only a small share of juvenile suicides being officially attributed to bullying, it can be assumed that dark figures are much higher, considering that the reasons behind most suicides stay unclear. With not only bullying, but also suicide numbers among students rising over the last years, authorities started to implement a variety of measures to counteract harassment at schools. Common practices include informative staff meetings, raising awareness of bullying among the student body, and improving consultation systems. Recent efforts evolve around the usage of artificial intelligence (AI) to establish early warning systems for cases with a potentially severe outcome and to support information exchange across the teaching staff.

Most common forms of bullying behavior among students in Japan in academic year 2022

Characteristic	Share of cases
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Release date

October 2023

More information

Region

Japan

Survey time period

academic year 2022; the Japanese academic year starts on April 1 of the stated year and ends on March 31 of the following year

Supplementary notes

Including elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and special needs schools.

Figures reflect the number of cases in which the victim perceived an act as bullying. The source defines "bullying" as the act of a student inflicting psychological or physical harm on another student enrolled at the same school. The act of bullying can happen inside or outside of school, which includes bullying over the internet as well.

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