Japan has one of the "Developed World's" highest suicide rates

Ijime: A Social Illness of Japan,

by Akiko Dogakinai

Bullying is a common problem in every generation and every country. In Japan, it is a fairly serious social phenomenon. Actually, the amount of ijime, which means bullying in Japanese, has been decreasing; however, the bullying is getting much more sinister than before. Five years ago, it was top news for the whole year after Kiyoteru Okochi, a 13-year-old junior high school student, committed suicide to escape from being bullied by his classmates.

He left his note that proved and clarified the fact that he was suffering from cruel bullying. He was often forced to soak his face into a dirty river, his bicycle was broken repeatedly and his classmates even demanded that he bring money to them every day. The amount of money that he gave to the bullies reached about ten thousand dollars (Fredman, 1995).

This was not the first time that students committed suicide because of bullying. But it was the first time that Japanese media gave a lot of coverage to the matter of ijime. After that, bullying became one of the most serious subjects in Japan. People wondered why his classmates had bullied him and why he was bullied. There are many possible answers, but none of the causes is simple.

Japan has one of the developed world's highest suicide rates.

At least 30,000 people have killed themselves every year since 1998, according to national statistics. Police said the teenager mixed detergent with a liquid cleanser to make hydrogen sulphide. The gas is colourless but smells like rotten eggs and is highly toxic, leading to suffocation or brain damage.

Dewey's Idea of Sympathy and the Development of the Ethical Self:
A Japanese Perspective

Naoko Saito
University of Tokyo

Introduction: The Closeness Vs. Closedness Tension of a Community

In contemporary American society, political philosophers and educators are currently discussing the importance of community and group bonds.^[1] Their common, basic claim is usually that the creation and definition of the self requires a communal relationship. However, close community bonds always involve the danger of exclusiveness and parochialism, the suppression of individuality, or what I will call "closedness." An example is found in contemporary Japanese education. The development of individuality is one of the main officially stated goals of Japanese education today. However, the school-bully problem shows how difficult it is to maintain one's individuality within the close, intense bonds of a group. This example from Japan challenges American proponents of community who emphasize group cohesiveness over individuality. Is it possible to resolve the tension between the closeness and closedness of a community? How could anyone emphasize close bonds of community while valuing individuality and openness?

References:
Fredman, Lauren. (1995, March). Bullied to death in japan (teenagers' suicides). World Press Review, 42, 25. AvailableInfoTrak SearchBank / A16812378 [Reprinted December 26,1994]

Sakamaki, Sachiko. (1996, February). Fates worse than death. Far Eastern Economic Review, 159, 38-40.

[1] Robert Putnam, "The Prosperous Community, "American Prospect (Spring 1993): 35-42; Michael J. Sandel, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982); Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990)