| MercatorNet | May 16, 2017 |
Bullying and youth suicide in Japan
Why is the Japanese rate of youth suicide stubbornly high?
As a follow-up to last week’s demographic update from Japan, I would like to share with you today a sobering story about teen suicides from that country. According to this Reuters story, Japanese teen suicide rates (those taking their lives under the age of 18 years old) have remained steady while overall suicide rates have been falling relatively quickly. According to the National Police Agency, since 2003 the number of Japanese citizens committing suicide has fallen by over a third from since 2003. In that year 34,427 suicides were reported, while last year only 21,897 took place. At the same time, the number of youth suicides has held steady in the 300-350 a year range since 2007. In 2016, the number was 320. It must be remembered that this is during a time in which the overall population is falling and the proportion of the population under the age of 18 is also declining.
Now, Japan does not have the worst suicide rate in the OECD (South Korea, Hungary and Lithuania rank higher than it) but to be ranked fourth is still very worrying, as is the stubbornly consistent youth suicide rates. Schoolyard bullying is said to be behind many of these suicides: one of the latest cases involved a 13 year old girl “who jumped in front of a train after enduring more than a year of bullying by classmates, including being labelled a ‘pest’ and repeatedly told to die”. Apparently there are four yoth suicides currently being investigated for their link to bullying while in 2013 the Japanese Diet passed anti-bullying laws essentially compelling schools to report cases of serious bullying to local and central government. According to the Ministry of Education there were nearly a quarter of a million reports of school bullying in 2015-16. This represented a 19 per cent increase from the year before, although this could be in part (or largely) due to the requirements of the new law and heightened awareness of the issue.
Reuters notes that:
“Officials and experts say bullying is especially bad in Japan because of its homogeneity, and a deeply fixed mindset of conformity in which differences are often singled out for attack. Japanese bullying differs from that in others countries in that it is mostly carried out by groups as opposed to two or three people against one individual, experts say.”
There is also the fact that teachers did not often take active measures against bullying since they viewed it as part of normal childhood quarrels. Some schools are trying to change the culture of bullying by casting it beyond the social pale, essentially using the conformist mindset to attack bullying. If a bully is seen as different to the mainstream then he or she will fear being seen as outcasts. (But let’s hope they are not bullied for it!)
May 16, 2017
An Australian Prime Minister once said that the aim of his government was to ensure that life would be so peaceful that sport would fill the front page of the newspapers. That is not something that we should expect from the US in the next few years, according to two of the stories in today’s issue of MercatorNet.
Continuing with her series on free speech, Denyse O’Leary warns that universities are so unsettled, intellectually and socially, that the current wave of intolerance, muzzling and no-platforming will keep simmering away.
And, more controversially, Musa al-Gharbi, a professor at Columbia University, contends that Donald Trump is on track to win the 2020 election, based on historical precedents. Given the President’s peculiar style of pot-stirring, the world can expect America’s political bickering to continue for years.
Sport has its place, and for the foreseeable future, it will be towards the back of the newspaper.
Michael Cook
Editor
MERCATORNE
| Like him or loathe him, Trump could win in 2020 By Musa al-Gharbi An incumbent president with a strong base and without stand-out candidate from the other party is in a strong position Read the full article |  |
| Don’t expect a quick end to the war on free speech By Denyse O'Leary The momentum of the campaign will be hard to stop Read the full article |  |
| Bullying and youth suicide in Japan By Marcus Roberts Why is the Japanese rate of youth suicide stubbornly high? Read the full article |  |
| Do we have a right to a child? By Michael Cook Surrogacy is included in a payout to a Canadian woman injured in a horrific car accident Read the full article |  |
| Message of Trump’s new cybersecurity order reinforced by ransomware attack By Frank J. Cilluffoand Sharon L. Cardash But the order won't succeed without government and industry working in tandem. Read the full article |  |
| Culture spotting: the celebration of new life By Patrick F. Fagan There's a lot to look forward to. Read the full article |  |
| Boys outsmart thief and magician By Jennifer Minicus A fun fairy tale is back in print. Read the full article |  |
| What we love about mothers and motherhood By Tamara El-Rahi Motherhood: thoughts from young mums. Read the full article |
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Bullying and youth suicide in Japan
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