If Japan wants to eliminate bullying in schools, it's imperative that the education ministry first define in unequivocal terms exactly what behaviors qualify. Unless it does so, bullying will continue to be widely accepted as a rite of passage that its victims have to deal with on their own.
But a series of suicides by young people who silently suffered until they could no longer take the abuse will make it harder to minimize or ignore the problem. Although some had reported their plight to their parents and to school officials, responses were too little or too late to avoid the ensuing tragedies.
It's when and how school officials intervene that hold the key to putting an end to the issue, which drew national attention in 2011 when a 13-year-old boy took his own life after being repeatedly bullied by three classmates in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture. At the time, the Otsu Board of Education was accused of ignoring the boy's distress and conducting a slipshod investigation. It took municipal officials to formally admit that bullying was the cause.