A part of this is from a column written in 1993 about "ijime" (bullying). It was not the first, and today I can't even recall that specific case. There have been so many. At the time I objected to the newspaper comment that ijime had been a serious problem for a decade. Brutal discrimination against those who did not fit in with the group was certainly not unknown when I came to Japan 40 years ago. It could be a sports club bullying a member who wanted to resign. When the bullying resulted in death, it was reported. Sometimes there were deaths when nonconformist youngsters were being disciplined. Remember the girl who was crushed by a heavy metal gate at her school as she tried to make it through so as not to be tardy, a serious offense at her school? Some comments reflected the view that it could have been avoided if she had been on time, somehow tilting the responsibility a bit toward the girl, a bit away from the teacher who shut the gate.

I cannot be indifferent to ijime, and I am outraged and often sickened at social punishments inflicted on those who are different. These can be the handicapped who learn they can easily avoid prejudice by staying at home; the "burakumin," who are assigned the lowest niche in Japanese society and are familiar with the many aspects of discrimination; the vagrants, who are bullied by society's obliviousness of their existence. They are not there even though we see them.

Yet we live in a country that "works" in the midst of chaotic conditions elsewhere. Visitors constantly are enraptured by the politeness and honesty of the Japanese people, the safe streets, the general cleanliness, the voices so rarely raised in anger.

And how do you think it got that way? You have a lot of people who put the common good -- those details that make life nonabrasive -- ahead of individual preferences or rights. Sometimes lessons in conformity are tender, like the older boy adjusting his little brother's bowed head as they greet their grandparents at New Year's, a popular TV commercial a few years ago. Sometimes they are deadly, like this recent case and others that occasionally break through the surface of our tranquil existence.

In their normal forms, lessons in conformity prepare students and others for the world they must live in. Carried to extremes, there will be tragic consequences followed by editorials saying something must be done. This case has been widely reported abroad. That may be what is necessary to cause authorities to take a more serious look at a problem that cannot be treated superficially by punishing the perpetrators of the crime. There must be the courage to examine values and the cost of maintaining them in a society where many fear that changing a defective part may destroy the entire system.

Some say that Japan has its own brain drain, that those who cannot or will not conform to the system, those who could bring about positive changes, leave. They take their talents, their individualism, overseas or they go into some profession, usually related to the arts, where nonconformity is permitted. And sometimes, when acclaimed for their achievements overseas, they are invited home with honors.

Citing others' problems does not help the situation. It is no excuse for Japan to point out the number of kids taking guns to school in the United States. Some of them will inevitably kill people, and it is shocking that so little is being done to control the dissemination of weapons, but it doesn't help find a solution for ijime. Sometimes a stranger, usually a foreigner, can stop ijime when they see it happening, but it would be a mistake to think that anything would be accomplished when parents, teachers and authorities are unable to find solutions.

It is true, too, that children have to learn to cope with the world they live in; they can't always be saved by mamas or passersby. But this is only possible in cultures that emphasize the need for the individuals to protect the weak and to stand up for the rights of the underprivileged, characteristics that are not as visible in this society as they may be in those where tradition includes the concept of treating others as you would like to be treated. Still, today no place seems immune from cruelty, and we should all get involved in finding solutions instead of fault.