Random acts of student violence in public schools inflicted on teachers, classmates and school property soared to 29,685 reported incidents in the 1998 school year, representing a 25.7 percent rise from the previous year, according to an Education Ministry summary released Friday.
The 1998 school year also saw 5,561 violent acts by students outside of school grounds, representing a 13.4 percent increase from the previous year's tally of 4,905.
Ministry officials call these acts "relatively minor," because they are not criminal acts, but educators have said they find the trend disturbing because groups of "problem children" are not the ones who are causing trouble in schools.
"It is the 'normal' children who are hitting teachers," said Haruhiko Tokuhisa, director of the ministry's Lower Secondary School Division. "Blood rushes to their heads and they cannot hold back."
The bulk of the cases occurred in junior high schools, where 23,005 cases erupted on school premises and 3,792 cases occurred elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the number of reported cases of bullying fell from 42,790 in 1997 to 36,396, the summary shows. This is the third straight year in which the number of such cases has fallen since bullying peaked in 1994.
The decline is due to awareness about the issue among students and faculty, Tokuhisa said.
But bullying is still more widespread than reported cases of violence, with 25.5 percent of all public schools reporting cases of bullying, compared with 15.3 percent for violent acts.
"More than 36,000 (bullying) cases still exist, and that means we have to continue to give it serious attention," Tokuhisa said.