When the 27-year-old rookie elementary school teacher in Kanagawa Prefecture began receiving phone calls from the mother of one of his students demanding an apology from the parents of their child's alleged "bullies," he thought it was just a misunderstanding by an overprotective parent.
The teacher, who declined to be named, didn't see any bullying among his first-graders, and the child in question seemed to be doing fine, enjoying school life.
But after three months and hundreds of phone calls later, he couldn't take it any longer. Tired and feeling slightly paranoid, he persuaded the bewildered and annoyed parents of the "bullies" to gather for a formal apology. "It was strange. The children had no idea what was going on," the teacher said.