I congratulate the editorial board for bringing to the fore a very important issue (violence in schools). May I add that this issue is not limited to Japan but spans the world. Our children are the products of surroundings that, through a benchmarking process, demonstrate how to become a superior human being by enabling them to compare themselves with others.
For example, when a child watches TV serials, it sees violence; when it plays video games, it sees violence; nearby magazine and newspaper stalls are full of violence and sexual crimes, etc. It is thus a great responsibility of society in general to ensure that young children are protected from such surroundings. I am sure there are people who will say this is not practical or possible. But unless we make small and dedicated efforts in this direction, we won't have a better next generation! Children easily imitate what they see around them.
So it is very heartening that Japanese children have been made aware of the bullying problem. I know that, for many years, schools and other parts of society, including the media, have done a good job imparting on young children's minds that bullying is bad. The rest of the world should know the efforts taken by Japanese people on this particular problem.