Japan is struggling to halt a sudden wave of student suicides as the nation agonizes over the prevalence of bullying at schools, but some see a media frenzy as fueling the problem.
At least four children aged 12 to 14 have killed themselves and more have threatened to do likewise in the past 10 days since the education ministry announced it had received an anonymous letter from a student contemplating suicide.
Ironically, the government's commitment to address suicide may have triggered the deaths.
"We expected something like a chain reaction to follow our announcement," Education Minister Bunmei Ibuki acknowledged.
But the government decided to disclose the letter as it had been under fire for denying that suicides linked to bullying had taken place.
"We would have received criticism either way. Unless I showed my resolve that I would stand to be criticized, school principals and local education boards would not follow suit" and face the issue, Ibuki told reporters.
Ibuki has ordered schools to identify the students who threaten to commit suicide.
He also urged students to stop writing to him, saying they should instead find someone to talk to.
Japan's schools have long been notorious for bullying, a phenomenon experts attribute to the intense social pressure to blend in. Japan also has one of the world's highest rates of suicide.
Often school bullying becomes a vicious cycle as it is seen as a way out of victimization, said Yasuyuki Shimizu, who runs an anti-suicide group called Life Link.
He faulted Japanese educators for trying to make students feel guilty about contemplating suicide.
"The close-minded nature of the Japanese school system might be contributing to the problem. Rather than preach the importance of life to bullying victims, we must tell them there are ways to avoid the situation they face," he said.
The suicide wave comes at a delicate time for conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose top legislative priority is reforming education to teach "patriotism" -- a taboo since World War II.
Abe said his reforms would teach "moral values" missing in Japan's post-war prosperity.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS