Cyber Bullying in Japan

Bullying happens everywhere and I’ve witnessed kids being bullied countless times in Japanese schools, and it happens everywhere. Bullying can range from verbal abuse to threats and actual physical violence.  Japanese schools have taken bullying very seriously especially since the 90’s when a series of bullying related suicides made national headlines. Kids are often subject to enormous peer pressure to conform in Japanese schools, which emphasize the importance of collectivism. Outcasts are often bullied relentlessly in Japanese schools, and now that we have internet and social networking sites, cyber-bullying is becoming more and more common over there. Asahi newspaper reports that a 12-year-old boy’s parents sued the parents of his bullies in middle school. It is pretty scary because the boy was forced to become naked and bullies took pictures of him using Nintendo 3DS camera and one of the bullies actually uploaded the photos to the social networking website..Nintendo actually stopped this free app because minors may exchange obscene images. It is sad that these bullies did what they did and I am glad that the victim’s parents are not just complaining to the school but filed a lawsuit against the parents of these bullies..this is very serious and if this happened to my family, I don’t know what I would do..they are asking for 100,000 USD for the damage but I think I would pursue a criminal charge against these kids. Hopefully these kids learned from this and won’t do this to another kid. I can imagine the long lasting emotional damage done to this kid.