Departments
Intermediate Japanese - Free Online Course
IJIME
いじめ
bullying
Japan has a reputation as a law-abiding, non-violent country. This is generally true; but Japanese society is also characterized by rigid hierarchies and pecking orders. In the microcosm of the schoolyard, hierarchies are often determined by crude factors like physical strength and aggressiveness. Bullying is an almost inevitable outcome in this situation.
The phenomenon of bullying in Japanese schools is a problem that has dismayed and puzzled the country’s educators and sociologists for the past several decades. In extreme cases, victims have been driven to suicide, or even killed outright.
The problem of ijime has given rise to a number of new words in the Japanese language. An ijimekko is a child who bullies other children. An ijimerarekko, on the other hand, is a child who is the victim of bullies.