Research Paper on:
Violence in Japanese Schools

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
problems plaguing contemporary Japanese society (Saga, 1997). Each night, it seems, there are shocking occurrences of school bullying that are featured in newspaper headlines and violent images splashed across  television screens (Saga, 1998). Japans Education Minister Yumiko Tange (1996) defined bullying as, "a thing that a person who is bullied feels pain seriously as a result of being  given a physical or psychological attack one-sidedly and continuously and that is confirmed by the school as a fact" (p. 14). It is recommended that the student who is  writing about this topic consider the characteristics of bullying, which include abusive language or taunting; verbal threats; and actual physical violence (Saga, 1997). While bullying in Japanese schools  is certainly nothing new, it is now reaching serious proportions and is the major contributing factor in excessive absenteeism and youth suicide (Hitchcock, 1998). It is largely responsible for  the social malady dubbed tokokyohi, which is a severe type of school phobia that renders the student unwilling and unable to attend classes for extended periods of time (Yoneyhama, 2000).  The future of Japanese society rests on the shoulders of its youth, and education has always played a significant part in defining the roles they are expected to play  as adults. Bullied students who suffer from tokokyohi complain of debilitating fatigue and also display physical symptoms such as stomach pains, headache, nausea, respiratory problems and lightheadedness (Yoneyhama, 2000).  Fourteen-year-old Kanbe Tomoko related her situation and the role bullying played in her social anxiety condition, explaining, "I myself do not know why I stopped going to school... my  classmates began to bully me a little. Although it was an insignificant bullying, it gave me a great shock, and I stopped going to school the very next day" (Yoneyhama,