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Continued from Apple’s question, after she watched the movie “Confessions”, in this post I’m sharing how bullying (it’s “ijime” in Japanese) in Japanese schools is evident. I have to say that bullying has been evident and sadly some victimed kids commit a suicide every year. It’s sad but the truth is that it’s often reported in the news in Japan that school kids commit a suicide because of bullying. It’s not only seen in the city area, it’s seen anywhere. The parents of the victim often accuse school teachers and board of education but most of the time they say they never knew there was a bullying.

Everytime I hear these news, I wonder if those parents had never noticed anything going wrong with their kid until the tragedy occurs. I totally understand they want to blame the teacher as supervisor and the students who actually bullied their kid, which is natural. At the same time though, couldn’t they have done anything before? Couldn’t they have paid enough attentioin to their kid, talked with him or her more frequently and noticed something from daily life? But it’s also true some bullied kids don’t want let their parents know that, because they think that would be a trouble to the parents. They would make every effort to conceal the bullying from their parents no matter how much the bullying anguishes them as to choose death in the end.

Not having a kid of my own, I may not understand the situations very well, but as Apple says most of kids today are an only child or distanced from cousines and similar age grouped kids from neighborhood. In addition to that, I think internet, cell phone or video games accelerate their loneliness even though these gadgets have helped make our life more convenient. Kids often play with video games even if they are with other kids. I have seen this very weird scenery several times that 4 or 5 kids gather and each of them plays his Nintendo DS or Sony PSP without having a word among those friends. Imagine how weird it is to see them all in silence, with each kid only cares about what’s happening inside his game.

They are still under 10 years old, which is the time they could learn and acquire sociality, how to interact properly with others, what is considered OK and what is not, and all the basic rules or common sense that we can learn from playing with other kids or animals. I’m really worried about these kids. They have a place to play and buddies to play with, but why video games after all? It’s not a surprise when these kids grow without understanding others’ feelings well and act weird enough to trigger bullying or to be the one who bullies someone.

Bullying in Japan has become more difficult to be found today. Unlike our life has become convenient with internet, kids use it for bullying. In Japan, not every kid has a computer but most of kids have a cell phone for a security reason and to have daily contact with their parents. (ie. to be picked up at a cram school in the evening) Japanese cell phones have many functions besides its basic functions of making calls and sending/receiving emails. Once it’s connected to internet, it’s possible many anonymous classmates, who we cannot specify, target one student and keep mental abuse by leaving some harsh comments on a forum of “ura-site” for instance, where other classmates and the victim may visit.

While I write this article, I found some websites that have threads from bullied school kids who are sending SOS comments. There are NPOs and many strategic actions and remedies have been taken but can you believe even a princess is bullied at her school in Japan?

Unfortunately it looks like the field of education in Japan is twisted. Nowadays not many people say that they want to be a school teacher any longer, because of bullying kids, bullied kids, monster parents, and many other problems from school. Parents work like a horse to earn enough money to make their kids enter private school from elementary school or jr. high school, because that is one of the ways to avoid contact with bad students. Kids have to study at a cram school since they are small to pass the entrance exam of the private school.

It’s a heavy topic to discuss, and I don’t intend to find a solution or settle the problem in this post, that’s impossible. But I just want to include such a true story post once in a while because this blog is not only something kawaii or interesting. It’s Tokyo Kawaii, etc. Sometimes ‘etcetera’ part can be very serious. But I just hope all those things from kawaii to real story mean something to our readers who are interested in Japan or Japanese culture.

Apple watched a Japanese movie titled “Confessions” that is released Jun. 2010 in Japan and is on air now in Singapore. It’s directed by Tetsuya Nakashima, who is well-known from his great works such as “Kamikaze Girls” and “Memories of Matsuko”.

===Apple’s post starts from here===

I went to watch this movie yesterday.

What’s it about? Basically, it’s about a teacher’s revenge on her students who murdered her 4-year-old daughter.

Takako Matsu is Yoko Moriguchi, a middle school teacher. And she’s devastated after her daughter’s death. She serves her revenge cold and hard.

The reason why the title of the movie is Confessions is because the movie consists of ‘confessions’ from all parties involved. At the end of the whole movie, you get the complete truth of what really happened.

I just exchanged emails with Kirin about my thoughts after watching this movie, and we touched upon the topic of children/teenagers nowadays.

The movie is chilling to me because…

*Disclaimer: the original photo is from Lawson’s Uchi Cafe.

Uchi means house. Uchi Cafe sounds like a cafe someone made inside his house to open for public, but in this case it’s not. Due to economic recession in Japan, many people try to save money. Those who enjoyed Starbucks before would prefer a cup of coffee from home now. Yes, Uchi Cafe here means to drink coffee at home, instead of cafe, to save some money everyday.

(Well…as for myself, as I work from home I have no other option but to prepare a coffee by myself. haha! ^ ^; When I go out once in a while, I’d love to go to a cafe, but mostly to have a rest. Unlike most of people who work at a cafe, to me I feel most concentrated and relaxed at home. I cannot work from a cafe. I like to work from my house.)

Anyhow, Bento boom is another typical phenomenon that reflects poor economy. There is a reason for huge sales area spared for bento boxes and Nabe goods at places like Tokyu Hands or LOFT that are sensitive against trends.

Espresso machine especially designed for household use as represented by Nespresso or expensive rice cooker that costs over 100,000yen (=over USD1100), or even Gopan, a bread making machine that allows us to bake bread from rice are good examples to illustrate how Japanese people tend to spend money for gadgets that help us to make tasty snack or meals from home rather than what we can get from eating out especially during recession. Home-cooked meals that may be combined with some nice sweets from Depachika or convenience stores will be satisfactory enough, even though we have to live within limited allowances.

There’s no reason home appliance industry should not notice this great opportunity. Nanocare by Panasonic for example is a such great innovation that it keeps moisturizing our facial skin while we are sleeping. It’s an esthetic treatment we can receive while we are sleeping every night.

Having some nice meals and coffee at home, dressed with luxury nighty while receiving nano steam created by a small esthetic machine sounds as good as to go out for dinner and spend much more money to have facial esthetic treatments. This is how Japanese women survive under bad economy. But of course, there are so many kawaii shops and nice restaurants and cafes in Tokyo, we cannot give them up completely. We’d love to eat out great food from around the world or to receive massages and esrthetic treatments as a little treat to ourselves. Women like to treat ourselves a lot. :p Majority of the customers are always women. There is even a word created for this trend. It’s “okomori shouhi” （おこもり消費） that could be translated as “stay-at-home consumption”? ^ ^; Although the main purpose is to save money, home-based life like this is not bad, when it’s mixed with some nice experiences from outside once in a while.

Bad economy is not only what Japan is suffering from. Do you see similar trend in your country? Please feel free to share your thoughts with us!