Rise in teenage violence in Japan

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

TOKYO, SEPT. 10. Modern Japanese cinema is being blamed for the spate of violence among and against children.

Fukasaku Kinji's ``Battle Royale'', for instance, is a 120-minute frame-by-frame mindless brutality that school boys and girls unleash against one another. Egged on by their teacher, whose sadistic tendencies might put to shame some of the political tyrants that history has spawned, these teenagers indulge in a kind of murder and mayhem that is most gruesome to watch.

In fact, a recent Japanese Government report says that students in secondary schools ``committed more acts of violence and vandalism last year than any time in the past 17 years''.

The nation's public junior high and high schools witnessed over 33,000 incidents, a 12 per cent rise over the 1999 figure. Teenagers threw chairs at their teachers, beat up others in their peer groups and wrote offending messages on walls. A journalist with a leading newspaper in Tokyo avers that Japan has perhaps the unique distinction of having ``girl gangs'' in schools who bully not just boys but masters as well! To a visitor, one indication of ``schoolgirl waywardness'' is the increasing presence of her ilk on the streets and on the subway even late at night.

Sporting school uniforms - which easily distinguishes them - these girls seem like lost children wandering aimlessly.

The Japanese Education Ministry - which plans to establish expert support teams all over the country to help problem kids - is not ready to say why juvenile violence is on the rise, but sociologists and psychiatrists cite two important reasons. Japan's highly competitive school system - which ostensibly paves the way for an equally competitive work environment and social system whose magic mantra is ``perfection'' - has often been accused of putting too much pressure on children.

Another disturbing trend seen lately is the kind of abuse that some teachers heap on their wards. The other day, a 34-year-old middle school teacher was arrested on suspicion of molesting a 12-year-old girl, who later died in hospital. The teacher had met the girl through a telephone dating service, taken her for a ride in his car and had handcuffed her apparently when she resisted his advances. He is said to have thrown her out of his car when she became uncontrollable.

According to the Education, Science and Technology Ministry, there is an increasing tide of ``immoral acts among school teachers''. The Ministry contends that despite meting out severe punishment, more and more teachers are getting sucked into the vortex of crimes and scandals. Last year, 12 of them were found guilty, the figure had doubled over that in 1999. At least one was running a child pornography racket.

Outside the school, boys and girls also appear to be having a rough time. There has been an alarming escalation in ``domestic child abuse''. Last year, more than 18,000 cases came up before child consultation centres in Japan. Ten years ago, this was a relatively unheard of phenomenon. Thirty-one children died after being subjected to abuse in the first six months this year. Forty-four were killed in 2000. Obviously, such malaise is fast spreading, fuelled and fired by a crippling economic downturn, the worst Japan has seen since the last war. The five per cent unemployment rate and the virtually stagnant economy have added to the people's pressure.

Boys and girls brought up in the lap of luxury now find that they cannot have everything for the asking, a fact that drives them towards making money through some questionable, and hence, risky methods. Celluloid works like ``Battle Royale'' are not exactly making matters easy; rather they tend to add to the woes of a society in turmoil, perhaps the most debilitating in many, many years.

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