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INTEREST: March comes in like a lion Joins Japanese Government to Fight Bullying

Japanese culture's emphasis on conformity encourages some people to bully those who stand out from the crowd.

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Japanese culture's emphasis on conformity encourages some people to bully those who stand out from the crowd.

Wow, what a ridiculous statement. If upholding societal norms is considering bullying, I suppose it must be everywhere.

Quote:

Japanese culture's emphasis on conformity encourages some people to bully those who stand out from the crowd.

Wow, what a ridiculous statement. If upholding societal norms is considering bullying, I suppose it must be everywhere. You know, the kind of things that built distinct advanced civilizations. Abandoning it is something Frankfurt School nuts believed, and Antifa and SJ\/\/s didn't receive the memo it failed miserably.

Bullying is an inevitable part of life, regardless of culture, and is especially prevalent at adolescence. It was never such a problem until we all decided to talk about it after serious shit like Columbine, and approach dealing with it the completely wrong way. Sure, while the aforementioned campaign is cute and a great way to help raise awareness, it won't do much to help solve the problem. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire, which thanks to how we decided to deal with bullying unfortunately results in the victim getting in a lot of trouble, too.

It's too rigid in Japan, school and in some cases work in Japan is a literal occupational hazard because of it being too rigid. Also, the bullying is worse in Asia in general and help is scarce (the teachers can be cruel as well) unlike in the West, where help is available, but not always used even though it's not perfect.

Quote:

Japanese culture's emphasis on conformity encourages some people to bully those who stand out from the crowd.

If upholding societal norms is considering bullying, I suppose it must be everywhere.

It was never such a problem until we all decided to talk about it after serious shit like Columbine

Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire, which thanks to how we decided to deal with bullying unfortunately results in the victim getting in a lot of trouble, too.

That's not what is being implied at all. People ripping hearing aids out of deaf children's ears, throwing their books off bridges, and beating them up in class is not upholding "societal norms", it is assault. People nearly drowning classmates in toilets because they have a terminal illness is not upholding "societal norms", it is attempted murder. People beating a classmate and then forcing him to shoplift is not upholding "societal norms", it is cowardice. People burning a classmate's arm with cigarettes because he had a speech impediment is not upholding "societal norms". etc. I can go on all day with the terrifying true stories of bullying in Japanese schools. It's a very serious problem and it needs to be dealt with.

It's too rigid in Japan, school and in some cases work in Japan is a literal occupational hazard because of it being too rigid. Also, the bullying is worse in Asia in general and help is scarce (the teachers can be cruel as well) unlike in the West, where help is available, but not always used even though it's not perfect.

You can "uphold societal norms" without physically or mentally torturing someone because they're slightly different than you. Plus, Japanese ideas of conformity (and many Asian countries in general) include a lot more than just adhering to social norms and are typically way more extreme than the west, which already has its fair share of this stuff. But y'know, maybe beating the shit out of something as trivial as being part-Japanese is just for the betterment of society

A lot of things aren't prominent issues until people actually start talking about them, but that doesn't mean they were never issues or that we should continue to ignore them. What's completely unjustifiable is finally getting a wake-up call, realizing something is wrong, and choosing to ignore the issue because you've never addressed it previously. We shouldn't just ignore the other school shootings and thousands of teen suicides tied to bullying since then because no one spoke up before Columbine.

Fighting fire with fire, like with the various stabbings and shootings? Unless you're insinuating that letting these kids duke out would somehow prevent those things from happening since these issues would resolve on their own, but then I'd argue that a lot of people being bullied aren't exactly in the place where they can fight back and not suffer even worse as a result.

Nice movie references. It really affirms you have an "everything I learned about Japan I learned from anime" mindset. Stuff like that happens everywhere, and it's always isolated incidents which are blown out of proportion and made worse by news coverage. At least it makes people become rightfully outraged.

Everything I stated has happened in real life(the first just happens to also be in a movie). Japan has a big problem with bullying. It's also bad elsewhere, so let's do what we can to prevent it everywhere, please. Why are you trying so hard to deny this is a problem?

Teaching people how to defend themselves is important. I beat the sh*t out of the only kid who ever tried to bully me years ago, and it felt great, but not everyone can do that. Japan's school system makes it even more difficult to stand up for yourself than it is in a lot of other places, so even people who are very physically capable undergo significant bullying if they do/say/look/feel the wrong way. They are taught to just take it, to avoid causing a scene(a big problem in itself). Duking it out is just not a solution for a lot of people. Teaching people to have empathy and to be understanding is a much better long term solution than teaching victims that they are the one at fault, rather than the aggressor, and that they should suck it up. There are ways to make people stronger without the need for something as destructive as bullying, if that's what you're implying.

relyat08 wrote:

Everything I stated has happened in real life(the first just happens to also be in a movie). Japan has a big problem with bullying. It's also bad elsewhere, so let's do what we can to prevent it everywhere, please. Why are you trying so hard to deny this is a problem?

I'm not denying it's a problem. I'm just saying it has nothing to do with culture as its impacts is propagated by a myriad of failures to address it have made it become a modern phenomenon. You don't have to reinvent the wheel to figure it out, and just go back to how things were and take it from there.

Of course you shouldn't stand up for yourself as a last resort at school, rather out of sight. Verbal abuse is a bigger issue anyway.

Look, you are being incredibly disrespectful. Outright encouraging people to mock others and suggest mocking back or trying to cause violence is slander in every sense of the word. Would you like it if I were to call you a f****, regardless of whether or not you are one? Or how about this: would you like it if, after you called me a n***** regardless of whether or not I am one, the next time I saw you I shot you pointblank in the face? No, you wouldn’t. So don’t approach the topic by giving people the finger for trying to solve it, because all you’re doing is making yourself look like a bully.

^according to interviews with bullies in Japan, the victim "not fitting in" and "disrupting the unity of the class"(by which they mean, 'not being like everyone else') are the most commonly cited reasons for why they were targeted. Not only is conformity at least one of the root causes, but like you noted, it also perpetuates it.

Regardless of where or how you stand up for yourself, it is viewed as "causing a scene" in Japan.