Abstract
This is an English translation with some expansion of the article originally published in Japanese as a university bulletin in 2009. Previous research has found both differences and similarities between ijime in Japan and bullying in England. Bullying is often by pupils in different classes or higher year groups whom the victim does not know very well; ijime is often by victims’ classmates whom the victim knows very well. However, it has not been shown whether these differences are found for all types of bullying, or how they relate to friendships generally and the impact of differing school systems. We aimed to see whether previously found differences between ijime and bullying could be replicated, and, if so, whether they held for six different types of victimization, and whether friendship characteristics were consistent with explaining why they occur. To investigate the role of friendships and their location, 1036 Japanese and 931 English secondary school pupils participated in a comparative study of perceptions of bullying and ijime. The previous differences were confirmed and found to hold irrespective of type of bullying. Japanese pupils mainly formed friendships on a class basis, English pupils on a broader basis including pupils in different years. In school, English pupils spent much time in the playground with their friends and saw this as a likely venue for bullying, whereas Japanese pupils spent more time in the classroom and saw this as a likely venue for ijime. The difference in friendship formation, together with differences in the organization of class-based teaching in the two countries, are hypothesized to play a significant role in explaining some differences between bullying and ijime.
Highlights
We examined how pupils perceive and understand the nature of bullying/ijime, but we do not know from our data whether these perceptions and understandings were based on their own experiences of involving bullying/ijime situation or were based on what they had been taught at school, or possibly on what was considered socially desirable as a response
This study provides important information about the differences between bullying and ijime, and possible explanations for them
Secondary school pupils in both countries were found to have definite ideas about the nature of bullying/ijime, and their perceptions were consistent for all six different forms considered
Summary
Given the friendship and location differences in English and Japanese pupils’ perceptions of bullying and ijime, it is important to gather evidence on who children in each country form their friendships with, and where they most often interact with them. Morita et al [3] argued that some forms of indirect bullying/ijime such as ignoring and social exclusion should be more effective if the aggressor(s) and the victim belong to the same social group. These types of bullying/ijime could be more likely to occur between pupils who know each other very well and could be more likely to happen in closed places like the classroom, rather than in the playground. Places with less adult supervision, such as the playground in schools in England, could be a more likely place for this to happen
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