Statistics

Japanese love facts and figures. It's amazing the amount of statistical information which is released or available on local government home pages. Just the other day, two sets of statistics were released. One concerned the level of violence and bulliyng at school. Both have become increasing problems in schools here, though much effort has gone into tackling bullying. Last year violent incidents in all schools nationwide increased for the fourth consecutive year reaching a record total of just over 60,000. On a much more tragic note, figures were also given for suicides by school-age children - 165 in total, two of which were linked to bullying. Cases of bullying did decrease quite significantly but it is clear that are still many such problems in school, especially in junior high schools. Another set of statistics released concerned the number of people over 100 in Japan. This is expected to reach a record 44,000 this year. There have been considerable difficulties with these figures as lately a series of scandals have hit Japan as people have been found to have been claiming welfare payments for elderly relatives (some of whom would be over 100) but who have been found to have died many years previously despite still having their names on the local registers. Statistics can be interpreted in different ways and don't necessarily paint the whole picture. However they do confirm two social trends which have been apparent in Japan for many years now - an ageing population and an education system which, for all its merits, is struggling to cope with instances of bullying, leading in some cases even to suicide.