Back when I was a youngin’ my family moved to Japan for work related reasons. I was about 10 years old and thrust into the 5th grade public school with basically zero knowledge of the language. Back then there weren’t really any foreign kids in my area. My siblings and I were the only foreigners in the entire elementary school of about 500 kids.
Anyways long story short I was bullied really badly in elementary school. Like punched, kicked, pushed to the ground almost daily by 5-6 other kids. Even when I told the teacher or my parents they basically did nothing. In one particular instance I remember I accidentally knocked down another kid’s ランドセル (backpack) from the shelf. He basically threw a fit and beat me up. After school the teacher talked to us and tried to make us apologize. I said I am sorry for knocking down your backpack but he refused to apologize. Of course he was scolded by the teacher but absolutely no punishment for him. He beat my ass again the next week.
Please note that there was definitely a general bully problem and I was not the only kid getting targeted. Lots of kids were getting beat up every day.
I am over it now, but at the time it was really tough. I pretty much cried and cried every day. I still love Japan and have met some wonderful and amazing people here. I love my job and I consider Japan to be my home. However, now that I have kids I am worried that when they start school they may face bullying too. Of course, they will be half Japanese and speak Japanese as a native language so the situation is a little different. Nevertheless, as a parent I still have my worries.
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So my question is How is elementary school in Japan now? Is there a lot of bullying? I would especially like to hear from people who have experienced school here or have kids in the school system
TLDR. I got bullied a lot in Japanese elementary school back in the 1990s. How is elementary school now?