HIkikomori, Ijime and Tokokyohi
When I studied about
hikikomori, I learned that
ijime and
tokokyohi came before hikikomori. Hikikomori is defined as individuals who refuse to leave their parents' house, and isolate themselves away from society and famiy in a single room for a period exceeding six months. Ijime is defined as bullying in school. Tokokyohi is defined as school refusal.
What draw to my interest is the special relationship among these three phenomena. When you look closely, it is a cycle, consistently relating one another. You can read about these phenomena in Newspaper or articles. I would not make any elaboration of the symptoms and behaviors here. But there is something worth mentioning here, do you know this movie by Akira Kurosawa in 1993, Madadayo? This film tells the story of professor Uehida Hyakken-sama (1889-1971). There is a life-long attachment for the students to their professor. It contradicts with the survey today, where a tokokyohi student, said publicly that " we, tokokyohi people, are truly fed up with sucking up to the teachers" (Ishikawa et al. 1993:437). Are teachers to be blamed for tokokyohi, ijime or hikikomori?
There are more than the school factors, of course! I would recommend another movie here that give you a precise description about these people, "All About Lily Chou-chou" by Shunji Iwai.
Kobe Killer
The ghastly murder by a 14 year old "school killer" of 11 year old Hase Jun, whose severed head with mutilated eyelids and mouth was found at the schoolgate in Kobe in May 1997. He called him self "Sakakibara Seito", which means 'wine', 'devil', 'rose', 'sacred' and 'fight'. A part of his letter to the school goes:
If I were what I had been when I was born, I would not have dared to leave a severed head at the front gate of a middle school.... But I have dared to draw public attention because I want you to see me as a real person in your imagination, although I have been, and wil remain, invisible. At the same time, I will never forget that it was the compulsory education system and the society that created that system that rendered me invisible, and I will exact revenge. (DY 29 June 1997)
Competing with the devil
If you look carefully what he had called himself, there is a spirit of evil behind that dominated him in doing such. Clearly, the system turned him into an "invisible" person, he traded his soul with the devil to exchange his existence. Guys, we are in competition with the devil today in Japan! They are grabbing the souls of the youths! Do we have enough man power to reach out to them?
In the movie of Shunji Iwai, we see people in search for paradise, New Age sneaked in just like that. If people are looking for eternal, and proof of existence, isn't Christ the best offer that we can give? Where have gone our courageous?
This is another BIG QUESTION that I would like to deal with!
Who is behind the education?
But come back to the education system now. I am writing this not to tell you that we are lack in the field, that is an old rhyme that I will keep playing anyway. But now, I want you to seriously think about this, what had made the value of school, education, teacher and student changed so much? From Madadayo to the Kobe incident? There were more as such that had happened!
The 1947 Fundamental Law of Education declared the principles of the new education of Japan, i.e. that education would no longer be used as the means to promote nationalism, and that it had to be recognised as a constitutionally guaranteed right of the people. "Educational administrators have to respect academic freedom and educational independence" (Horio 1988:256). According to Horio, there was a genuine enthusiasm among teachers who wanted to teach something to children in the poverty-stricken yet liberated social atmosphere of early postwarJapan.
But then, in 1956, things were changed. The 1948 Board of Education Law, which had guaranteed the local self-control of education and the citizen's basic educational rights was repealed by a law which provided for boards of education not elected but appointed by the governors. In 1957, the Teacher Evaluation System (kinmu hyotei) was introduced. Principals were charged with filing an annual personal report on each teacher in their school, including an assessment of "loyalty and love of education" and "how sincere, reliable, and cooperative a teacher had been". The most problematic feature of this system was " the fact that the teacher's rating remained a secret and was generally used to promote only teachers who supported the government 's educational goals". It also provided the means to punish union activists and thereby undermined the union (Horio 1994:234).
Japanese government - liberal Communist?
In the prayer meeting on October 23, Ken suddenly mentioned about the politics in Japan is typical liberal Communist. The government controls all, and only those who agreed with the voice could be promoted.
Then, I read about this when I was working on banning Tobacco issues. "In Japan, for example, the government has an interest in tobacco sales, and NRT is restricted to prescriptions for smokers who are already have smoking related disease" (Saul Shiffman, Joe Gitchell. BMJ Tobacco Control2000;9:228-236).
Blinding an eye, it just doesn't seem as a logical policy
The government seems to have something behind all these heating issues. Do you remember about the legal abortion that took more 30,000 lives a year? Which is more than the total of new borns a year.
The public and aggressive yakusa activities in Shinjuku, the kabuki-cho. The government seems just having an eye close to all these.
The visit to Yasukuni Shrine, did it begin with Junichiro? No, he did it publicly, that's how it created the issue. There is a certain spirit behind this. It gradually comes into picture by putting up piece by piece. Dr. Ozawa had called it spirit of Death.
The declining in population, and the rapid dying because of aging, the "involvement" of the government even in hikikomori, where it began from the education system. We are loosing lives!
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