Bullying at School 13 October 1986

Trevor Leggett was head of the Japanese Department of the BBC.

This is one of his broadcasts to Japan

Zubari for 13 October 1986

British people become interested in history as they get like older. I, too, when young was not interested in history, but a typical Englishman, later on, I began to study it.

Japanese sometimes ask me: “What benefit does it give?  Today’s problems are new: surely we cannot find solutions to them in history?”

The answer is, that most of the problems today are not new, but very old.  For example, during my visit to Japan last month, I was asked about the problem of ijime .  This is a very old problem indeed, and we find it in the autobiographies, and the novels of two hundred years ago.  However, it was nothing like as severe as the present problem in Japan.  I can recall only one case of death, and that was an accident.

School bullying was never completely controlled, but its worst manifestations were prevented by the tradition of chivalry: willingness to intervene to protect the weak. If a much bigger boy was tormenting a small boy, other boys who saw it would intervene. They had the confidence to do this because they knew that others would support them.  The tradition of chivalry was to intervene even on behalf of complete strangers.  If someone was weak and was being oppressed, at least some of the bystanders would be willing to risk their own safety to help him. They would join together, momentarily, to do this.

One can ask: How would this principle apply to Japan, where there is not a strong tradition of intervening on behalf of strangers?  In Japan, one who intervened would very likely find himself standing alone against two or three much stronger bullies.

The knightly moral code was taught in innumerable stories and songs, and it did, in fact, influence the behaviour of many of the knights. The knightly tradition then became the tradition of the gentleman. Though he no longer carries a sword, the tradition of intervening to help the weak remained.

Who then are the knights, who should be the gentlemen, in a Japanese school today? Who are the strong ones who could act together, in the Japanese way, to protect the ijimerarekko?

The answer is: it is the sportsmen – the rugby players, the Judo men, the boxers and the athletes generally.  They are the strong men.  Nor could they be frightened by a little gang of schoolboy bullies, because they themselves are members of a much bigger group, namely their own sport comrades.

I have asked the trainers and coaches of such groups whether they impress on their members that they have a duty to protect order in the school.  They all reply: “No.”

I believe this is a big gap in the Japanese school system. I am told that it is difficult for teachers to apply any physical punishment even against a bully, because the media immediately make a big fuss. But, if the boys in the sports group are given the feeling that they have a responsibility to use their strength and spirit of ‘fair play’, it will solve the problem of ijime. It is much easier for the coach to do this than for an ordinary teacher, because the sportsmen have a great respect for their coach.  The media cannot interfere if the boys themselves co-operate in preventing bullying.

The spirit of the gentleman is not a national thing, but an ideal beyond any particular boundaries. The young gentlemen of Japan could easily be inspired to solve this terrible problem which is damaging education in Japan.

© Trevor Leggett