The number of elementary and junior high school children who were frequently truant during the 1998-99 school year jumped by more than 20 percent from the previous year, according to a government report on juvenile problems released Friday. The report by the Management and Coordination Agency says the number of students who were truant at least 30 days in elementary schools reached 26,017 during the 1998-99 school year. The number was up 25.3 percent from the 1997-98 school year. In junior high schools, the number of frequent truants was 101,675, up 20.0 percent. The report also says 157,385 people between the ages of 14 and 19 were either questioned by police or arrested over criminal offenses during the 1998 school year. The number was up 3 percent from the year before. The agency blamed the trend on the growing access youth have to "uncensored harmful information," telephone chat services and private karaoke cubicles. The report says the latest figures could lead to youth crime hitting a peak for the fourth time since the end of the war. The first came in 1951 with crimes committed mainly by war orphans, the second in 1964 as a result of Japan's growing affluence and the third in 1983 when a spate of violence related to schoolyard bullying erupted, the report says. The report was submitted to a Cabinet meeting Friday by agency chief Kunihiro Tsuzuki. In the report, the agency said that in order to stop the rise in these juvenile problems, families and schools should try to provide environments for children to experience divergent forms of human relationships. Commenting on the report, Ryoko Uchida, an expert on juvenile issues, said: "The increase in crimes by children tends to be discussed in connection with the debate over revisions to the Juvenile Law. But people should carefully examine the backgrounds of each of the cases." One also has to take into account the changing environment, such as the increase in the information to which kids are exposed, she said.