OSAKA -- Osaka Prefecture recorded more violent outbursts by public elementary school pupils than anywhere else in the nation last year, according the results of an education ministry survey released late last month.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Elementary schools in the prefecture reported 320 incidents of violence during the 2004 school year, which ended March 31, up 77 from the previous year, the survey showed. Overall, a record high 1,890 violent acts were reported nationwide, the poll found.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Tetsuya Mizumoto, an Osaka Prefecture education official, said the violence was caused by the students' inability to communicate their thoughts and feelings properly.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'The children have poor verbal communication skills, and resort to physical force to make a point, which can lead to fights with other students or teachers,' he said.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>He also questioned whether the survey by the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, which is based on official reports from prefectural boards of education, reflects the true status of elementary school violence.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'According to the survey, elementary schools in Tokyo had only 43 outbreaks of violence in 2004,' Mizumoto said. 'Since there are about 1,000 –

elementary schools in Osaka, and probably as many or more in Tokyo, you have to wonder if Tokyo isn't underreporting the problem."

In their response to parental and media inquiries about the survey results, prefectural education officials also cast blame for the violence on two recent trends.

First, they said, has been the increase in the number of pupils who use anonymous Internet chat sites to gossip about, and bully, fellow classmates.

The bullied victim has no way of knowing who is spreading the rumors on the Internet, and feels even more helpless and frustrated than might otherwise be the case, leading to random violence when at school.