The education ministry has ordered public elementary, junior high and high schools to conduct an emergency survey of their students about "grave cases" of bullying and for school officials to tell the ministry how they are dealing with the problem.

The special move is in addition to a regular annual survey on bullying. The ministry sent a notice about the emergency survey to schools and local boards of education Wednesday, Daisuke Saito, an official in the Elementary and Secondary Education Bureau of the ministry, said Thursday. The schools will come up with their own questions for students.

For this survey, the ministry specifically asked the schools and boards of education to report the number of "grave bullying cases," how they handled such cases and describe their nature. The regular annual survey does not delve into these specifics.