Amid growing public criticism of the way schools and boards of education handle, or allegedly ignore, cases of bullying, more children and parents are turning to the police, filing criminal complaints or asking for reinvestigations of previously reported instances of physical abuse.
On Monday, a 16-year-old boy in Sendai filed a criminal complaint against three of his classmates, claiming they physically abused him.
The sophomore at a private high school in the city was allegedly forced by classmates to burn his arm with a lit cigarette in May in a "courage test." They then burned his arm over 20 times, leaving welts on his skin.