The number of bullying cases nationwide at public and private schools from the elementary through high school level reached a record 543,933 in fiscal 2018, a 31 percent increase from the previous year. The education ministry sees the ever-growing number in a positive light — a result of its efforts to get school officials and teachers to actively identify bullying cases, including minor ones, at an early stage and take action to stop them from developing into serious matters.

However, the ministry's data show that the number of bullying cases which developed into "grave situations" involving serious physical and psychological harm reached a record 602 cases, up 128 from the year before. Hundreds of students were forced into extended absences from school after being bullied by classmates. Of the 332 students who took their own lives — up by 82 from the year before — at least nine are confirmed to have been victims of bullying. Efforts need to continue to explore more effective ways to stop school bullying and its tragic consequences.

The 2013 law to promote measures to stop bullying was enacted in the wake of the 2011 suicide of a 13-year-old boy in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, who jumped to his death after being bullied by classmates at their municipal junior high school. The legislation was built on the lessons from the case, in which teachers and school officials took no action even though they were aware that the boy was being bullied — and came under fire for initially refusing to acknowledge that bullying was behind the suicide.