Shoko Yoneyama

Problems with the paradigm: the school as a factor in understanding bullying (with special reference to Japan)

Studies on bullying at school proliferate, but the discourse is seriously lacking in sociological perspective. The explanation as to why some students bully others has been sought primarily within the personal attributes of the bully and the victim. Despite the fact that the school is the place where most bullying occurs, school factors that are correlated with the prevalence of bullying have been under-investigated. In Japan, however, schools have been subject to great scrutiny. By reviewing the Japanese literature on bullying ( ijime ), this paper discusses factors that appear to contribute to the school climate in which bullying among students becomes commonplace. These include authoritarian, hierarchical, and power-dominant human relationships, alienating modes of learning, high levels of regimentation, dehumanising methods of discipline, and highly interventionist human relationships in an excessively group-oriented social environment. The paper suggests the paradigm of student bullying needs to be re-thought.

Education in Contemporary Japan: Inequality and Diversity / by Okano and Tsuchiya

As is evident from the title, this book is a study of OÅ ba Minako’s works from the viewpoint of gender studies. The author, Michiko Niikuni Wilson, states that her work is an `attempt to apply the poetics of gender and feminist criticism to engender an alternative reading of Japanese literary texts’ (pp. x± xi). Elsewhere, she writes that her `use of feminist literary criticism’ in this book is deliberate and `a most pertinent and logical response to the challenge posed by Minako’ s complex and gender-oriented texts’ . She hopes that her study will show that OÅ ba’ s `literary, intellectual, and personal concern for women’s (and men’s) gendered role offers a refreshing, revisionist perspective on Japanese literature’ (p. 9). OÅ ba Minako (b. 1930) has been a leading Japanese writer for the past 30 years. Her debut onto the Japanese literary stage in 1968 was nothing short of spectacular. Her story `Sanbiki no kani’ (`The Three Crabs’ ) won the 11th GunzoÅ Literature Prize for Newcomers and then the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for the ® rst half of 1968. At that time, OÅ ba had been living in Alaska for nine years with her engineer husband and daughter, her husband having been sent there by his company. She and her family returned to Japan in 1971. Since then, she has published literary works of various genres including poetry, essays, and a biography. She has won several more literary prizes for her works, including the Women’ s Literature Prize (1975) and the Kawabata Yasunari Literature Prize (1989, 1996). The publication of zenshuÅ (Complete Works of OÅ ba Minako, 10 volumes, KoÅ dansha, 1990± 1991) indicates her established position on Japan’s literary scene. In terms of theme, many of her works display the perspective which is gained by living outside Japan; they re ̄ ect both on that life and on her experience of seeing numbers of atomic bomb victims soon after the bomb blast in Hiroshima, where she was living in 1945. Also her novels are often concerned with sexuality, particularly women’s sexuality, the signi® cance of which has sometimes not been understood by male literary critics. A study of OÅ ba’ s works from the viewpoint of gender studies, therefore, is not only of great interest but also most welcome. Gender Is Fair Game has seven chapters: `