





●Introduction

One of the reasons why students can become a recluse is bullying. In Japanese there is a term for a certain type of recluse, Hikikomori. The “Hikikomori” in Japanese is a person who shuts themselves off from society and stays at home all day for months or even years. Bullying at school makes some students not want to go to school and leads them to become Hikikomori. I wondered what type of student is bullied so that I analyzed the reason why students are bullied in the US, Japan, Germany, China, and South Korea below.

Which student is bullied, the student with good grades or bad grades ?

I was bullied by other students when I was in junior high school in Japan. I think I was bullied because I studied harder than other students and my grades were better than other students. It was so fun learning new things for me that I kept studying, but some students didn’t like me getting good grades.

Are students bullied if their grades are better?

Which student is bullied, the student with good grades or bad grades?

I analyzed the questions above, using the data of OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).

The nail that sticks out gets hammered down in Japan while the nail that sticks out is praised in the US

Figure 1 above shows the percentage of students who were bullied “a few times a month” by scientific aptitude. The bullying type is “other students made fun of me”. The X axis represents the deciles of PISA science performance of students. The higher decile the students are in, the better scientific literacy the students have. It indicates that the 1st decile or 1st group of students are the worst in terms of school grades and the 10th decile of students are the best.

Figure 2 above also illustrates the percentage of students who were bullied “a few times a month” by scientific aptitude. But, the bullying type is “I got hit or pushed around by other students” in Figure 2.

The points of Figure 1 and Figure 2 are the followings.

・The students with better grades tend to being bulled in Japan.

・The students with worse grades tend to being bullied in the US, China and Germany.

Japan is the thick pink line in Figure 1 and Figure 2. As the student aptitude distinction goes up from the 1st decile to the 10th decile, the percentage of students who are bullied goes up basically. On the other hand, the US, thick blue lines in those figures, shows the opposite tendency.

The culture of “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.” is more obvious and widespread in Japan and Japanese people behave same as others in general, trying not to be hammered down. Japanese students who are not good at studying feel jealous to the students with good grades, which cause bullying in school.

The US does not have the culture where you have to behave same as others. Being unique and different from others is encouraged as a good thing in the US.

Summary

The better you are in studying, the more chances you have to be bullied in Japan. But, studying is very important to have a good life. I suggest that the Japanese students with good grades should keep studying harder in order to make a better life than the bullies. Studying heightens your probability to meet a good opportunity. I say “Enjoy studying and keep studying hard” to those who are bullied in Japan.





