日本：校園暴力數量創歷史新高

Cases of violence by Japanese school students hit a record high in the past year, with elementary students increasingly violent, the education ministry said.

The number of cases jumped 18 percent to nearly 53,000, which some experts have linked to increasing stress among children pushed to excel in their studies and also join a raft of extracurricular activities.

"We heard from school boards that children cannot control their emotions and there is a decline in their moral values as well as the lack of their ability to communicate well," an education ministry official said.

The number of cases involving elementary school children, both at school and elsewhere, jumped 37 percent to 5,214 incidents in the year to March 2008.

However, there were fewer cases of bullying by students, which the ministry counts separately, although it added that the 101,000 cases found at Japan's 40,000 schools was still high.

Bullying at schools, ranging from bantering and bashing, ignoring and shutting out from student groups to beating and kicking has long been a problem in Japan.

Technology comes into play, with cases of bullying emails through mobile phones rose by 1,000 cases to nearly 5,900 incidents in the past year.

"Students do not want to leave any evidence of bullying, so online bullying is still not the main problem," Kenjiro Kubo, who heads a non-profit group that helps bullied students.

日本文部科學省日前稱，去年日本中小學發生的校園暴力事件數量創歷史新高，小學生的暴力傾向越來越嚴重。

去年，日本發生的校園暴力事件數量增長了18%，達到近5.3萬起。一些專家認爲，校園暴力事件的高發與學生們不斷加重的學習壓力和大量課外活動帶來的壓力有關。

文部科學省的一位官員稱：“據地方教育董事會反映，現在的學生不會控制自己的情緒，道德價值觀滑坡，缺乏溝通能力。”

截至今年3月，上一年涉及小學生的校園和其它暴力事件數增長了37%，達到5214起。

據文部科學省的單獨統計，去年日本的校園欺凌事件有所減少，但該機構稱，目前日本4萬所中小學所發生的欺凌事件達10.1萬起，這仍然不是一個小數目。

日本的校園欺凌問題一直很嚴重，包括羞辱、毆打、輕視、排斥和動粗等傷害行爲。

此外，一些欺負行爲還用到了“高科技”手段。去年，電子郵件和手機恐嚇事件增長了1000起，達到近5900起。

一個旨在幫助受欺負學生的非盈利組織的負責人Kenjiro Kubo稱：“學生不想留下任何欺負他人的證據，所以網絡欺凌目前還不是主要問題。”

Vocabulary:

school board:A local board that oversees public schools（地方教育董事會：管理公立學校的地方董事會）