Post-WWâ…¡ School Violence And Its Evolution In Japan

Japanese education has always been regarded as a successful paradigm. However, hugeconflicts are hidden behind its success. School violence in Japan is not only an embodiment ofthe conflicts in its education, but also a knot of the outbreak of the conflicts in schools. Thus,we employ “The Theory of structure interaction” from the perspective of school violence inthe paper. By studying the background, occurrence and evolution of Japan’s school violence,the interaction among gang structure, class structure, school structure, family structure andsocial structure and the influence made on teenagers in various structures, the paperanalysizes Japan’s education development, social and economic evolution and the influence ofyouth subculture towards school violence. It also makes an analysis of the teacher-studentrelationship and peer relations. Based on such analysis, the paper attempts to find out thestructural factor that leads school violence towards a worse situation. Besides, it examines thereasons and solutions of Japan’s school violence in order to provide constructive suggestionsand inspiritions for our country’s school violence prevention and management.From Meiji restoration to WWII, Japan’s school violence was in the original state.Against the conflicting background between modernism and tradition in Japan, schoolviolence exists in three kinds: violence between students, violence towards teachers andviolence towards school facilities.Japan’s education during the60years after WWII hasundergone several changes, yet school violence has always accompanied the growth ofteenagers.The developing process of post-WWII school violence existed sporadically（1945-1954）During this period, post-WWII reconstruction and the peak of the first juvenile misconducttook place. Juvenile misconduct was mainly caused ly supply difficulties and family poverty.When Japan’s post-WWII education system came into being, school violence occurred justfor several times. Most of the cases happened between students. There were only a few casestowards teachers and the cases towards school facilities were several fire events.The generalization of school violence in its rapid development (1955-1972). With theeconomic development, the Japanese society was impacted by western culture and the peak ofthe second juvenile misconduct came. In order to select talents, a giant leap forward emergedin Japan’s education. And there was fierce competition in exams and managerialism prevailed. Cases of school violence increased, esp. those between students. They tended to conductschool violence in gangs. School violence towards teachers began to emerge. And cases todamage school facilities were mainly conducted by fire and they increased.The full outbreak of school violence in social maturity (1973-1984). During this period ofworld oil crisis, Japan developed steadily and began to deal with the social conflictsaccumulated by its rapid developments. The peak of the third juvenile misconduct came. Theissue of school education is particularly manifested by the outbreak of school violence andeven class breakdowns. Violence between students increased evidently. What’s worse, the ageof teachers suffering arrived. Besides setting on fire, people mainly broke the glass at a largescale to do damage to school facilities.A new trend of school violence in its bubble-bursting time (1985-2005). During thisperiod, Japan’s economic bubbles bursted, the world financial crisis broke out and Japancontinued its educational reforms and social reforms. Cases of school violence increasedsubstantially. Violence between students was changed into a stage of combining the overt andthe covert from its former visible violence, body attack and direct confrontation to invisibleinsult, language insult, mental attack, virtual and insidious insult. Violence towards teachersand damage to school facilities were relatively not emphasized.Through the reflection of post-WWII school violence in Japan, the paper analysizes thereasons of its occurrence, summarizes the characteristics of its development and also sums upthe experience, lessons and inspirations of Japan dealing with school violence. The paperproposes that the excessive development is an important reason of aggravating conflicts.Japan’s moral education has problems in aspects of promoting the development of children’smoral judging level. Enhancing teachers’ teaching capacity and managing level are the key ofsolving the problem of school violence. The fundamental crux of Japan’s school violence liesin the fact that families and schools blame each other and don’t take responsibilities.