A number of investigations of school bullying in Japan were reviewed and it was found that around 1985, many cases of bullying in this country were reported in the mass media and many psychologists and educators in schools gave considerable attention to these phenomena.In previous years psychologists did not pay much attention to bullying in schools as the cases were not so severe, and were not regarded as unusual behavior for children.The focuses of many psychologists in their investigations of bullying were as follows: causes of bullying, strucuture of the class where bullying occurred, characteristics of bullies and victims, relationship between attitudes toward bullying and those toward other aspects of daily life, values of living, and so on.Some of these investigations suggested that the bully-victim problems arise and become serious not only because of the simple relations between two pupils, i.e., bully-victim relations but because of more complicated relations surounding the situation, i.e., audience, onlookers, go-between, and so on. Having reviewed many articles, we realize that it is very important to build strong linkages among investigators, teachers and parents, including members of the community, if these social evils are to be eradicated.
