School Health
Online ISSN : 1880-2400
ISSN-L : 1880-2400
Original Article
Bullying-Related Suicides among Japanese Elementary, Middle, and High School Students Using Newspaper Databases
Tohru Takizawa
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JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2025 Volume 21 Pages 25-32

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Abstract

Background: In Japan, suicide due to bullying has been a matter of strong public concern for half a century. However, there is almost no quantitative understanding of the actual situation. Japanese newspaper coverage of bullying suicides is polite and firm. The newspapers publish the main contents of the report by third-party committee together with the actual event.

Objective: This study quantitatively analyzes the statistics on suicide resulting from bullying as compiled from reporting in newspapers.

Methods: The data for this study comprise online newspaper reports over 10 years, 2012–2021. The term “bullying-related suicide” in these newspaper articles refers to cases in which a third-party committee had identified the occurrence of bullying. The subjects of analysis are Japanese elementary, junior high, and high school students. Statistics are tabulated on students’ gender and grade and the month and day of the week when the bullying-related suicide took place. Chi-square tests were conducted to analyze the presence or absence of bullying vis-à-vis the sexes/grades of the students.

Results: The results for the 98 identified cases of suicide due to bullying are as follows. In junior high and high school, male students outnumbered female students. And the grade with the highest number of bullying-related suicides was eighth grade. In terms of month, the most cases, 12, occurred in July, and the majority of cases, 19, occurred on Mondays and Wednesdays. The chi-square test results indicated significant differences in bullying-related suicides across junior high school grades (p < 0.001).

Conclusions: This study provides explicit findings from a concrete analysis of the reality of suicides resulting from bullying. These findings can contribute to suicide prevention efforts for Japanese youth.

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© 2025 The Japanese Association of School Health
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