Okinawa AMICUS International: Basic Policy for the Prevention of Ijime
Preface
All children possess an equal right to receive education, protected by school, home andthe surrounding area, so as to be able to develop freely in pursuit of their dreams andgoals for the future. Ijime however, in addition to being a violation of this right to receive
an education, poses also the danger that not only substantial impact is made upon thehealthy development and character formation of children subjected to it, but that it canbecome a threat to physical well-.being and life itself.
In view of this the Educational Trust Amicus Kokusai Gakuen (hereafter ‘Amicus’)has, based upon the 2013 Ijime Boushi Taisaku Suishin Hou (hereafter ‘the law’)’s
provisions per Article 12, and also the Basic Policy for the Prevention of Ijime, determinedby the Minister for Education October 11th 2013, (hereafter the ‘National Basic
Policy’) has set down a Basic Policy for the Prevention of Ijime, and adopted a numberof mechanisms in order to prevent ijime, to ensure early detection, early responses andearly elimination.
However, with a view to reforming those parts of the existing policy that were causing
difficulties in schools, and as a new addition to reinforce areas in the existing law thatwere insufficient、on March 14th 2017 the Basic Policy for the Prevention of Ijime wasrevised. At Amicus, to consolidate an environment where children can study with peaceof mind, and aiming to become a school where anyone can shine in pursuit of their
dreams and ambitions, we sought to review our own Basic Policy for the Prevention of
Ijime.
Through this, the promotion of a comprehensive and effective policy to combat ijime,and the construction of a framework to look after the children, we are seeking to realize
an Amicus in which all students can develop healthily and pursue their dreams amid
optimal interpersonal relationships.

Ⅰ

Fundamental thinking regarding Ijime policy

１Core Philosophy

Ijime is something that can happen with any person in any grade or organization。
Hence based upon the shared consciousness that ijime is a violation of human rights
and behavior that as a human being should never be tolerated, in order to prevent ijime
before it occurs, to detect it early, to respond early and eliminate it early, in combination
with the prefecture and local/regional organizations, with parents and concernedbodies in the region, we will move forward with the building of a school that is safe andsecure.

２

Definition of Ijime`Ijime’ is used herein to mean, as per Article 2 of the law, “Behavior with physical or
psychological effects, including online conduct, directed towards a child or children
belonging to a school by another child or children with an ongoing personal
relationship with the child or children, which causes distress to the affected child orchildren.

３

Acknowledgement of Ijime

The various problems arising among children and students differ according to theinterpersonal relationships, the origins, the surroundings and the background situation,and individual responses to the same behavior may vary greatly. Accordingly, it is not bytypes of behavior that ijime is identified, but through reference to the nature of the
injury felt by the child subjected to it, and ijime is to be acknowledged as being suchthrough psychological understanding.

４

Perception of Ijime○ Ijime can occur with any child, in any grade or group.
○ Ijime is a violation of human rights and is never acceptable behavior.
○ Ijime often takes place where adults do not notice, and is hard to detect.
○ The belief that the target of ijime is to blame is wrong.
○ Ijime can manifest in ways that bring it into contact with criminal legal sanction,such as violence, extortion or coercion。
○ Ijime is a problem that calls into question the mentoring and management ofstudents by the staff of the school.
○ Ijime has substantial connection with the way children are brought up at home.
○ Ijime is a problem that demands that the school, parents, local authorities and allconnected each perform their roles and combine in seeking its prevention anderadication.

５○

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of the school
Amicus will through educational activities as a whole strive to inculcate a spirit thathas respect for life and thinks of society and the hearts of others.
Furthermore, along with daily efforts to prevent ijime, we will attain a common
understanding regarding recognition of ijime, and where it is detected will respond as
an organization to eliminate it.
○ The responsibilities of parents and guardians
Parents and guardians will strive to cooperate in mechanisms to prevent ijime, tocorrectly identify ijime, and to teach the children in their care that ijime is a violation ofhuman rights that shall not be tolerated.
They will also strive to be proactive in alerting and consulting with the school andrelated organizations where there is concern that ijime may be taking place.
○ The responsibilities of childrenChildren should not engage in ijime.
Where a child is subject to ijime, or discovers ijime taking place, or is consulted
regarding ijime, he or she will strive to be courageous and consult with family, schoolor related organizations.
○ The responsibilities of local citizens
Local citizens will in addition to watching over children in their area and checking
they are ok endeavor to create an environment in conjunction with local authorities
where all children can feel safe.
Furthermore, local citizens should, if they discover ijime, endeavor to provide
information at once to the municipality, school and related organizations.

Ⅱ

Implementation of Measures by Amicus

１ Formulate the Basic Policy and put structures in place⑴ Formulation of Amicus Basic Policy for Prevention of Ijime
It is Amicus where the children spend the large part of their day, and form most of
their interpersonal relationships outside of family. And when one considers that
almost all recognized cases of bullying occur within the context of humanrelationships formed at Amicus, it is clear that the role and responsibility of the school
regarding prevention is enormous.
With this in mind, and based also on the provisions of Article 13 of the law, Amicus
will draw up and regularly update a Basic Policy for the Prevention of Ijime that will
promote efforts to comprehensively, effectively and practically prevent ijime at theschool.
The Basic Policy for the Prevention of Ijime will contain within it full and specificinformation as to measures and activities to prevent ijime within Amicus.
It will furthermore through display on the website be made public and available toparents and local people.
⑵

Installation of a body within Amicus to prevent ijime
Measures to prevent ijime are not dependent for progress upon the efforts ofindividual teachers. They must be conducted by Amicus acting as a whole, in
conjunction with families and relevant local organizations.
With this in mind, and based also upon the provisions of Article 22 of the law, inorder that the measures to prevent ijime at Amicus are effective, a body will be set up
for countermeasures to prevent ijime that in addition to the teaching staff of theschool contains experts in welfare and psychology such as school counsellors andschool social workers and others concerned, and measures implemented to makestudents and parents cognizant of the existence and activities of this body.

２ Implementation of enforcement by the school⑴ Efforts for the prevention of ijime①
Prevention through the furtherance of bond-building and a sense of belonging
within the school.
The school will push forward with the creation of space where all children canfeel secure, a sense of self-worth and self fulfilment, and with the creation ofemotional bonds whereby children can through autonomous and independent
activities, and activities interacting with different age groups, feel their individual
value as someone who is of help to others.
②
Prevention through promotion of purposeful, systematic and continuous
efforts in the school to eliminate ijime
Amicus will create a Plan to Eliminate Ijime throughout the year and aiming toeradicate the problem of ijime pursue the prevention of ijime purposefully,
systematically and continuously at an organizational level.
③
Prevention through the institution of Ijime Prevention MonthIjime Prevention Month will be fixed as October and November of each year andalong with efforts to redouble the fulfillment of activities to prevent ijime proceededwith on a daily basis per the Plan to Eliminate Ijime, with establishment ofsoudanbako (=Help and Advice Box)and anti-ijime proclamations from student

bodies such as student government aiming to enhance awareness among
students and raise autonomous and voluntary practical effectiveness, thatchildren think for themselves about ijime, seek to prevent it, and acquire thereby
the power to act individually and collectively.
⑵ Efforts for the early detection of ijime①
Early detection through common understanding regarding the recognition ofijime.
In order to make sure that suffering is not prolonged on account of oversightand failure to recognize ijime for what it is, we will pursue common understandingof ijime through specific examples, and also seek to inform and educate parents.
②
Early detection through a variety of efforts to not miss the signs of ijime
In Amicus, as well as building up efforts to further enhance teachers’ ability todetect, from daily careful observation, conversation, regular questionnaires, daily
journals, individual interviews et al., the signs of ijime that children exhibit, teachers
will respond swiftly where students seek help and advice.
③
Early detection through efforts to make use of the observations of parents andothers connected to the school
Fluctuations in friendship relations can be detected also outside of school.
Information will be proactively sought from parents, guardians and others
regarding how children are when coming to and from school, their after-school
activities and how they are at home.
⑶ Efforts to resolve ijime quickly through early responses to it①
Where staffs become aware of ijime, they will speedily report this to the bodies at
Amicus that deal with bullying, and it will be dealt with as an organization, not by
the individual alone. Moreover, with cooperation of parents, other organizations
involved and specialist bodies, steps will be taken with regard to both the target(s)and perpetrator(s). It may be the case that circumstances warrant flexibility
regarding the mentoring given to the children, such as avoiding the actual word
‘ijime’, but this does not affect its recognition as being ijime and consequent
information sharing.
②
Early response and early resolution through consolidation of frameworks formutual cooperation across grade levels.
The school will consolidate frameworks between grade levels to enable proper
guidance and advice to be given to perpetrators and support to be given to targetsof ijime.
③
Early response and early resolution through investigation and research into theperformance of policies to prevent ijime.
We will proceed with investigative research into the performance of policies toprevent ijime, the necessary particulars of how support is provided for targets ofijime, how guidance and advice is given to perpetrators, also how ijime is being
handled where it is occurring online and elsewhere.
④
Gakuen Evaluation
School evaluations will evaluate specific efforts and results related to ijime issues
based upon the Amicus Basic Policy for the Prevention of Ijime and seek
improvement further to the results of that evaluation.
⑤
Elimination of Ijime

Where three months has passed without recurrence of ijime towards theaffected student, and where that student is affirmed as no longer feelingpsychological distress, the ijime will be judged to have been eliminated. However,given the possibility of it reappearing, routine careful observation will be maintained.

３．Organization to prevent ijime「Ijime Prevention and Countermeasures Committee」
Consists of：Principal, Vice Principal, SAAM, Student Guidance Officer, Grade Rep、
School Nurse
Roles：A) Formulation and review of the Basic PolicyB) Prevention of ijimeC) Responses to ijimeD) In-school PD to improve staff training with regards to ijimeE) Emergency Response
Meets ： Scheduled meeting once a month, also impromptu meetings asnecessitated by emergence of ijime cases.

４．Flow chart and organizational structure for dealing with ijime〇Thorough handling at class/subject level

Class
Class rep・Subject teacher et al.

〇Understanding children’s mental health
Conducting surveys make use of ConCare〇 Thorough handling at grade/subject level
Grade

Grade-level ijime prevention framework

Grade rep・Subject teacher et al.

Share survey info, discuss measures〇 Understanding and sharing of information
throughout the schoolStudent Guidance （ Team ５ ）Ctte.
Student Guidance officer
ctte./team members

with〇 Ascertaining the full picture of the
problematic behavior, and implementing
measures to solve and prevent it〇Whole-school understanding and response
Support framework for class teachers andgrade reps.

Administration
Student
Guidance

Grade
TeachersClass
Teacher

Nurse,
Counselor

All staff

Teachers with astrongconnection to
relevant
students

Ijime Prevention and〇Formulation and review of the Basic Policy

Countermeasures Committee〇Prevention of ijime

Principal, Vice Principal, SAAM,
Student Guidance Officer, Grade
Rep 、 School Nurse 、（ SHinE
Representative(s) and/or school
counsellor as necessary）〇Responses seeking to eliminate ijime〇 Planning of in-school PD to improve staff
training regarding ijime

５．Ijime prevention year plan
Class・Grade・Teams
4月

Lectures・Class・Year Group

Prevention Measures
Build relationships

Early Detection
Survey/Questionnaire

Thorough measures

6月
7月
8月
9月
10 月
11 月
12 月
1月
2月
3月

Convening Ijime Countermeasures Ctte.
In the event of an incident

5月

Survey/Questionnaire

Human Rights Day
Survey/Questionnaire

Ⅲ

Handling of serious situations

Regarding serious situations the Basic Policy and also the Guidelines concerninginvestigation into serious ijime situations（MEXT, March 2017））」will be applied as
appropriate.
１ Definition of Serious Ijime Situation○ This occurs where there is suspicion that serious harm to life, health or property
has occurred from ijime; the following are examples that would be in this category.
e.g.
Student has attempted suicide
Student has suffered serious physical injury
Student has suffered substantial loss of possessions
A psychological disorder has manifested itself○ Where it is recognized that there is a suspicion that a student has been forced tomiss a substantial amount of school on account of ijime
A substantial amount of missed school would be 30 days in a year, bearing in mind
the definition of school absenteeism. However, if a student is continuously absent fora specific period, immediate investigation will commence.
Furthermore, where notification is received from a child or parent/guardian that
serious ijime is occurring, from that point onwards Amicus shall, even if bullying is notthought to be the cause, or prima facie that the situation is not one to be categorized
as serious, investigate and report as per a serious ijime situation.
２ Investigation and responses to an occurrence⑴ Response to occurrence of a serious ijime situation
Amicus will report the occurrence of a serious ijime situation to parent/guardian(s),the Board of Trustees and the Board of Directors.
The bodies to investigate serious ijime situations are Amicus, the Board of Directors
and Board of Trustees. Which body will be in charge will be determined by the Boardof Trustees and Board of Directors based upon the handling necessary, thedemands of the parent/guardian(s)and the presence or absence of impediment to
the educational activity of the school.
Where the main body investigating is the Board of Trustees and Board of Directors,
these will be, as noted above, the Amicus Ijime Policy Committee, the organization
which investigates, as determined by Article 28 of the law.
Where the main body investigating is the school itself、the school shall be theorganization for policies towards ijime based on Article 22 of the law. In this case,
based upon clause 3 of Article 28 of the law, the Board of Trustees and the Boardof Directors will provide appropriate support and necessary guidance to Amicus as it
implements investigation.
⑵ Implementation of investigation○ Where it is possible to interview the target of the ijime
Investigation both by questionnaire and interview will be conducted for theaffected student and in some cases other students at the school and/or staff.
During such investigations utmost priority will be given to the protection of thetarget of the ijime and to students who have provided information.
○ Where it is not possible to interview the target of the ijime
Where it is not possible to hear from the targeted student owing tohospitalization, death or similar, the investigation will commence asking what thewishes and opinions of the parents are and prompt consultation had with themregarding the course of the investigation.
○ Where suicide has resulted
For investigations in cases that have led to suicide, reference will be made to the
MEXT Guiding Principles for Investigating Student Suicide (March 2011, issued by
the Meeting Group for Cooperation in Research and Investigation Related to Child
Suicide) and the Things Teachers Need to Know about Child Suicide Prevention(March 2009, published by MEXT).
３

Handling of Findings of Investigations
Amicus will report findings to the Board of Trustees and the Board of Directors.
If based upon the findings of the investigation either the subject of the ijime or
his/her parents/guardians so wish, Amicus shall accept written submission of theobservations of the subject of the ijime or his/her parents or guardians, and produce
and report the results of the investigation.
Furthermore, in accordance with the responsibility to provide the facts and othernecessary related information to the subject of the ijime or his/her parents or
guardians、the Board of Trustees and Board of Directors, or Amicus, will make clear
what the facts of the investigation are and explain this to the subject of the ijime or
his/her parents or guardians.
In providing this information, full care and consideration to the privacy of otherstudents and the personal data of third parties will be given in providing it
appropriately.

４

Re-investigating and the handling of findings
The Board of Trustees and Board of Directors having received from Amicus a reportof the findings of an investigation, where it is recognized that there is a need to in orderto prevent the occurrence of similar serious situations or for coping with the serious
situation that is the subject of the report, will in accordance with Clause 1 of Article 28of the law conduct an investigation (hereafter‘re-investigation’)regarding thefindings of the (initial) investigation .
The re-investigation will be conducted by the Amicus Problem Re-investigation
Committee.
Being conscious of the responsibility to provide appropriate information to thesubject of the ijime or his/her parents or guardians regarding the reinvestigation、
information about the progress of the investigation and its findings will be explained at
appropriate times and in an appropriate manner.
Furthermore, the Board of Trustees and the Board of Directors, based upon thefindings of the re-investigation will take the necessary measures within their authority
and responsibility to provide focused support to Amicus such as deployment of aschool counsellor to prevent outbreaks of a similar nature occurring and to deal withthe case under investigation.
The Board of Trustees and the Board of Directors will also when conducting a
re-investigation give full necessary consideration to maintaining the privacy of
individuals and report the findings to the Parents’ Association

Ⅳ

Other important considerations for measures for the prevention of ijime

The Board of Trustees and Board of Directors, taking into consideration the situation
regarding law enforcemen, will consider review of the Basic Policy in the Amicus Ijime
Countermeasures Communication and Consultation Committee and if considerednecessary will take necessary action based upon the results of this.

Specific Measures in relation to Ijime（１）Preventive Measures① Promote classrooms wherein children care for their peers, respect one anotherand develop together.
② Strive in class to recognize children’s efforts and nurture their sense of
self-worth.
③ Through educational activities as a whole seek to fully educate regarding morality
and human rights, and move forward with classes that foster consideration forothers and the preciousness of life.
④ Move forward with moral information education to deepen understanding
among children of correct behavior online, and provide ongoing guidance toenable them to avoid being either the target or perpetrator of online ijime.
（２）Measures for Early Detection① Regular educational counselling based on questionnaires and all efforts madenot to overlook small signs the students might show.
② Efforts to build warm bonds between teachers and students, and relationshipsof trust with parents/guardians、to ensure the maintenance of an environment
wherein consultation can easily take place.
③ Through promoting awareness of the school counsellor, and introduction of
external consultation services like ijime hotlines, provide and maintain anenvironment where students can seek advice easily.
（３）Measures against ijime① Respond as an organization with the Ijime Countermeasures Committee taking
the lead whenever ijime is discovered or reported.
② Respond from the position of allowing no harm to come to the targeted student.
③ Support and guide the perpetrator(s)firmly and based upon educational
considerations.
④ Handle the situation with shared understanding among staff, cooperation withparents and guardians and in concert with the school counsellor and otherexperts, the police, children’s consultation office and other relatedorganisations⑤ Speak to groups where ijime has happened, and promote and encourage groups
where ijime does not go unnoticed, and does not occur.
⑥ For dealing with online cases, act where necessary in concert with the police, theLegal Affairs Bureau and similar bodies.

６． Handling of Serious Situations（１）A serious situation is one determined to be so by the Principal, being one where it
can be suspected that serious damage to the life, physical or mental well-being or
property of a student has occurred.

（２）In addition to immediately notifying the prefecture, the Principal will take charge
and the school will take the lead in responding to the situation.
（３）When it is the school conducting the investigation into the facts, the Ijime
Countermeasures Committee will be convened and specialists added as appropriate in
response to the facts.
（ ４ ） Information will be provided in an appropriate manner to the child andparents/guardians regarding the results of the investigation.

７．Verification and Review of the School’s Steps Taken（１）The steps taken to prevent ijime, beginning with the Basic Policy For the Preventionof Ijime, will be reviewed with a PDCA cycle and every effort made to ensure they
are effective.
（２）Evaluation by teaching staff of particulars regarding ijime, and school evaluationquestionnaires for parents, will be conducted and validation of the measures taken in
relation to ijime made by the Ijime Countermeasures Committee.