On November 27, an email was received by the administrator of the website Japan Probe. Signed by Mr Akiyama Masayuki, the message demanded that the site’s administrator remove two links to YouTube videos in a post that he had made on November 10. Akiyama, who identified himself as the Chief of the School Security and Health Section of the Hokkaido Board of Education, wrote:

We are afraid that the student who was originally bullied may suffer secondary harm through the posting of these images once again. I think this is a grave problem and one that infringes on this student’s human rights.

I sincerely hope this situation can be remedied soon.
If you have some questions, please contact me.

(The full text of this email has been reproduced at the end of this post.)

It should be explained that the videos in question had already been removed from YouTube. When clicked, the video displayed the message, “This video is no longer available.” This message has been displayed since at least November 12. How do I know? I posted the same videos here on Trans-Pacific Radio on November 10. They are still there, although the videos obviously don’t work; those that Akiyama objected to are the first and fifth on that post.

If the videos no longer work, what’s the objection?

Akiyama sems to have taken issue with the fact that the blurry ‘preview’ image is still viewable, despite the fact that no individuals can be clearly identified in these blurred-out images. Should this be the actual problem, it ought to be taken up with YouTube, not with websites that linked to the content. If YouTube has deleted the videos, the preview image should no longer exist. The images are not cached in my machine, which means they come from YouTube’s server - which means that YouTube still holds a frame of the supposedly ‘deleted’ video.

But I digress. On November 27, Japan Probe’s administrator emailed us, asking if we had received a similar email from Akiyama. We had not, and still have not. In fact, we had been waiting for such an email, since we planned on immediately posting it here on Trans-Pacific Radio. Why do such a thing?

We believe that the Hokkaido Board of Education has no interest in protecting its students from ’secondary harm.’ We believe that the Board of Education is seeking to cover up any and all evidence that bullying is going on in its schools. It is seeking to cover up its own incompetence and complicity in the endemic, systemic problem, known as bullying, that continues to be a scourge of Japan’s schools.

In his email, Akiyama makes it clear that the bullying is not the problem. In his view, the fact that people can see evidence of violence in his schools is the problem. His claim that a link to a blurry image of a video that no longer exists somehow violates the student’s human rights is spurious at best. He cites no relevant statutes or legislation that would support his claim. Any such claim should be made by a lawyer.

He seeks to remove any and all attention that can be brought to the problem, in an effort to make it go away. Unfortunately, this is a perfect example of the mindset that was explained in Garrett DeOrio’s recent editorial on bullying in Japan that appeared on this website. Mr Akiyama: Sir, human rights are violated when students are beaten up on your watch.

In his reply to Akiyama, the administrator of Japan Probe asked Akiyama to tell him exactly what the legal grounds of his request for removal were. A week later, no reply was received, and the administrator of Japan Probe decided to post the text of the email along with his thoughts on it. Mr Akiyama, if protecting the children is truly so important to you, why don’t you answer a simple question? I mean, really, seriously: if protecting the children in your schools is actually your motivation for demanding that websites censor their content (content that already been shown on television in Japan), why can’t you at least write back?

Awareness is one way we can fight bullying. Those in power do not want to see awareness grow because it embarrasses them. It shows that they are, essentially, incompetent.

On the other hand, we want the bullying to stop. We have been working to build awareness, and fight incompetence. We ask that you spread the word, and reproduce the email. Show the world what’s going on at the administrative level of Japan’s schools.

If you’re wondering whether or not bullying is still a serious issue in Japan’s schools, just today four teenagers in Tokyo were arrested for beating and stripping one of their classmates and taking nude photos of him.

The full text of Akiyama’s email:

From: kyoiku.sports1@pref.hokkaido.lg.jp
To: japanprobe
Date: Nov 27, 2006 10:22 AM
Subject: Please allow me to urgently request your cooperation in a serious matter.

To the manager of the web site,

Please allow me to urgently request your cooperation in a serious matter.
My name is Akiyama. I am the chief of the School Security and Health Section at the Hokkaido Board of Education in Japan.

I’d like to request that you delete the content at the link

(http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=688)

on your web site. This web page contains the images that show a senior high school student being bullied.

In Japan, tragic matters, such as bullying-related suicides, have received much attention in the news recently. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan, the Hokkaido Board of Education, and many concerned institutions make every effort to care for and protect the lives of children every day.

Only too regrettably, a previous student of Hokkaido Hakuryo Senior High School posted the images on his web site. His web site was linked another web site. The High School requested him to delete these images, and the manager of the linked web site to delete the web page. I made sure these images and the web page were deleted.

However, National Broadcasting in Thailand televised the images, and now the images are visible to everyone again through your web site.

We are afraid that the student who was originally bullied may suffer secondary harm through the posting of these images once again. I think this is a grave problem and one that infringes on this student’s human rights.

I sincerely hope this situation can be remedied soon.
If you have some questions, please contact me.

November 22, 2006
Hokkaido Board of Education
School Security and Health Section
Chief Akiyama Masayuki
Tel xxx-xxx-xxxx(ext.xx-xx)
Fax xxx-xxx-xxxx