Teaching and Learning in Japanese Elementary Schools: a Context for Understanding Journal article by Nancy Sato; PJE. Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 68, 1993

Based on my observations, severe forms of bullying and isolation seem rare, but the extent and degree to which these cases exist need to be researched with great care. According to Japanese informants, the practice is more common than my observations suggest. The kinds of students who may be ostracized are: returnees (those who have studied in foreign countries and therefore behave less like "Japanese"); ethnic or non-Japanese speaking minorities; minorities who are Japanese, but because of a particular Japanese concept of "cleanliness" and ritual purity have endured centuries of discrimination (the burakumin ); or, more recently, atomic bomb victims.

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