New Awareness for Child Abuse

The Japanese Medical Society on Child Abuse and Neglect, a body of medical specialists, social workers and nurses met last month to try to bring new awareness to the issue of child abuse in Japan. Apparently there were 42,662 cases of child abuse reported in the year up to last March. Considering there were 317,526 such reported cases in Australia between 2007 and 2008 (a country with only 1/6 the population), there would seem to be a very large amount of under-reporting going on here.

Social taboos are a major topic in Japan, and the issue of child abuse is one of those that few people are inclined to speak very openly about. And with the cultural tendency in Japan for people to avoid confrontation, this becomes even more of a potential problem. The group above are looking at this issue from the medical perspective, but there is plenty of scope for education of parents, teachers, and other parties that deal frequently with children. Child abuse can be a very subtle, yet incredibly debilitating thing. And without discussion and education on the subject there can be problems related to both under-reporting as well as over-reporting…

A few weeks ago I heard a story from someone that surprised me a great deal. Apparently the grandparents had gathered to see their young 3 year old grandson, and had spent the day out at an event. After they came home, the grandson was placed in his ‘Ultra-man’ costume, and began playing around with his dad, who was making a lot of monster noises – making the boy scream at the top of his voice. A short time later the police arrived at the doorstop. They had been contacted by an (unnamed) neighbor, and had come to check that the child was ok. Up to this point, the story is at least partially understandable. But the police then proceeded to demand that the boy (who was obviously dressed in a uniform and running around in a rowdy manner) take his clothes off so that the police officer could check if he had been hit… To say the least, the friend was stunned by the inept way in which the police officer handled the whole situation.

Now I’m not saying that the police shouldn’t have checked this out. They should have. And certainly neighbors, teachers, friends and others should always be on the lookout for potential abuse. But there is such a lack of discourse on these issues in Japan that these officials still have no real idea how to handle the situation tactfully and professionally.

I find it utterly incomprehensible that there are as many as 30-40 times as many cases of real child abuse per capita in Australia as there are in Japan – I know us Aussies are a rough bunch, but not that much…. What that means is that there is a serious under-reporting of abuse in Japan. The work of the Japanese Medical Society on Child Abuse and Neglect is admirable, but this is an issue that requires a much larger social focus than it is getting.

I would also love to see some studies about potential links between child abuse (or at least cruelty) and ‘hikikomori’ (social withdrawal). Many commentators on ‘hikikomori’ like to attribute the issue to problems with youth fulfilling their ‘social expectations‘ in modern Japanese society. But I would very much like to know how many of these socially withdrawn youth have borne the brunt of abuse (or at the very least cruelty). Certainly this is not the case in all instances, but with such low numbers of child abuse reporting and the taboos associated with discussing it, it wouldn’t surprise me if this is a major factor…