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Nearly 300,000 elementary and junior high school students refused to go to school in fiscal 2022, according to an education ministry survey.

The record figure was a 22.1 percent increase from the previous fiscal year.

“Economic uncertainties due to the (COVID-19) pandemic perhaps caused stress in children, possibly leading to an increase in school absences,” said Noriko Yamano, a professor of child and family welfare at Osaka Metropolitan University.

In response, the ministry has formulated an “urgent acceleration plan” in cooperation with the Children and Families Agency to counter truancy and bullying. Part of the plan will be put into place this fiscal year.

The plan will, for example, expedite efforts such as strengthening community-based initiatives to support children who have not been attending school and feel disconnected from learning.

By identifying common factors leading to serious bullying, which can cause students to skip out on school, the ministry also aims to ramp up measures through revised guidelines.

According to the survey results that the ministry will release later this month, the number of non-attending students in fiscal 2022 totaled 299,049. Of those, 105,113 were elementary school pupils, while 193,936 were junior high school students. The total is up from the 244,940 reported in the previous fiscal year.

The results also show 3.2 percent of all enrolled students in the nation were truants.

Around 40 percent of these students, or 114,217, did not consult with professionals inside or outside of their schools, an all-time high.

The number of bullying cases confirmed at elementary, junior high and high schools in fiscal 2022 increased by 10 percent from the previous fiscal year to 681,948.

This increase is believed to be influenced by club activities and school events resuming, which were scaled back due to the pandemic, leading to more interactions among students.

Along with stress amid the pandemic, one contributing factor to so many students not attending school is the wider recognition of incidents that were not previously considered as bullying.

At the end of the fiscal 2022, bullying had been resolved in nearly 80 percent of the cases, or 525,773.

The number of serious cases, in which students were forced to be absent for a long time or apparently suffered severe physical or mental harm, was 923, up 217 from the previous fiscal year. Of these, 357 cases were not recognized as bullying before severe harm was identified. 

The number of suicides among elementary, junior high and high school students in fiscal 2022 was 411, up 43 from the previous fiscal year. The figure was the second highest.

The most common circumstance faced by those who took their lives was “unknown,” accounting for 60 percent, or 225 students.

Violent acts involving elementary, junior high and high school students reached a record high 95,426 cases.

“There is a severe manpower shortage to support students not attending school,” Yamano said.

“There’s an urgent need to place professionals, such as school counselors, as regular staff in each school and ensure both students and teachers can comfortably seek advice and quickly connect with such support services,” she added.

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