Japanese Scholar to Discuss Bullying

On 25 April, Wednesday, at 1 p.m., Japanese scholar Dr. Toshio Ohsako will deliver the lecture Impact and Challenges of Bullying (Ijime) in Japanese Education and Society at the Centre for Asian Studies (Vaižganto Str. 30). The lecture is part of the MA course “Postwar Japan’s Society and Politics”, but everyone may participate.

The lecture will focus on the nature of Japanese ijime (bullying) prevailing in Japanese schools, with a particular emphasis placed on its conceptual issues, three historical phases of Ijime since 1980s, orientation of intervention programs and policies, and individual, educational and social impacts and challenges. The results of cross-national research on bullying will also be discussed.

Dr. Toshio Ohsako defended his PhD in Educational Psychology at Michigan State University, USA. He has worked at several UNESCO institutes in Hamburg, Paris, Geneva for long periods of time. He was a visiting professor at several universities, including the University of Stokholm. His research interests focus on educational problems, especially bullying. Some of the books he has written or edited include Violence at School: Global Issues and Interventions (1998), Sekai no Ijime: So no Genjo to Torikumi (Bullying Around the World: Main Issue and Coping Strategies) (1998), Media Literacy as a Tool for Lifelong Learning (2008), etc.

You are welcome to participate.