Bullying in a Japanese school takes a variety of different forms, ranging from teasing to serious physical abuse. The victims are usually ridiculed by a group of bullies. For example, they are forced to perform comical acts for everyone to laugh at. Bullies may write malicious words on the victim’s textbooks or notebooks and steal or hide the victim’s possessions to make fun of him. Victims are often forced to run errands for bullies. Moreover, many victims are forced to steal money (usually from their mothers’ purse) to give to the bullies. Kumagai points out that incidents of physical abuse increase with the students’ age, occurring most frequently at senior high schools and victims are in many cases abused by offenders in the same age group (1996). Although the victims face many different types of humiliation, bullied victims usually keep their problem to themselves, hiding it from their family, teachers, and even from the police. Kumagai stresses that the reasons for bullying derive from problems within the family or from the interrelationship between victim, family, school, and society. For Kumagai, Japan’s materialistic advancement has not included the psychological and subjective dimensions of nurturing that are essential for proper adolescent development, reflecting the opposing elements of tradition and modernity in Japanese society. Nishiyama also found that bullies and victims often share common problems, such as being raised in troubled homes. Nishimaya found that many bullies and victims were raised by alcoholic, workaholic, or estranged parents. Drug abuse and gambling problems were also present in many of the families. For Nishiyama, these complex and murky background issues crystallized into one phrase: adult children of dysfunctional families. Cross-cultural Study of Discrimination in a Homogeneous Society From an American standpoint, it is sometimes difficult to understand patterns of discrimination in a homogeneous society like Japan. That is, Americans often ask, “Why do Japanese discriminate against other Japanese?” Here in the United States, it seems that wherever we go, racial problems follow us. Discrimination or segregation in the United States may seem to occur as a result of racial differences. This racial diversity and complexity in the United States can sometimes be helpful to a newcomer. When a person joins a new group, they often seek out others from the same racial or ethnic background both to identify with and as protection from other groups. This equation, however, doesn’t work in Japanese society. In other words, patterns of discrimination or segregation in a homogeneous society take a different form from those examined in the United States, which is ethnically complex, providing sociologists with different research questions. In terms of examination of discrimination or segregation between these two different societies: the United States and Japan, it is significant to observe the objects of discrimination. Bullying in a Japanese school is not the group-against-group gang fighting that occurs in the U.S. Rather, bullying in a Japanese school consists of one person falling victim to a group of bullies. This individual-group conflict creates a unique characteristic for the examination of discrimination in a homogeneous society. Nishiyama maintains that bullying is a dangerously addictive power game. Once the participants become caught up in the game, it is difficult to escape from its psychological grip. Bullying is not confined to the relationship between the victim and the bullies. One of the eminent characteristics of discrimination in a homogeneous society is the fact that there is no way out for the victim. Watching on the sidelines are the silent spectators, the other students, who in their effort not to be the victims themselves lend their passive support to the bullies.