1
In early 2018, Konomi found himself in a deteriorating mental state. He tried to alleviate this by staying socially active, but the results were not obvious and he continued to have nightmares and “ghosts” in his bed.
By this time, he had been out of the “silo” for more than six months.
He was about to turn 20, had finished his time studying at X Island High School in Japan, and had entered the university of his choice, with a clear line of demarcation between his future and his past. But he was sad to find that the dark experience he had had was over, but experiences similar to his were still happening in a steady stream.
On March 9, 2018, the new Supreme x NBA x NIKE co-branded limited edition merchandise from the hip brand Supreme went on sale, and a video of five Chinese students beating up a security guard in front of a Supreme store in Tokyo’s Shibuya district went viral in Konomi’s circle of friends:.
Video of five Chinese students beating up a security guard in front of a Supreme store in Tokyo’s Shibuya district (Photo by interviewer)
The clash started when an 18-year-old boy was found to be using someone else’s driver’s license when the store clerk was handing out collation tickets, and the boy was then asked to leave the line by security and told that he needed to get back in line again. The international student grabbed the folding chair next to him, causing a 29-year-old security officer to suffer head and shoulder injuries and be hospitalized for two weeks.
Konomi quickly identified the perpetrators in the video as his high school classmates – a notoriously violent group of Chinese students on campus at X Island High School.
Konomi doesn’t know what happened between the Supreme fight in March, when the perpetrators were arrested in May, and their release in June, except that, as far as he can remember, this is not the first time they have walked away from a violent incident.
Whenever he thinks about his long and difficult high school life, Konomi’s heart is filled with regret, guilt and regrets. Konomi became increasingly anxious that there might be countless more chances for these abusers to walk away in the future.
In his repeated inner torment, Konomi worried about his mental condition and underwent psychiatric counseling at the university he attended. The doctor advised him to exercise more and to keep a journal of his affairs. In the process of recording, he developed the idea of making a video of the contents.
On October 10, 2018, Konomi posted his first video on a well-known video site about several instances of school violence committed by Chinese against Chinese on his high school campus in a foreign country.
It was through this video that I reached out to him.
2
In October 2013, Konomi came to Japan to study at Meitoku Private High School after completing his midterm exams at home.
Konomi came to Japan with the clear goal of preparing to study anime in college. There were no extracurricular activities at Meitoku Private School, and the daily life was very regular, with shopping trips allowed once a month. There, Konomi woke up at 5:30 every day to read a book, “If I can’t work harder than people at home, what’s the point of going abroad?”
But the downside of Matilda’s private school was also obvious – the location was too remote and the information was closed.
By chance, Konomi saw an admissions brochure for X Island High School online, which described a private school that not only had a rigorous and well-managed system, but also offered an animation course that he loved. He searched Chinese websites and saw a number of “sister agreements” between public high schools in China and X Island High School, as well as many visits by X Island High School administrators to high schools in China, many of which were national model high schools. However, he did not find any information about violence at X Island High School.
After making some phone inquiries, he decided to transfer to X Island High School in September 2014, with his parents’ permission.
Due to lower teaching standards and high enrollment fees, many general private high schools in Japan have seen their overall enrollment decline in recent years due to the social trend of fewer children and a flat economic situation, and some schools even struggled to make ends meet for a while until they gradually returned to profitability by recruiting a large number of overseas students, especially Chinese students.
X Island High School, where Konomi used to attend, is a relatively ordinary private high school of average local reputation, ranking 97th out of 115 high schools in Ibaraki, and is not a large school, with 720 students enrolled as of 2018, 10% of which are Chinese students.
Konomi’s younger brother, G, says that X Island High School’s initial reason for recruiting international students is “probably just to make money.
Rather than recruiting international students, X Island High School is doing a “resource swap” with the students – X Island High School wants “tuition” to keep the school running, while many of the Chinese students who come here are relatively well-off kids who couldn’t make it through school at home, and are just trying to get a diploma and then go on to some low-threshold private university in Japan to pave the way for future job hunting or naturalization.
“Our [students who want to study] kind of are ‘accidental intruders’.” G said.
But before entering the school, Konomi and G, both had no idea of the reality of the place, and it wasn’t until after doing the transfer that Konomi realized X Island High School was not quite what it was advertised to be: the student dormitories were a good deal smaller than Matilda’s, in the same building as the classrooms, and the cafeteria food was much harder to eat, except for the convenience of getting out: it was a two-hour drive from Tokyo, and every 10 to 20 minutes, there was a direct bus to Tokyo.
Tuition fee of 140,000 RMB per year for X Island High School cafeteria meals (Photo by interviewer) Tuition fee of 140,000 RMB per year for X Island High School cafeteria meals (Photo by interviewer)
There is no animation course or counseling as stated in the prospectus, and the art class is taught by an oil painting teacher, and there is not even a counseling room in the study abroad department.
Konomi said that when he was a student at X Island High School, there were two Chinese teachers, one who was responsible for recruiting international students and one who was in charge of administration and was usually not at the school except for recruitment; the teachers who taught the students changed frequently and most of them were from physical education (the high school had been known for its sports students). Most of the teachers who teach the students are from physical education (this high school used to be famous for its sports students). In addition, there are two Japanese “board members” who are responsible for managing the affairs of international students and also for teaching.
Although the actual school situation was not satisfactory, Konomi seemed to have no better option – in Japan, children of foreigners can only apply to local national high schools if one parent has a long-term visa, a work visa or an investment visa, and “permanent resident” status. In Japan, children of foreigners can only apply for admission to a local national high school if one parent has a long-term, work or investment visa and “permanent resident” status. Although X Island High School is falsely advertised, the situation at other private high schools is not much better – there are three similar private high schools near X Island High School, but according to international students, these three schools are not as good as X Island, “the hardware facilities are worse, the environment is worse, only the school violence is I heard that it is better than X Island”.
Most private high schools in Japan do not have any admission criteria for international students, as long as they can afford the tuition, they are eligible for admission. Some private high schools, like X Island High School, do not require a Japanese language level for admission, as long as the student has “studied Japanese for at least one year,” Konomi said, adding that some private high schools also require that students “keep their passports” and force foreign students to turn them in, even though the passport clearly states “No organization or individual may illegally seize it.
Therefore, in these schools, it is up to The Japanese “foreign student councilors” to decide whether the young students can go out and return to their home countries, and how they will be treated in the closed campus, and whoever is close to these teachers in the foreign student community will be more “privileged” among their classmates.
In such an environment, campus violence groups among international students have quietly grown.
3
Before Konomi arrived at X Island High School, a violent group of international students had already existed at the school, and not long after Konomi arrived, a friend pointed out a boy standing in the crowd and warned him, “Be careful of this guy.”
The boy, named Zou Jie, was small, average looking, and in the summer, had a large tattoo that could show down his arm through the short sleeves of his school uniform.
At the end of 2014 and beginning of 2015, campus violence existed at X Island High School, as it did at most high schools in Japan, but systematic, solid violent groups had not yet taken shape. At that time, there were only about 60 international students on campus, and excluding kids from Korea, Indonesia, and Taiwan China, kids from mainland China made up the majority (no more than 50), and some conflicts and friction were quickly abated. Due to the language problem, bullying behaviors such as blackmail and threats basically only happened within the Chinese students, and there were not many fights with international students from other countries and local Japanese students, and the teachers did not curb them in time – things like throwing water and destroying other people’s belongings were not unheard of for Konomi at Matilda Private High School Konomi’s experience at Matilda Private High School was not without incident.
In 2015, X Island High School began expanding its international student enrollment, and it was at this time that second-year student Zou Jie was appointed “leader” by his teachers, responsible for the morning and evening roll call of international students. As a large number of new international students entered the school, violence on campus began to increase, and violent groups among the students gradually formed and grew.
Konomi heard from his classmates that Zoujie was not always close to the teachers – when he first arrived at the school, Zoujie often disobeyed the teachers and clashed with them. The class that Zou Jie was in had many graduating “seniors” that he usually got along with and were happy to teach him some of the “rules” of the school. In their “persuasion”, Zou Jie gradually feel the doorway, send cigarettes and wine, good words, and gradually and the management of international students “director” to get a good relationship. In time, he was not only able to smoke and drink with the teachers, the tattoos in the school uniform showed up, and the teachers would “kindly” remind him. While it was difficult for international students to apply to return to their home countries during the holidays, Zoujie was able to easily apply for a 10-day vacation to visit Bali.
At first, Konomi’s life did not intersect with Zoujie’s. He was in the Japanese N1 class, and Zoujie’s life did not intersect with his. He was in Japanese N1 class and Zou Jie was in Japanese N3 class. The only contact they had was a slight nod of greeting to each other on campus and a game of ping pong during gym class.
After a new group of Chinese students enrolled in April 2015, three new students were soon beaten by a violent group led by Zou Jie. Konomi did not want to “stand up” and get into trouble, and chose to ignore it.
He gradually found that the Chinese students at the school, under the influence of violent groups, involuntarily “took sides” in three categories: those who actively joined Zou Jie and his group; those who usually avoided Zou Jie and had no choice but to deal with them; and those who were bullied by Zou Jie and his group.
Konomi belongs to the second category – most children wish they were in the second category, after all, left their homes to study in Japan, not to fight with others every day to fight to the death, but to complete their studies and dreams. Most students take the attitude that more is better than less and don’t mess with people like Zoujie, but they also don’t fight for unrelated victims.
Konomi thought he could stay out of it until he graduated, but school violence came to him and became a nightmare in his life.
4
In March 2016, Konomi’s friend Zhang Ye and his roommates packed their bags and prepared to move to a new dormitory, but the students who lived in that dorm were slow to vacate their rooms.
The relocation took place one after another, and it took several days to get stuck.
Zhang Ye and his roommates couldn’t wait any longer, so they moved the things out of that dorm on their own, and Konomi also went to help. But when those few students who had been delaying the move came back and saw their belongings being placed outside the dormitory, they immediately got angry and then got into a verbal argument with Zhang Ye. As the friction between the two sides escalated, the group of students called for Zou Jie and his group.
Zou Jie’s group directly to the simple closet in the iron bar removed in hand, Konomi first encountered this scene, subconsciously rushed up to try to block a few for his friend. Zou Jie warned him: “If you block again, you will be beaten together!”
Konomi stopped, frustrated that he did not have enough courage to face the violence – not only because of the strength of Zoujie’s group, but also because of the teachers who stood by and watched – during the beating of Zhang Ye by Zoujie’s group, a friend sneaked away and called for the “director” of the international students, who arrived and did not do anything to stop them except verbally, until later, when one of Zoujie’s group pulled out a knife, a teacher rushed to stop.
Afterwards, the two “directors” to Zhang Ye to the classroom, closed the door to ask him if he was hungry, where there is no injury, but outside the classroom came Zou Jie and other people aggressively looking for Zhang Ye’s voice.
Zhang Ye sat in the classroom and asked the teacher, “Why can’t such a person be withdrawn from school?”
The teacher, in turn, replied, “I want everyone to graduate well.”
That night, when Zhang Ye went to a friend’s birthday party, Zou Jie showed up again with a group of high-profile people, threatening him “not to think of slipping away, this is not over.” But later, Zou Jie and the others did not bother Zhang Ye – there was not much connection between them in study and life, and they soon forgot about Zhang Ye as a person.
In the end, Zou Jie and the others only received a verbal warning from the school.
A month later, another incident of school violence appeared around Konomi, and the victim was his friend Xiao Chen, who transferred to X Island High School after him.
Konomi expressed great regret and remorse when talking about Xiao Chen, saying that he was professionally capable and should have had a bright and promising future, but instead returned home in disgrace because of this school violence.
Xiao Chen’s dormitory was occupied by him and his two younger brothers, and as adolescent boys, they had no qualms about playing around and were inevitably noisy. A few students from the next dormitory felt that their noise was disturbing them and knocked directly on the door asking, “Who’s making noise?”
Faced with the aggressive questioning, Xiao Chen instinctively sensed that something was wrong, so he helped the two students stop and stepped in to say, “It’s me.”
Chen, a newcomer to the school, did not understand the prevalence of violence on X Island High School’s campus, and without any chance to communicate or explain, the dormitory door was slammed shut and the beating began directly without even a countdown.
Konomi passed by Xiao Chen’s dormitory and heard the sound of scolding coming from inside, and it was immediately clear to him what was going on inside – but he stood in front of the door, but did not have the courage to raise his hand and knock on it. Like Konomi, the two students inside the dorm did not dare to speak out or stop Chen when he was being beaten up, but could only watch.
When he took Chen to the infirmary, Konomi looked at his friend’s red and swollen forehead and eyes and was very upset and regretted. Konomi was the one who recommended Xiao Chen to transfer here – at that time, he only saw the advantages of the location, and school violence had not yet burned itself to the ground.
Two days later, Chen withdrew from school at the request of his parents.
After witnessing the bullying of two of his friends, Konomi decided to write an anonymous letter to the school about the violence of Zoujie and others.
5
Determined to expose the school violence of Zou Jie’s group, Konomi began contacting other victims and gathering evidence.
Konomi first approached Yuzu, a former female classmate. Because of her good looks, Yuzu and her two roommates had been “noticed” by Zou Jie when they first transferred to X Island High School. In the case of the “boy-girl” rule, Zou Jie asked the three girls to come to his dormitory and warned that “if you don’t come, you’ll be on your own”.
The girls arrived at Zou Jie’s dormitory, Zou Jie directly asked: “Which of you want to be my girlfriend?” He said that he already had a girlfriend in Tokyo, but he wanted to find another one here. He “listed” the many benefits of being his girlfriend, one of which was “not being bullied.
The girls turned him down. Subsequently, Yuzu and her boyfriend were constantly surrounded by Zou Jie’s group on campus and subjected to unwarranted verbal abuse.
“Do you know why you were bullied? I’m not happy that you’re with someone else!”
“If I see you walking together again, I’m going to punch!”
The remaining two girls were in a similar situation to Yuzu.
Soon after, Yuzu chose to drop out of school.
Yuzu and the other girls were not alone, after Konomi’s video was sent out, he contacted some female students who had attended X Island High School, and several admitted to having sex with Zou Jie, who was a minor at the time of the incident. One of the girls choked up and told Konomi that she was forced to do it “right in Zoujie’s dorm room.
When I asked if the teacher was aware that Zouje was having sex with multiple female students, Konomi did not answer positively, except to say, “The male teacher’s dormitory was next door to Zouje’s dormitory.”
Konomi believes that Zoujie and the others have gone far beyond school violence, “they are committing a crime.”
Most students are afraid to fight back when faced with a violent group on campus. If someone chooses to fight violence with violence, they will only get two results: those who cannot beat the violent group will be beaten worse, and those who can beat them will be subjected to collective cold violence.
There was a physically fit male student who fought back when he was bullied by Zou Jie and the others and beat them. Zou Jie and the others then asked the rest of the students not to speak to the male student or they would be beaten. It wasn’t long afterwards that the male student could not stand the cold violence on campus and had to choose to quit school.
In the international student section of X Island High School, almost every half month, a Chinese student is beaten by Zou Jie and his group, and some even have axes hidden in their dormitories. Of the more than 20 violent incidents Konomi has collected so far, more than 10 people were injured and nearly half of the victims dropped out of school.
On the side of the perpetrators of violence, only one person was expelled, and Zoujie had zero disciplinary records at the time of graduation in 2017.
6
Konomi gave detailed feedback on what he had learned from his classmates through a school questionnaire that filled almost an entire sheet of paper. Since then, he and some of his classmates have submitted several more times to the school’s mailbox and email address, but there was no response from the school until graduation.
Later, according to the process that Konomi learned, the letter was first seen by the school’s senior management, who then passed it on to a special teacher to deal with the situation.
During his time at the school, Zoujie and others often told others that the school’s two international student councilors were very nice to deal with. But Konomi admits that no one in the international student community would think so, except for them. Some international students once followed Zou Jie’s example and gave gifts to the two teachers at the beginning of the new semester, but they were considered “bribes” and not only were the gifts thrown out, but they were also scolded.
In normal days, the international students’ council cares about the students’ study and accommodation, and will have a smiling face when they meet. But once a student shows disobedience or displeases them, the situation immediately becomes different. For example, a student who takes a class that displeases them or submits with a bad attitude during a self-selected class can invite a lot of verbal abuse.
On that rainy night of Dec. 23, 2016, with the pile of paper that held their sunken hopes disappearing like a stone into the deep waters of the silo, Konomi, utterly desperate for the school and “understanding that there was no humanity in this school to speak of,” impulsively stood outside the window and jumped from the second floor, running frantically to the lake to end it all when, fortunately, fear caught him by the ankles.
When he came to his senses, he returned to the gymnasium to take shelter from the rain and was found by a teacher on night patrol. The next day, he was put in a small room by the teacher and ordered to reflect.
This is one of the ways in which students are disciplined at X Island High School. However, there is no clear standard regulation on whether a student should be punished for his behavior, and it is up to the teacher to decide: if the naturally curly hair is not straightened, he will be put in a small room; if he is reminded several times on dormitory cleaning day and still does not actively clean, he will be put in a small room; if he comes back after 7 pm roll call, he will be put in a small room; if there are illegal electrical appliances in the dormitory, he will be put in a small room.
However, if a student’s head is pushed against a bedpost and the bedpost is bent, he or she will not be locked up; if a dozen or more people beat one person with iron bars and clotheslines, he or she will not be locked up; if a student is threatened with a dagger, he or she will not be locked up; if seven people break into a classroom and bash and abuse a girl, he or she will not be locked up.
In the eyes of Japanese students at X Island High School, Chinese students have a bad image, are not of high quality, and only know how to make trouble and fight. konomi feels that the source of this series of chaos is the school: the teachers are not interested in managing international students and have been letting them go; the parents of Japanese students have complained to the school about the tattoos on Zou Jie’s body, but the school has not taken action; the school itself does not seem to have a good reputation. In 2015, the chairman of the board (principal) of X Island High School was arrested for molesting a female staff member.
With internal channels of advocacy not working, students began to try outside channels to address the issue of school violence, but with little hope: due to the private nature of X Island High School, the local education commissioner has “advisory powers” and the embassy is unable to provide direct help, only advising students to call the police or seek legal help.
If the police were to be called and the guardian was the school, Konomi would have to prepare a certificate of injury from the hospital, detailed evidence and witnesses. More problematic is that if the first police report fails to properly resolve the problem, it is clear that when they return to school, they will face even more serious school violence and will probably be completely unable to continue their studies and life here, just like the boy who beat Zoujie earlier – no one wants to be forced to drop out of school themselves, so in the end no one dares to try to call the police.
Seeking the help of a lawyer is the most costly method in terms of time and money, and it is completely unaffordable for a minor who is in a foreign country and alone. If parents are informed first, and then go through them to the police and lawyers, the situation is not much better. According to Konomi’s knowledge, only one abuser has been dealt with by the school so far – the victim’s father lives in Tokyo, and the parents came to the school in person after knowing that their child was beaten and asked the school to deal with the abuser, and the school could not pass the buck. The school was unable to pass the buck and had to expel the perpetrator. Even if they come to Japan, they usually choose to bring their children back to their home country in the first place, just like the parents of Xiao Chen and Yuzu, and even if they subsequently report the case or contact a lawyer, it takes a lot of effort to travel back and forth between China and the local police station in Japan, and may not be successful.
After all, in most Chinese parents’ minds, their children are fine, and since they have already withdrawn from school and changed their environment, there is no need to spend a lot of time fighting for an outcome that has little hope.
The dilemma just builds up one after another. In an environment where they have been intimidated by violent groups for a long time, most students have chosen to keep their heads above water, just as Konomi once did.
The school was an island that isolated international students from the world, and Konomi says, “At that time, I was counting down every day, calculating how long I had to escape. Yes, escape.”
7
In 2017, Konomi finally graduated, as did Zoujie, but the campus violence within the international student community at X Island High School did not end, and Konomi still hears about it from time to time. Every time he remembers his high school life, he sinks a little deeper into regret and angst. He often wonders if things would have been different if he had stood up for himself.
In March 2018, after seeing the supreme violence, he wanted to remedy his regret and get a voice for those students who had been bullied and had no recourse.
The video produced was posted and quickly pushed to the front page of the website. Many students at X Island High School saw it and thanked Konomi through private messages, and many approached him to talk about the problems they were experiencing. The video spread more and more and was soon seen by Zou Jie and others.
At first, Zou Jie and others only commented with small numbers: “I was nice to you at school back then, right?” “We have nothing against each other, right?” “Why do you want to smear me?”
As a counter-attack, Konomi posted a video he took back in 2015. In the black footage, only light comes through an open door, and with this faint light, a crowd of people can be seen standing in a narrow hallway outside the dormitory.
Several teenagers with sticks stood in the doorway and asked in clear Chinese, “Do any of you want to help him?”
One teenager raised the iron rod in his hand and pointed at the crowd, “You want to help him?! Do you want to help him?!”
Soon the rod-wielding teenagers surrounded a classmate in the shadows and began beating him. The room was silenced and no one dared to come forward to stop them.
After the video was released, Zou Jie and the others began to admit their mistakes on the surface, saying in the comments section that they were “young and ignorant”, but behind the scenes they threatened Konomi even more, trying to get him to stop exposing the incident – in their view, it was not as serious as Konomi said, they beat up their classmates because they had a conflict with each other, and the conflict was not caused by one party alone, so it could not be called bullying.
Abusive private message received by Konomi (Photo by interviewer) Abusive private message received by Konomi (Photo by interviewer)
X Island High School also took note of the series of videos posted by Konomi, and teachers publicly requested that current international students not upload negative messages about the school on social networks, and that offenders would be expelled from the school. As questions grew, the school finally asked Konomi for an interview, and a Chinese teacher at X Island High School offered to meet with him “in private”.
During the hour-long conversation, Konomi told the school in detail about the bullying group’s actions, which the school insisted it had no knowledge of, and mentioned an anonymous letter he had written, which the school said it did not have and did not find in its files.
None of the anonymous letters submitted by several students have been retained, and the “school violence” seems to have been fabricated out of thin air. The university interviewed Konomi only to ask him to delete the video, but skipped over the core issues of the interview, promising to consult with a lawyer.
Konomi was prepared for this situation, and it wasn’t the first time he’d been confronted with his rights since graduating.
He contacted a number of classmates to collect statements and video evidence, and was denied two visits to the local police station, without even leaving a file.
So far, a search on the Internet for X Island High School still shows many positive comments from study abroad agents. When confronted with questions from netizens, most of the study abroad agents said that they had not heard of any school violence at X Island High School at all.
On July 1, 2019, Konomi finally received a reply from X Island High School. In the email, the school administration of X Island High School acknowledged the fact that the chairman of the board of trustees had been arrested and finally admitted that they had received questionnaires from students reporting campus violence, but still did not acknowledge the fact that Zou Jie and others had committed campus violence.
Konomi received a response from X Island High School (Photo by interviewer) Konomi received a response from X Island High School (Photo by interviewer)
Konomi continues to produce video works and has also begun to use his expertise to produce animations on the theme of resistance and counteracting school violence. At the same time, he continued to receive threats. Konomi was told by a friend that Zou Jie had told him he wanted to “stab him” but had been unable to stop him.
In response, Konomi began to take precautions. He recorded several calls to his cell phone on strange numbers, figured out the suspected Zou Jie all the car license plate number, “I do not investigate more carefully, may be killed”.
There are many people in private messages to him to confide in similar encounters, the face of those painful plight, Konomi do not know how to comfort each other, can only repeatedly tell them: “will be fine, will be fine.”
Nowadays, there is little hope that the abusers will pay the legal price. The driving force that pushes Konomi to keep speaking out is just to give an account of himself and the people before him, to gather everyone’s courage, and to do what he can to stop the same thing from happening: “There were many people in the school who wanted to give up their lives, so we can’t let no one see any hope, right? “
(All people in the article are pseudonyms)
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