Japanese School Groups

The practice of school groups exist in Japan as well as in the U.S. However, the students’ attitude towards it and relationship inside and outside the groups are different.
Our groups are usually formed based on the thoughts, tastes and feelings rather than the ability. Therefore, it is normal to find a group which has preppies, athletes, and even geeks. This makes cross-group friendship common; most of our groups are not hostile to each other. However, the group which a person usually belongs to is still more or less dominant for that person. If s/he causes some problems and spoils the relationship between s/he and his/her group, s/he might be the target of bullying.
When I was in junior high school, there was a pretty girl who would be counted as preppies if she was in the U.S. She used to be the center of the group she belonged to, but it altered after her trouble with her group members; she was started to be ignored, one of the most popular ways of bullying in Japan, by her former group mates. It took her pretty long time to get out of that situation by joining other group. Murray says that Geeks and Nerds are likely to be considered “losers” and bullied in the U.S., but in Japan, it is the people who cannot get into or pushed out from a group.
Japanese students do not consider which group to belong to as serious as the American students described in Murray’s article. The important thing for us is whether we can belong to somewhere or not.