A: Hey there! Any idea about the big news in town?
B: Nah, I haven't heard anything new. What's up?

A: Turns out bullying cases in schools all around Japan reached a new high last year! Can you believe it's been going on for four years straight now?
B: Whoa, really? That sounds terrible! How many cases were there exactly?

A: There were over 769 thousand cases! Most of them happened at elementary schools, but junior high and senior high schools also had their fair share. There were even some cases at special needs schools too.
B: Wow, that's a lot! What did the schools do to deal with the bullies?

A: Well, about 61% of the schools contacted the parents or guardians. Some even made the students apologize to their victims. But not many schools seem to be dealing with it effectively as there were problems with the initial response in about 30% of the cases.
B: That's disappointing. I hope they can come up with better solutions for these kids.

A: Oh, and here's something scary – serious cases like suicide and truancy increased to over 1,400 last year! And online bullying went up too, with more than 27,300 cases reported.
B: Yikes! That sounds really tough for the kids. I hope they can find a way to stop this early on.

A: Yeah, me too! An education ministry official mentioned that many online bullying cases have gotten really serious by the time they're noticed, so catching them earlier is the challenge now.