The number of school bullying cases in Japan showed an increase after local education boards were ordered to revise data relating to the problem, the media reported on Tuesday.
The education ministry said boards across Japan reported over 188,000 bullying cases in the latest survey for the school year that ended in March 2015, public-broadcaster NHK reported.
The figure which was announced on Tuesday is nearly 30,000 higher than in an initial survey in June. All 47 prefectures revised their tallies upward.
More than 122,000 of the cases took place at elementary schools -- the highest since this kind of survey began 30 years ago.
The ministry ordered the survey be redone after a junior high school boy committed suicide in Iwate prefecture in July.
Bullying is thought to be behind his death. But his school had reported in the initial survey that it had no cases of bullying.
