/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Has anybody here ever been to Japan?
I enjoy huddling under my bed at night and streaming quirky little Asian dramas.
Seems to me that at the moment a prevalent subject in Japan at the moment is bullying, specifically in high/middle school.

I've been reading a lot of articles recently, schoolgirls hanging themselves, beatings, stabbings, arson, general cruelty.
Something the majority of these cases share in common is the teachers and headmasters all shirking the blame from the schools to outside sources; even when it's blatantly obvious that it's them that are to blame.

Can anybody explain to me why it is Japanese students are such psychos? Why is it that a vast majority of them are so cruel? Has it anything to do with the pressures of education over there?