In Japan, a rigid school system built around conformity and exam pressure has produced a wave of bullying cases, some of them fatal. The film opens with the Hiranos, whose son killed himself after being bullied at a new school; the school administration offers no comment. Teacher Satoru Ikeda argues that students lose their sense of identity under an education system with no room for individuality, and English teacher Rosalind Brown describes her shock at seeing young children made to wear only shorts through cold weather, standing in rows in the playground to warm each other's backs by rubbing. Children who go bare-bellied from February to November earn a certificate for it, and classrooms show pupils standing to recite English phrases in unison before heading to evening cram schools to chase places at better high schools and universities. Parent Noriko Nagasaki objects to the system but says most families are too afraid of hurting their children's exam chances to protest.