Bullying for More Than Milk Money. An L.A. Times Tokyo correspondent tells an incredible story of what’s happened to schoolyard bullying in Japan – extortion to the tune of a half-million dollars in one case. School authorities and police knew about the problem but failed to step in. The bullies’ plot, which included killing their victim, making it look like suicide by forcing him to write a suicide note, was foiled only by the once-wayward son of a Japanese mobster seeking redemption. Although the drama and magnitude of this case grabbed headlines and prompted national soul-searching, Japanese social scientists say that extortion routinely accompanies schoolyard bullying in Japan. Picking on those cast as weak is significantly easier in a society with such an emphasis on group conformity.