In case you didn't notice: He has spoken up against them and wanted to stand up for himself and others, as this is how he acts as Rudy as well btw.
What makes you think he didn't try to do the same thing when they told him to meet up in the gym.
Aside from a hundred other possible ways to get him to the gym (simply by threatening him) I don't see what he was supposed to do.
Way to blame the victim here. How would you feel if I said you were an idiot for being bullied "just tell them to not do it, lawl"? I find it very curious that someone who suffered from it himself is saying something like that. You would most likely be suprised how "little" you have actually suffered *compared* to those that get beaten into a *bloody* mess. That get several thousands of $ taken away from them, that get *raped* and sexually harassed. As I mentioned earlier, these cases are more often than not extremely violent. They would most likely not even be considered "bullying" but actually rape and slavery here.
And who said it's not a big deal. We are saying it's happening frequently and has happened frequently and the internet is all over news articles mentioning cases all over the world, yet you deny it or want very specific statistics for some reason - especially if the goverment tried to hide it in the past and these statistics and mentions are obviously mostly written in moon-runes?
We obviously don't have japanese news papers that are written in Kanji. If you can read Kanji you can browse those sites yourself I'd reckon and find these cases quickly? If these cases even make it public in the first place because a big part of the problem in Japan is that it is kinda "endorsed" by those around them and the victim is considered the problem.
If something happens in Germany that is news worthy but not necessarily international news worthy... like.. bullying (go figure), it's written in German as well and you won't necessarily find the same case in an english newspaper.
We don't report on every American School shooting here either.
But anyway:
https://factsanddetails.com/japan/ca.../item2790.html
I can't vow for anything in that article/research but it's probably more research than what you would want to invest.