It is no mystery that Japan’s mobile market is booming with some of most cutting-edge technology available.  Unfortunately this great accessibility to mobile technology has resulted in cellphone related problems ranging from sending exam answers to cyberbullying.  To put a quick fix on the situation, Japanese students will be prohibited from using cellphones at the majority of public primary, middle and high schools start next school year under a plan announced by Osaka Governor Toru Hashimoto.  The motivation to ban cellphones in schools does not stop there since the findings by Swedish researcher Lennart Hardell, who found a five-fold increase in brain cancer rates among children and teenagers who use cellphones, still leaves a sting.

So what about the positives to allowing children to have access to cellphones?  Clearly it is important for a child to reach a parent and even basic GPS can serve as a valuable tool in case your son or daughter gets lost on their way home, right?  Unfortunately Osaka Governor Toru Hashimoto doesn’t buy that: “There’s no need for students to have mobile phones at school…It’s only natural that the more dependent they become on cell phones, the less they study.”  Sorry kids it looks like you are going to have to leave that 8-megapixel phone at home while you attend middle school, but I’m sure there are plenty of Cellfanatic readers who wouldn’t mind taking it off your hands. [TreeHugger]