Japanese Schools: How Are They Different?

As Japan continually reminds me, many things that we take for granted in our home countries are very different once we leave our own borders. What do I mean? Well, among numerous other examples, let’s look at Japanese schools.

In the United States, students arrive at school either by school bus or by their own transportation (on foot, by bike, or driven by a family member or themselves). In Japan, many students walk or bike, some are dropped off by parents, and the rest use public transit. The American school bus system is, to my knowledge, rare to non-existent.

In the United States, students move from classroom to classroom for different periods. In Japan, the teachers move from room to room. This system promotes greater class unity, and guarantees uniformity in courseload. In the US system, one kid might be taking basketweaving and another might be taking advanced chemistry. In Japan, students are assigned to a class (ie, 1B, 6A, etc). Each class has a designated room, and at any given period the teacher assigned to that class visits that room. Consequently, there is no concept of elective courses (downside, IMHO)…but on the positive side, no student suffers from having taken a more challenging course load than their peers. All 6A students have the same amount of homework, the same number of class hours, etc. This system has its obvious pros and cons, including things like camaraderie between classmates (pro), equal course load from student to student (pro), lack of educational diversity (con) and total lack of customization or individual choice (con).

In Japan, since teachers move from room to room, they don’t have their own classroom. Instead, there is a “teachers’ room”, where every teacher has their own desk. To enter the teachers’ room, students must announce themselves by knocking, bowing and saying “shitsureshimasu” (basically “excuse me” or “I am intruding”). When leaving, they must bow and say “shitsureshimashita” (again, “excuse me”, or “I have intruded”). They have to say this even if they are coming into the room to do an assigned duty, like collecting interoffice memos or similar tasks.

In Japan, there are no school janitors. At the end of each day, all of the students participate in “cleaning time”. In this way, they are responsible for the caretaking of their own school facilities. As you can imagine, this encourages everyone to be clean and tidy and respectful, from their desk areas to the bathrooms or the lunchroom. In the US messiness vanishes when the janitor comes through; in Japan, the student or the student’s own classmates will have to deal with any mess. There are few messes and no food fights in Japanese schools.

In Japanese elementary schools and junior high schools, students are not permitted to bring their own lunches; moreover, lunches are prepared by the students themselves on a rotating basis. There are no lunch “options” - everyone receives an identical tray of food. (See post on kyushoku.) Lunch is considered an educational time as much as any class, and teachers eat with students to teach good manners, dietary habits and social interactions. It is my personal opinion that this system discourages odd dietary habits like veganism, as well as discouraging wastefulness or eating disorders - at the end of lunch, all diners must line up to empty their trays, and scraping too much food into the waste bucket will be observed by not only teachers and fellow students, but also by the students who actually prepared the meal. This provides a heavy social disincentive to be a picky, excessively light, or otherwise abnormal food consumer. It also sucks if you don’t like the school lunch.

Students are at school ALL THE TIME. Many of them arrive before school starts, most of them stay long after school ends for sports or club activities, and many of them even come to school during breaks or weekends. As a result, most Japanese school teachers work long, hard hours! School in Japan encompasses much more than just book learning; in many ways, it is closer to the US concept of parenting than it is to the US concept of schooling.

Japanese schoolchildren wear uniforms for junior high and high school. Girls wear skirts and boys wear pants and everyone wears identical clothing for their gender, even down to their shoes (both outdoor and indoor), socks, and gym clothes. Girls’ uniforms are sailor-inspired, and boys’ uniforms are based on Prussian military garb. In stark contrast, Japanese elementary schoolers can wear pretty much anything they want to.

In Japan, education is only mandatory through middle school. High school is optional.

These are just a few of the differences that have struck me about Japanese schools compared to American schools! More to follow I’m sure!