Five Outstanding Features of Public Schools in Japan for Americans
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What do you know about similarities and differences between American public schools and other countries' public schools? Here are five key features of Japanese Public Schools that stand out most from American education system.
By DarklanlanTaken by Darklanlan [CC0], from Wikimedia Commons
Well Planned Lunch
Japanese kids at elementary and junior high schools eat one menu lunch during their school lunch time. These lunch providers differ depending on the policy and mission of each city’s educational board. Some schools have their lunch staff and cooking room at their schools, and others schools may receive already-made lunch every day from a city’s lunch facility or contracted company. Depending on the city and school, the “level” of a meal is different. For example, I liked my elementary school lunch delivered every day from my city’s lunch providing facility but was envious of my cousin whose school provided its lunch with much more various monthly menus. On the other hand, my husband who grew up in a different city had a terrible lunch experience at his elementary that he does not remember what he ate.
Although there are some variations on the quality of lunch, Japanese lunch time is well planned and protected by the law that all these meal plans are developed by nutritionists, that students get to learn the nutrition, manner, and their community through everyday lunch, and that all students in a school eat lunch during the same lunchtime in their classrooms. At the beginning of lunch period, monthly or weekly lunch duty group of students from each school get their classroom lunch from lunch distribution room and serve these lunch to classmates.
While the duty group prepares, the rest of the class clean and prepare the desk for lunch putting out their (nondisposable) utensils and lunch clothes on the desk. Once the lunch is ready to be served, students line up to get the lunch.
When everyone's lunch including the servers is ready, today’s menu and its nutrition are explained verbally and often visually, then everyone spends a short time appreciating the food, food providers, and servers before starting to eat.
By AHLN (Serving miso soup) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
The structure of the lunch bell is well intended to educate the students about what surrounds eating foods. So, after kids finish eating, they are responsible for cleaning up. It’s not just throwing all perishables. Trashes are divided by the materials and contents: you may throw a package of straw to a regular trash can, but you flatten carton milk for recycling. Leftovers including milk are put into one of the serving containers. The lunch servant members then, take back serving containers and tools as well as sustainable lunch bowls and plates.
Except for milk and seasonings, it is seldom that lunch menu includes servicing pre-packaged food as it is such as putting commercial applesauce and fruit cocktails on a plate. Maybe udon-noodles and bread are sometimes placed in a bag for individual servings.
You see, children get to learn and develop their social skills through school lunch as well this way. They learn how to cooperate with one another to prepare lunch and end the lunch bell. They get to practice social skills in a small lunch duty group and by serving foods for each classmate. Of course, it is a fun time of the day for students to enjoy free talk among themselves.
For more in information, check this YouTube video.
Cleaning Time
In the US, the school districts provide a stable place of employment for janitors. In Japan, there are no janitors at school because, usually after lunch or the last class, students and staff spend 15-20 minutes to clean various parts of the school. Can you think of the benefits of doing this?
By engaging in school cleaning, Japanese students and staff develop a sense of ownership and the school community. They also learn how to clean different parts of the building and appreciate clean environments. Social skills and shared responsibility will be fostered because you clean an assigned space as a team. You may also find the benefit for your wellness and health by moving around through the cleaning and by contributing to the beauty of the school community in this way.
The main areas of cleaning are classrooms, hallways, stairways, and bathrooms. As the grades go up, students are assigned to more outside classroom areas such as gym, outside, front office, principal’s room, and so forth. Classroom teachers usually stay in their classrooms, but others may be around throughout the school building.
Just like lunch time, kindergartners and first graders learn how to spend this cleaning time for the first time and get to practice their skills every day with close teacher supervision. Older grades gain independence and usually do not require adult monitoring. Of course, bathroom cleaning was one of the least liked assignment of the week for me and my classmates, but we knew what to do and brushed the floor with water and soap, checked stocks of toilet paper and hand soap, brushed sinks, and clean the inside of the toilet. Cleaning tools were right there in the bathroom cabinet. We did not need permission to get more toilet paper from office personnel. My favorite was outside cleaning because teachers rarely come checked on us. In fall, we often collected fallen leaves at the back of the gym.
You may not be surprised anymore: there may be a cleaning day one or two times a year to clean the neighborhood of school as a whole school, sometimes including parents, like picking up trash on the sidewalk. There may be students committee which takes responsibility in wedding off outside ground and field about once a month as well. Not to forget, at the end of the 2nd semester and the end of the school year, students and teachers spend a long time to clean their classrooms to mean thank you to the school.
Even if some families of students do not teach how to clean and why cleaning is necessary, every student in Japan has learning opportunities at school.
By fo.ol (ah, push it) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Public schools in Japan organize various events for their kids and the communities including a field trip, sports day, culture day, music/chorus concert, open class, etc.
At least one field trip is organized for each grade. Younger grades usually have a day bus trip to a museum, theme park, nature park, etc. Older grades may go further away by train and spends a night or two to visit a famous place in Japan. Students spend days to prepare and learn about the place beforehand as a part of classes. One of the memorable trips I had was a trip to Kyoto in my 9th grade. We took a bullet train and stayed in the historical city in Kyoto for three days. The highlight of the trip was a taxi day tour in a small group. A taxi driver in his 50’s or 60’s drove for four of us to visit pre-planned places in Kyoto like Ginkaku-Ji. We also ate lunch at a local restaurant for tasty okonomiyaki.
Sports day is held once a year, and the community is usually invited to watch and cheer the students. It is common to divide the same grade students into the white team and red team to compete in various activities like a short run, relay run, tug of war, shoulder war, and a scavenger hunt. The day includes students’ performance such as dance, band, and gymnastic formation. Teachers and administrators all spend a good chunk of days to prepare for the day. Students practice multiple times and build their motivation for winning as a team and displaying their best performance on that day.
Another fun event is culture day held during the best season for arts and entertainment, fall. On that day, some students clubs and committees, as well as homeroom students, may have their exhibitions, displays, or attractions for the school and the community. You may see their art products, theater play, music band, and/or produces and other foods and drinks prepared and sold by the students. Some traditional artist or musicians, or any other famous people may be invited to the school for a lecture or play. Students spend weeks to prepare, and thus for the success of the day, the collaboration and problem-solving skills are fostered. Students can also learn different ways to contribute to the happiness of others.
Sometimes, music/chorus concert is held annually in fall separate from or instead of culture day. This surely requires practice beforehand as well. Usually, each homeroom students makes one or two performance as a competition. The higher the grade goes up, the more serious the students become for their performance. It is so intriguing to see how older, more experienced
Junior high students perform better than lower grade junior high students; and how much the unification of the homeroom students through the practice influence the concert performance. Students in their last year in junior high can get so passionate and emotional for this teamwork. This can leave them a good memory if they are successful. Although I did not get worked up this much at my school’s chorus concert and my class team was not so unified as the other class team, I still have a good memory of this event. Singing together does it.
It is not always safe, and parents cannot wholly feel assured, but public elementary and junior high students in Japan usually travel to school by themselves - on foot, by bicycle, or by public bus and train. This is practiced because it is generally safe in Japan for kids to be out by themselves and it is societal expectations to help kids grow by letting them do something on their own.
Often, children are grouped so that they do not need to travel by themselves as much as they can.
At my elementary, I started my first year of commute in a group of two 6th graders, two fifth graders, two third graders, one-second grader, one more from one grade. We walked in one line from school to close to our neighborhood. My older sister and I were the first ones to leave apart from the group to get to our residence. In my mid-elementary grade, my older sister, my younger sister, and I were the only members of the group. Then in my last elementary year, I was the leader of the group composed of my 5th grade younger sister, another 5th grader, one fourth grader, two third graders, and one first grader; but again my sister and I were the first ones to leave apart from the group to get to our residence.
This grouping; however, is not always functional because younger grades often finish school earlier than older grades and some kids are picked at school for a piano lesson and so forth. At the end, young or old, you are to commute as safely and independently as possible by yourself.
The community supports this by making an announcement to the area around the commute time - “let’s make sure kids get home safe.” There are adult commute supporters as well who may walk with younger students or help them cross the large street. Some stores and houses provide same place kids can ask for help in a case. Many kids are provided with something like light reflectors that help them stand out from the eyes of drivers.
By Doctor Autumnal sky (Doctor Autumnal sky) [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia C
Multiple Recess
Students in Japanese public schools play hard as much as the US students. They get numerous free break times a day between classes. Before school starts, if students come early, they can go to their classrooms by themselves to spend their free time. Between classes, there is about 5-10 minutes break during which students spend freely in their classrooms and hallways, or go to bathrooms. Usually, once in the morning, there is a longer break, 10-15 minutes, during which students are free to play even outside in the field or gym. Here comes the longest recess is after lunch, usually 20-30 minutes to play. All grades get the same recess periods at the same time. So, you will see both younger and older students trying mono-cycle in the field, for example. If you like, you can visit your friends in the different grades in their classrooms, go to the library to check out some books, and play basketball at the gym. I remember during my 6th grade, I often spent my lunch recess with my friends in a nurse’s office just to socialize with the nurse and my friends on a sofa in a quiet room.
In elementary schools, teachers will sometimes be around in the classrooms between classes. In the junior high schools where subjects teachers only teach their subjects, it is not the students but the teachers who transit to different classrooms. Therefore at junior high schools, teachers do not usually have reasons to stay in class between bells. They may stay in a classroom after a bell if it is their homeroom classes and the students do not use their classrooms for the next bell.
Regardless, teachers are busy even between bells and students’ recess times. That is no difference from the US. However, some teachers in Japan take advantage of the longest recess after lunch to play outside with students or walk around in the field and school for both monitoring and right exercises. It’s a double benefit to school!
Yamaguchi, M., Kondo, N., and Hashimoto, H. Universal school lunch programme closes a socioeconomic gap in fruit and vegetable intakes among school children in Japan (2018). European Journal of Public Health, Volume 28(4), 636–641.
