Karaoke shops in Osaka are reporting that their shops are packed with students who are off school (and supposed to be at home studying) for the H1N1 influenza outbreak here. Some of the karaoke shop owners are troubled, saying they are concerned about the flu being passed on at these large gatherings, while other owners…
All schools from kindergarten to college level in Hyogo have been closed for the week. You have to feel bad for the kids who happened to be at schools for which this was just announced. Much of them went to school only to be sent home, and if Hyogo prefecture is trying to hold off…
On January 21 this year, during a free study period at a junior high school in Ibaraki Prefecture, a teacher (and head of the grade level) walked into a classroom to yell at two kids for going home too late the previous day. The two students were in their third year and had just returned…
I could have been way more creative with the title there, but this is the kind of story that people like to read. I’ll be very simple with it although I’m sure the story is much deeper than this… (it may not be though… it may just be the case of a bosozoku tough guy…
This story comes out of Chiba City… A 35 year old man, whom I can only assume is a bad teacher and advisor to the volleyball club at Mitsuwadai Junior High School in Chiba, beat up a 14 year old male student during a volleyball practice on March 8th. During practice, the teacher called out…
The title should say it all, but sadly it doesn’t. The teacher in question is a pregnant woman in her thirties. She works at a junior high school in Handa City in Aichi Prefecture. During the beginning of third term (January) this year she scolded some students in club. She also did a seating change…
I used to write a lot about the bad teachers in the new here in Japan. They were all shapes of wacky, evil, and embarrassing, but it got pretty depressing for me so I stopped. I think most teachers have good intentions (even if I don’t think many have been properly trained in education, teaching…
A poll shows that 40% of Japanese elementary school children refuse to do #2 at school. Writer Yachiyo Murakami has begun writing a series of books to guide parents and children through their “second” toilet training. She was recently quoted as saying that the problem is that once parents get their kids to stop using…
Tsugeno High School in Aichi Prefecture is currently in the public eye because of reports that the school, which is designed to give a second chance to dropouts, provided students with “smoking” rooms. The school claims the rooms are part of an anti-smoking program the school is doing. The rooms are equipt with ashtrays, however teachers…
Twenty-one students, many of them members of the baseball team at Sakae High School, a private high school in Hokkaido, shoplifted during a school trip to the United States this month. Eight students were caught by staff members at the store after stealing several expensive brand bags and wallets. The school apologized to the duty…
A meeting between Osaka Governor Toru Hashimoto and some local high school students ended in Niagara Falls (by this I mean the lots of crying meaning not the delightful honeymoon spot meaning). News media are reporting that Hashimoto actually (horrors) responded to them as if they were adults. At one point a male student of…
Akita and Fukui had the best results, Okinawa had the lowest. The test was reintroduced into the curriculum after not having been used for 43 years. All of the students in the country took the test on the same day in April.