School Life
Japanese schools are very rigorous. The school year consists of three terms, the first running from April to July, the second from September to December, and the third from January to March. School runs Monday through Friday, from 8:45 AM to 3:15 PM, and often includes a half-day on Saturday. However, students don't typically leave for home when classes are done. Starting from middle school, students are expected to participate in sports clubs, cultural clubs, or both, typically for two hours after classes.
Due to the cultural emphasis on responsibility towards one's personal environment and community, students have rotating homeroom cleaning duties as well, typically scheduled to not interfere with clubs but still make certain everyone does their fair share. The idea is to teach them appreciation for their spaces.
Many students with a monofocus on academics might go straight to cram school once regular school is over for further lessons. This is often because the culture of achievement is hypercompetitive, and school is only compulsory through middle school. High school is only available to those who achieve high scores on rigorous entrance exams in the third year of middle school; likewise university for those in the third year of high school. The pressure is high and remains high throughout young people's early lives, since in many ways their whole future in Japanese society hinges on these exams.
That pressure typically may only begin its release in the university years, which can often for many young people feel like the first time they have a certain amount of freedom. Once they're accepted, they've made it in the eyes of Japanese society, and many universities are described as networking opportunities more than education. Nevertheless, achievement on the university level is expected if one desires to be seen as an 'admirable' adult.
Each school has shoe lockers assigned for the students' street shoes, typically at the entrance. Indoor slippers called uwabaki are worn during the day at school, then students trade them for their street shoes at the end of the day. Draconian uniform codes are common, dictating every part of their students' appearance from skirt length to hair color and more[1].
Rules can even be so strict that some schools don't allow students to hang out after finishing school and/or clubs; they must instead go straight home, and cannot spend the night at other student's houses[2].
Japanese schools rarely have central air or heating. They can get insufferably hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. Portable heaters are often used, but sometimes the only recourse in the summer is to open a window if the teacher allows it.
The school year begins in April and ends in March, with its three semesters divided up by a month-long break in the summer near the end of July to the end of August, a shorter break from the last week in December through the first week of January, and one final break from the end March into April to mark the end of the school year.
Notes
- ↑ Here on Velvet Room MUSH, we fully follow the spirit of Persona games in the sense that students get to show much more individuality in how they present themselves as characters in a JRPG. Even then, on occasion, the adults will call them out for it. For example, in Persona 5, Ryuji Sakamoto is pressured by his homeroom teacher to dye his bottle-blond hair back to normal, and Ann Takamaki talks about once being pressured to dye her naturally blond hair black. These are references to real challenges children face in Japanese schools, and so it's important to mention them even if we're not going to be that strict. One doesn't have to engage with this element if one doesn't want to, but it's recommended that if one does, it be less about the uniform and more about the person's appearance otherwise.
- ↑ None of the schools on Velvet Room MUSH are this strict because we don't want to hinder people from having scenes together. The school culture is supposed to enhance roleplay, not hinder it.