Japan school absenteeism at record high of nearly 300,000 in FY2022

School alone is really boring, combine that with Japanese way on doing things.

Students want to be at home, or at the shopping centre so that they can play on their stupidphones all day long...

Is this only happening in Japan? Or have other countries who had even more strict lock downs suffering the same type of absenteeism? That is very important information to include in the article. Because if my memory serves me Japanese schools were only closed for a rather short time when compared to most G7 countries.

Absenteeism should be taken as the canary in the cage for Japan's insufferable, suffocating system of what passes for education which bores the kids to death.

as usual, lots of komakai statistics and percentages quoted..... but..... 300,000 out of how many total students at the three levels I wonder. in other words, what percentage?

also, the criterion '30 days or more' seems a touch vague.... again, a paucity of info.... seems like 33 days, say, and 200 days would be rather different kettles of fish.

and despite The top reason schools gave for students refusing to attend was "a sense of lethargy or anxiety," accounting for 51.8 percent of answers, and since the last part of the article stresses 'bullying', how many absentees cited bullying I wonder. or does that fall under anxiety? or what? either a sloppy survey by the education ministry, or sloppy journalism on the part of "Kyodo News: Japan's leading news agency".

Where I come from if you miss months at a time from school, you probably aren't moving up to the next grade

Schools were run like prison camps for 3 years. When you add bullying, and exam fatigue into the mix, is it any surprise the kids are refusing to go to school. We force ours out the door every morning, but i know plenty of our kids friends who havent been attending lately. And those kids didnt have any previous history of skipping school.

ThubanToday  06:52 am JST

More fallout from the draconian measures taken during Covid that forced healthy people who weren't at risk to comply with rules that weren't necessary.

It was wrong to force mandates on healthy people who were not at risk.

Not sure what I think about how the COVID pandemic was handled anymore, but... I think the point of healthy people being "forced" to do things was because healthy people can still transmit COVID to those at risk. It was abotu protecting the vulenrable as much as possible. Especially in Japan where little Tarou most often lives in the same small house as his elderly (at risk) grandparents (who may be too stoic to isolate themselves in their room all day and not help the household).

I'm sure Tarou doesn't want to ever entertain the idea he may have been indirectly responsible for a family members early departure, if possible

Gaming is addictive. A study that came out a few years ago determined that almost 1 million Japanese teens are addicted to the internet. Add that to "school is boring" and Covid measures and you have kids that just want to stay home all day.

Where I come from if you miss months at a time from school, you probably aren't moving up to the next grade

Here! Here! Back in the day, unless you were really sick or had mental issues, my parents dragged my butt to school, but that was in the late 70s-80s. I've done that with my girls, but nowadays, they've been very good about going to school. No hikikomoris in my family!

The ministry said the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused many to live a more socially isolated lifestyle, has had a significant impact on students' daily school life and behavior.

No lockdown in Japan this is the result of absolute obedience for the majority, staying home and refraining from activities just for social compliance. And the kids isolation is the result of irresponsible adults commanders and their Stay Home requests or whatever online classes

@MarkX

For different reasons there is a flood of students fleeing the public education system in North America.

There is a perception that the quality is collapsing and the more parents that send their kids to private school, the more public schools collapse. Rightly or wrongly, many parents want their kids to spend more time on skills that will help them access post-secondary and far less time on social justice issues in public schools.

I suspect that the regimented system in Japan is driving kids away. Also, if families have the means, kids can learn far more at juku than in regimented classroom settings.

If I was pushed up against the wall, I would say that the primary education system is far better in Japan than in North America but the secondary education (junior high better in Japan, high school better in North America) is slightly better in North America and the post-secondary education is far better in North America.

I wonder if those talking about "draconian measuers" and schools being "prison camps" actually have kids in public schools. Here is Okayama there was little difference between how things were done pre, during and post Corona. The main changes were they had to take their temperature every moring, wear a mask, and wash their hands before entering the school building. The schools were never shutdown other than a week when the pandamic first started (March 2020? 21?) and nobody really knew what was going on.

They had all the normal school activities: 学習発表会・参観日・山の学校・海の学校・修学旅行… Sure, things were scaled down, one parent only at 参観日, etc., but nothing "draconian." They still had their clubs and sports activities as well. There were a few times when a class or entire grade what sent home, but that happens and has happened with the flu and noro virus as well, not outcry for that.

I think the main reason is that the schools (Monkasho) has simply failed to keep up with generational changes in society. A sizable section of parents with young kids today did not particularly enjoy school themselves, for a myriad of reasons. Thus, they have no real problem with letting their kids miss school, especially if the reasons have to do with mental or physical health. School and education are not the center of their universe. The paradigm has shifted from their grandparents' idea of "you have to go because it is school" to the current idea for many of "it's just school, school isn't everything, no sense in going if you are unhappy." Unfortunately, Monkasho is still thinking like the grandparents: "It's school, how can you not love it?"

Is it surprising? School is terribly uninteresting and uninspiring on the average day. Almost every session is route memorization and repeat. Bullying in various forms exists and teachers do little to cull it or keep up with it as/how it happens.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries implemented strict lockdown measures to contain the spread of the virus. These measures included the closure of schools and a shift to online or remote learning. The impact of these lockdowns on school absenteeism varied from country to country and depended on several factors, including the effectiveness of remote learning (economic disparities), access to technology and the internet (digital divide), and the level of enforcement of lockdown measures. I regret to indicate Japan is no exception.

The stuff happening in the classroom is mush. Designed to be disengaging. Thought the whole game was up when the pandemic hit too when everyone in education was forced online. We had to showcase our teaching skills with videos, zoom classes, online tasks and homework, content and feedback. Finally parents will get to see the level of teaching and incompetency that until now was hidden behind closed doors and fudged test results. It'll be all out in the open and there will be an absolute outcry! My kids have to sit through this stuff?

Never happened. No one bothered to look, there was no outcry. You had teachers ( with masks on ) recording themselves in an empty classroom speaking in monotones standing in front of a blackboard just going through the whole sordid soul-crushing process. Nothing changed, no one cared, and business as usual.

Now we have an army of teachers who learned nothing, dodged the bullet of their forced public outing, and are now safely back behind closed doors (still wearing masks!) and killing the spirit of learning one kid at a time.

Then you wonder why 300 thousand kids have just opted out? With the demographics as they are too youd think that Japan would want the very best for their precious youth too.

Someone else's problem.

u_s__reamerToday  07:19 am JST

Absenteeism should be taken as the canary in the cage for Japan's insufferable, suffocating system of what passes for education which bores the kids to death.

Really? And yet over the last decade there’s been highly a significant rapid and visible ‘westernisation’ of the Japanese school system, directly accompanied by the suddenly skyrocketing levels of absenteeism to which the article refers?

Howdya join them dots, Sherlock?

TT

The education systems between western and Asian countries are vastly different. In most Asian countries its is strict and very disciplined, but in western ones it is not. In western countries the teacher is not revered -- not even respected. The students are largely disengaged, disinterested, and undisciplined. In Asian ones, teachers are revered. Students are dedicated. Home is involved. The result is high levels of knowledge acquisition; superior performance on international comparative exams. But this comes with a price. American students lag behind 31 countries in math, and behind 16 countries in reading proficiency, and it is getting worse. These countries are the top ten..........Denmark, Finland, Japan, Canada, Sweden, Germany, Israel, Netherlands, Singapore, and South Korea.

Japan school absenteeism at record high of nearly 300,000 in FY2022

So what? Students can study from home.

Just because someone isn't going to school physically doesn't mean they are not getting an education.

All it took was a few months of school closures to break the habit of kids going to a hollow "education" system of drudgery overloaded with meaningless busy work, useless factoids, and "patriotic" lies, run by teachers too overloaded with all the above to challenge the system.

collegepark30349 with one of the best comments I've ever seen on here.

Japanese schools are overbearing and still try to force kids into one acceptable box. Children are increasingly rejecting this.

I think the main reason is that the schools (Monkasho) has simply failed to keep up with generational changes in society. A sizable section of parents with young kids today did not particularly enjoy school themselves, for a myriad of reasons. Thus, they have no real problem with letting their kids miss school, especially if the reasons have to do with mental or physical health. School and education are not the center of their universe. The paradigm has shifted from their grandparents' idea of "you have to go because it is school" to the current idea for many of "it's just school, school isn't everything, no sense in going if you are unhappy." Unfortunately, Monkasho is still thinking like the grandparents: "It's school, how can you not love it?"

You just basically described me

Don't get me wrong, some teachers aren't exactly the most exemplary, but I wouldn't pin it on the teachers as a whole to be honest. Teachers have to follow these unnecessarily strict curricula that allow for very little flexibility or creativity. One interesting thing I've noticed is that the teachers who follow these as loosely as they can tend to have the most engaged and happy students, but again, when you're forced to follow the rules with the looming threat of being fired if you don't, it's hard to blame the teachers for staying in line.

Well put, but I have to say I do blame a bad teacher who runs a class that resembles a funeral. You can work within the structure to bring the learning process to life but many simply don't bother. Drudgery is the game. You are 100% right though there are gems amongst their ranks that are just born to teach and inspire, but they are few and far between in my experience. The others use the rules and the syllabus as an excuse to be very mediocre. No agency, no accountability, no passion, no problems. Mechanical and tired. The results of their silent crimes are exponential too. Sorry, have probably seen too much !

In the US they haul you in to school, even if they have to do it in juvenile detention. Maybe the problem is that high school is not mandatory?

If I got promoted to the next grade whether I was in school or not, I wouldn't be at school either. But if I had a risk of failing and repeating the grade then being in the same class as younger students...not a chance!! I would definitely be at school no matter what!

That being said, this old system of education has become obsolete. A complete revamp to accommodate the new digital generation is needed.

S

It is a lot harder for kids to go through the pandemic than adults. I hope they recover.

Who would have thought that paranoid (so-called) adults making kids scared out of their wits of catching a deadly disease (that barely affected their age groups overall) and then forcing them to sit alone, muzzled in silence surrounded by petroleum based plastic screens would have any detrimental effects on them?

I Am Stunned.

In the US they haul you in to school, even if they have to do it in juvenile detention. Maybe the problem is that high school is not mandatory?

They don't "haul" kids into school here, and this has zero to do with HS being mandatory and all to do with no responsibility for actually studying or not.

Kids get passed up, based on age, NOT accomplishment.

The main reason is bullying by students and teachers against students and my child suffered both having their shoes thrown in the garbage, the teacher day after day yelling at my child in the hallway and the list goes on. As a parent I fought the principal, took him to the school board even and nothing was done because the school board has ZERO POWER in this country.

A very common Westerner observation of Japanese schools is that they reek of militarism. This is an easy thing to say when you see baseball kids with buzzcuts basically frogstepping to a school song that sounds like a military march. It's there right in front of your eyes.

In the post-war period, the occupying US forces were more than happy to reappoint government and bureaucracy figures from the fascist era. The number one priority was on preventing Japan falling to communists. One consequence was no demilitarization of the (fanatically militarized) school system. Why would schools change if the same people were in charge as before? Various societal factors, veneration of senpai (the person who came before, not just the person above), love of nostalgia, a basically small c conservative outlook, etc. all feed into this, and leave us where we are. Teachers in Japan are basically untrained and are not equipped to do any better or change the system from within.

It should be noted that this record number of non-attendees is happening as the population of children crashes. The increase will be far more as a % of the total number of school aged kids.

Thanks for the compliment kohakuebisu

Japanese schools are overbearing and still try to force kids into one acceptable box. Children are increasingly rejecting this.

Not just the children, but also their parents. My wife's parents, in their 80s, only know Japan and Japanese school, and that's fine. They went to school because they had to. It was post-War and the country was rebuilding, getting an education was a way up and a way out. They "gamaned" and "shoganaied" a lot of things we consider abusive now. Later generations, I guess what we'd call Boomers and Gen X in the States, also did this to some extent. But, they also began to notice, as they got older, the mental and physical toll it took on their parents and was taking on them - health, family relationships, etc. They also got out to the world and learned how things were done differently in other countries - study abroad, homestays, TV.... Not necessarily "better," but they saw enough to know that things in Japan did not necessarily have to be the way they are. Unfortunately, nothing changed for them. Blame Monkasho.

Now the younger parents see the same thing happening to their children that happened to them, their parents and grandparents and they are not having it. Rightfully so. The "gaman" and "shoganai" to the detriment of oneself and those close to you way of thinking does not mean as much to them. I see this as a positive. They are making the well-being of their kids a priority. Good for them. Monkasho is eveidently not interested in changing anything, so some parents are taking matters into their own hands. Good for them again. They are doing the one responsibility that all parents have - make things better for your children than they were for you. If the school won't, then do it yourself. As stated above, you don't have to go to school to get educated.

The school system overall need to be remade, especially in Japan. I do think it's necessary for social reasons, but 90% of the things you learn are useless. Cut down on studying, increase situations where students needs to be social and think for themselves. When they get older have them specialize early and teach them what they will actually have use for.

Maybe if the schools didn’t look like prisons kids would be happy to spend more time there.

I doubt whether the public authorities or institutions have been doing enough to address "a sense of lethargy or anxiety" of kids, which they apparently fully aware of. For instance, we know very well, after reports of so many cases, that schools and the public authorities tend to "cover up" or ignore bullying instead of dealing with it. OR consideration should be given to expanding alternative ways of providing education services. A few of those who skip elementary and junior high schools might be eSports pros eventually, and be able to support themselves. But the large majority would end up with lack of basic skills of reading, writing and calculation. It's just scary.

Sorry, but I have zero understanding for such a discussion. Schools are not meant to be a funny and always interesting entertainment or fashion center that is pleasant for all the kids all the time. They simply should be massively educated there and be prepared for a life as an adult person and socially as well as intellectually skilled member in society. That's how it has been done for centuries and how it has to be again. Therefore, the worst bullies have to be taken out into special schools and the pampered absentees forced back into the classes. That's the way to handle this. We can't afford a future where the few remaining youngsters make the rules for what and if to learn anything , the teachers don't teach the curriculum topics so that cram schools are necessary, but instead care only for the dress code and the self-made bureaucratic monster or strange and unnecessary after-school club activities, and the parents don't care at all and often don't even pay for lunch , but prefer opposition to school or education board. There has to be a step back to normality, common sense and cooperation to get the best possible education results for the kids.

Kids are a lot more curious and willing to learn than people think, diluting it down to "kids lazy, only want phone and game" is such a one dimensional take lol. Maybe if schools promoted healthy and engaging hands-on learning that's actually motivating to them instead of just shoving useless information into their heads they'd be more willing to attend and participate.

Abso-bloody-exactly

3.2% of elementary and junior high school students missed more than 30 days,

up 0.6% over the previous year. That's big. Those commenting that the students

are learning stuff at home need a reality check.

Well, if Japanese educators get their way, parents could just send in robots instead of their kids. Problem solved.

https://japantoday.com/category/national/japanese-educators-want-to-allow-students-to-use-robot-substitutes-to-attend-school

Ban children under 16 from using cell phones and watch them return in droves.

Though not perfect, personally I am very happy my kids attend schools in Japan

Behavior is generally good.

Academic levels are far higher than Europe or the US.

Children have school pride .

Club activities keep kids active and out of trouble.

Vacations are of a sensible length, not like the US

Private school fees are reasonable too

Children are allowed to be children, there is less pressure to act older.

Teachers are underpaid and overworked and for their continued hard work I am extremely grateful.

Bunking off school, is it a good thing or a bad thing? for a lot of kids, what do they do during the day? clear off to the shopping malls, pachinko parlours, then comes the intrest in luxury items, "why cant i have one?" so is this where petty theft starts? it starts off as a laugh, then gets serious, then stealing to order, then getting into trouble with the cops, because the kids are bored, i am sure weve all seen where this sort of bunking off school starts and ends, I would like to know what are the crime rates for shop lifting that can be atributed to under 16 year olds, and were they commited in school time.

@carpslidy Well said for a class population of 15 students!!!!

*Though not perfect, personally I am very happy my kids attend schools in Japan (*Parent perhaps from the country side)

*Behavior is generally good. *(Perhaps An only child)

*Academic levels are far higher than Europe or the US.* (In comparison to size)

*Children have school pride . *(students proud of what, not being bullied)

*Club activities keep kids active and out of trouble.* (Badminton or cross country from the country side)

*Vacations are of a sensible length, not like the US *(This is why you have robots in training)

*Private school fees are reasonable too *(Again when you have a population with low child birth it should be free)

*Children are allowed to be children, there is less pressure to act older. *(Is this why the women squeak when they talk and Bullying??? on all levels)

*Teachers are underpaid and overworked and for their continued hard work I am extremely grateful. *(Now that is a understatement)

Brian

Depends what you do with the free time. Can get up to no good or make dough and have a laugh. It’s not for everyone and nor is the education system