#;mystuff

Moving on to the school day, the average school day begins at 8:30am with teachers gathering for a brief meeting. Students meet at 8:35am in their homeroom class for a five-minute period. Regular classes begin at 8:45, with four 50-minute classes in the morning, followed by a lunch period (lunches are eaten in a student's homeroom class). Two afternoon periods are followed by school clean-up and another five-minute homeroom meeting, after which students are dismissed at 3:30pm.

Up until the late 1980s and early 1990s, students attended class six days a week, but since then laws have changed and now students attend five days a week, Monday through Friday. However, there are still some private schools that follow the six-day school schedule. For students who attend classes on Saturdays, the day ends after four periods, at 1pm and club activities are held after school and ran until 5 or 6pm. For both public and private schools, one hour per week is devoted to mandatory club activity. Other club activity is voluntary.

Also once a week is an hour-long homeroom period where teachers concentrate on student guidance. Typical activities include helping students develop greater awareness of themselves as high school students, encouraging them to reflect on their summer vacation, or perhaps asking them to contemplate on the forthcoming advancement from one grade to another. These topics are discussed and planned in advance by the teacher for the entire school year.

So now let's move onto the fun stuff: classes! What kind of classes are required in a Japanese school system? During the 10th grade, the program is virtually identical for all students. The average Japanese student faces a demanding course of study in the required core subjects of Japanese Language, mathematics, science, English, and social studies. All first-year students study "Japanese Language I", "Contemporary Society", "Mathematics I", "Science I", "Art*", "Physical Education**", and "Health".  

                       *Students can choose from a variety of classes to fulfill their art credit, including painting, music, calligraphy, etc.

                       **Boys are required to take four hours a week of Physical Education while girls must take two hours and two hours of Home Economics. 

Second and third-year student curriculum is divided into two majors: Literature and Science. Depending on which one the student chooses, the coursework will be tailored to fit. For instance, Literature Majors are required to take Classic Literature, Modern Literature and Ethics or Politics. Science majors must take Geometry, Physics, and Chemistry. (Examples of classes and hours required can be found here.)

The Japanese high school student does not assemble an individual class schedule from a large menu of possible electives. Extras such as driver's education, drama, or psychology are not offered.

After school activities are strongly encouraged. Over half of Japanese students are active in one or more clubs. Club meetings are held from 3 to 5 or 6pm. Most clubs are run by the students themselves, and sports clubs are usually the most popular. Some clubs compete in nation-wide competitions.

School life arguably takes up most of a student's day, with gruelling focus on academics. To further this point, some prohibitions are placed on students while attending school to discourage experimentation with adult fashions, pastimes, and responsibilities. Most Japanese high schools prohibit students from obtaining a part-time job while in school (A large scale comparative study found that only 21% of all Japanese students worked part-time during school, while 63% of American students worked). Schools and parents discourage students from working on the grounds that it distracts them from study and exposes them to dubious influences in the adult community.

Students are also prohibited from obtaining a driver's license until the age of eighteen. Although 16-year-olds may obtain a license to drive small motorbikes, three-quarters of all high schools prohibit or severely restrict their use. Many students must commute as much as 45 minutes or more to school, and most use public transportation or a standard three-speed bicycle.

Finally, the dreaded entrance exams. You've probably seen in animes and even movies how rigorously students study for them, and this is by no means an exaggeration. For students aspiring to enter more prestigious universities, exam preparation is an arduous and painful task which often begins in earnest in lower secondary school. In its most extreme form, the long, intense period of study followed by the stress of the examination itself is referred to as "examination hell." A common slogan is "4 hours pass, 5 hours fail," referring to the presumed relationship between the amount of time a student sleeps each night and the prospect for success or failure on the examination.

More than half the students who fail the examination to the university of their choice end up taking as much as an extra year to study before taking the exam again, and often they have to take it two or three times before finally passing. And those struggling to pass often attend cram schools (yobikos) for further study help.