Japanese School Rules Even Japanese Don't Understand 

Rule 1 of japanese schools: the main character sits next to the windows

I get why anime characters have the most colorful hair possible now, because anime creators weren't able to do that in school so they lived their dream out through their creation of drawings and animation 0.0

Japanese Children: Exist Japanese Government: *HE NEED SOME MILK!*

*"They lock the doors to the roof to stop people from jumping"* Jeez, I didn't know you guys hated the milk and rice combo so much...

Student : *Dies from hypothermia because heating system is too expensive * Teachers and government : Students must learn to resurrect

Japanese Gov: "We want the best for our student" Student: "I'm allergic to dairy" Japanese Gov and School: HARDSHIPS

As someone who taught in Japan for a few years, the lack of heat in the classroom (or anywhere besides the teacher's room really) blew my mind. There were several days that I just wore a coat to class because it was freezing! Also students weren't allowed to put their cold hands in their sleeves or pockets because it was considered rude. So we're trying to teach these poor, shivering children and we really expect them to care about whatever we're saying. It just didn't seem realistic or necessary at all.

actually, I have heard stories where people with natural brown hair or curly hair had to get a DR note saying it was natural and that the kids were sensitive to either the chemical relaxer and the frequency it would have to be applied or even hair dye in order to not have to do those even small CHILDREN

School: "You can't wear make up" Work: "You must wear make up". Damn, it must suck to be a woman in Japan.

Wait. Just wait a minute. You’re forced to drink milk for “good health,” but frostbite and hypothermia and freaking heatstroke are acceptable risks? That is so messed up!

The heat stroke one hits hard. I remember taking a packed train to school, with condensed sweat dripping off the ceiling it was so hot, only to arrive at school and have to stand outside for assembly in the sun in full uniform. I ended up getting so dizzy and nauseated I had to go to the nurse.

"They lock the doors to the roof to stop ppl that are depressed from the school culture from jumping off" wait a minute we need to unpack this lol

What’s worst is when schools make up more stupid rules to cover up an already stupid rule.

*Cop:* That car that you are driving was reported stolen, and is that cocaine residue there under your nose? *Me:* Might be. But you see, I have the approved haircut that protects from getting in 'troubles'. *Cop:* Right you are. How foolish of me, have a nice day, Sir.

I remember studying abroad in Japan in a full immersion language school for foreigners. I drew a quick doodle to help me remember the difference between お祖母さん "obaasan" (grandmother) and 叔母さん "obasan"(aunt). The teacher walked by my desk and saw the doodles, and accused me of not paying attention. I tried to explain and she wouldn't have any of it! I had to have a counselor meeting where they lectured me on Japanese note taking. In America, the only time my notes were graded is if there was a lesson on specific styles of note taking in grades 1-5. We were taught how to do "Cornell Style"; which I thought was stupid so only did it for the grades when it was a lesson. After that I stopped. I also just don't do a lot of notes in general.

Japanese School rule, "The Red Haired Kid is always going to be a loud mouth, angry trouble maker." lol.

"You have to submit a picture of your youngerself with curly hair" *sweats in puberty making my hair curly*

"Rice and milk, it's just disgusting".... *Cries in arroz con leche* Typical dessert from Spain

"Drink milk" "Why? "It's good for you." "I'm lactose intolerant...like everyone in this room." Ah yes, nothing screams healthy like legal poison.

"rice and milk is such a bad combination, that's disgusting" me, a Filipino who pours the milk directly into the rice

Student: *gets bullied non stop* "Endure hardship"

"we as a japanese people tend to love our school life" Also: "we are forced to die our hair and sit in stressfull positions for prolonged time" ???

Here in Brazil we make a thing called "Arroz doce", that means literally "sweet rice" (i dunno where this recipe comes from), it's rice with milk, sugar, canned milk and some other stuff, we just cook them all together and put in the fridge, we love it

I knew someone who went for Japanese exchange student program had to cut their hair short because they don't allow boys to have long hair which is wrong but I thought it was unfair that he had to cut his hair short because of that rule

Imagine the kids with dislexia having to “copy and paste” I feel bad

Shun-chan: "Rice and milk don't really go together" Spanish Folks: Hold my arroz con leche while I finish the video

I am from Costa Rica and it is insane how many of these points apply for my country as well. The uniform stuff, the hair stuff, the sitting stuff, the "take notes" stuff, the classroom environment and even the arrangement by height!!! I am questioning if rules are any different from here! I really hated the school years because of those stupid rules. I remember in the hot summer days, it was so hot that I often took off my shoes (I have no smelly feet btw) and the teacher just simply ordered to me to put on the shoes because it was part of the uniform... I mean dude, what? It is so stupid. Amazing video btw!

One rule lasted a day in my school, it was banning my grade from getting a cup of water. The reason for this rule was because someone didn’t throw away an EMPTY water cup and didn’t confess to doing it

When I grew up in Japan, the most prevalent thing I never understood about Japanese schools were the insane amount of homework they give you over the summer. Like I mean... they literally expect you to do the same amount of homework, as if you're in class all day. The amount is so substantial, its impossible to finish unless you spend hours a day doing them for a full month. It was legit traumatising.

In Denmark if you write word for word what the teacher wrote, then people will think that you're copying because you don't understand the subject.

“Rice and milk don’t go together” Me: hold my Kheer

As a person growing up in Vietnam, I can relate to some rules, especially these ones: Hair: It's the same here in Vietnam. We can't dye our hair, we can't use hair wax. Some teachers (especially old teachers) even find two-blocks ugly and it's sometimes banned, although the majority of the others think it's normal. And also, some students with natural brownish hair can sometimes get into some trouble with teachers here. However, luckily, girls in Vietnam are allowed to wear make-ups. Line-up: We do have that same rule to line-up based on height, but it's not applied in school assembly, rather it's applied in PE classes. Although many young PE teachers don't even bother about that rule, some old-school teachers still force their students to do so. Grading system: In Vietnam, many teachers force us to write exactly, word by word, what they write on the board, especially primary and secondary teachers. We also get scores for how we take notes, and they affect our grades. It depends on the teachers' style though, some old teachers force us to write down exactly what they write on the board, and we have to hand over our notebooks after each lesson. Some don't do that, but they still judge us by how we take notes, but almost no one doesn't bother about that. These are some Vietnamese school rules that are the same to the ones in Japan. I was actually shocked by how similar they are, but also, I do know that Japanese schools are harsh and I think that they are harsher than the ones in Vietnam, because nowadays, many young teachers in Vietnam are more open-minded and they just accept the way that their students are

Life in Japan: 1) in anime and movies: heaven, love, freedom. 2) in real life: basically prison.

"Rice and milk don't go well together" Me as a German: "I can't hear you. I'm too busy eating my Milchreis"

I loved my trip to Osaka 💖 I fell in love there... I taught in public school in Hokkaido, but had contacts at a private Christian school (北西 in Yoichi town, there was a TV show and movie about it I think) and got to go hang out there, it was such a different experience to see no dress code, hair in every colour and style, piercings, and students came from all over the country. Definitely culture shock from my public junior high and elementary schools I taught at.

i had those grading the notebook thingy where we need to pass it every month and its either the lecture that were writing on the board but also on the books every chapter so if you ever miss one sentence its a deduction. And that's why my grades is always low.

Kid: *dies of heatstroke* Japanese school: Aww, let me press f on the world's smallest keyboard.

„In Japan we love schools!“ „The roof is closed so kids don‘t jump because of stress.“ Uhm... elaborate?

"You need to submit a photo of your younger self" Me who's hair turned from straight to curly recently and can't get a perm because my hair is super weak: 👁👄👁

That’s sucks, im from Canada and my teachers would always ask if every was done taking notes before erasing the board. Of course even if I wasn’t my introverted ass wouldn’t say anything lol

in short, everything you see in school life anime is not true

It must be really frustrating being inteligent kid in japanese "we follow rules just cause that's the way it is, no reasonable explanation" school.

This explains more than I thought it would, thanks for the Insider informations provided 👏

My 10th grade English teacher made us submit our notes every week for "grading." She was literally the only one I ever had that did that. Elementary schools were required to serve us milk during lunch too. But growing up Japanese-American, having milk with rice doesn't seem weird to me I guess!

As someone who's studying animation, there may be a simple reason for the rooftop scenes. Background budget. Its really easy to stick an illustration of a sky up, some simple city work from multiple angles...and voila! other than the rooftop itsef, all the major stuff is done. Maybe stick a stock image of a fence up, (or a 3D model of one) and you're 75% done. Sky, skyline, fence. Since its a rooftop, you don't need to even decorate it with furniture (have them sit on the ground) and because its such an isolated space, you don't have to worry about "filling" it with background characters who don't do anything but take up space. Roof top scenes are honestly super cheap and easy to do. Whereas an interior scene (like hanging out in a cafeteria, a classroom, or even a bathroom, has a lot of details that need to be drawn out for it to make sense. The tables, chairs, walls, cieling (probably with lights and stuff), Other people eating/walking/talking around the main characters, etc. It sounds easy at first, and group scenes with many characters is easy to do for a quick few seconds...but when you have characters sit around and have lengthy conversations that last 10 minutes or so, with many many camera angles to keep things interesting....Suddenly that becomes too much work to keep doing all the time whenever characters need to interact. (also part of the reason why main characters tend to sit in the back, in a corner of a classroom by a window. Being in that part of the classroom means you don't have to keep drawing most of the class any time we are in class.) Though I understand the frustration. As a western student who loved anime, I too wished I could hang out on our rooftop because of anime :) Western cartoons however tend not to take place during school, and when it does, the style of animation makes the process much easier to do, since it tends to be less detailed with thicker lines (which prevent too much background details being included). When we want to do more detailed shots, we also tend to really limit the camera angles that are allowed (only showing a room or house from one specific angle/only showing characters from really one type of angle, etc.) which means that if we want a more detailed background we will simply make a "still" (painted picture) for it, and animate on top. Since the camera won't, for instance, turn around the character, this means that the still won't need to be changed constantly. Sorry for the long comment, but I really love animating and learning about the industry, and hoped this may be interesting for you too!

I would break like 50% of these rules on first day by threating to jump out of window due to overheating ect.

I just love your dry sense of humour. hahhahhahhha love the videos as well.

I was once an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) in a Junior high school and what i found ridiculous was the amount of time and priority spent on bukatsu (club activities) A couple of hours a day or more on after school activities on weekdays and half a Saturday at least. And then a lot of students did juku (special tutoring ) after that. This was basically learning that would bridge the gap with what they learnt at school and what they need to know in order to pass a high school entrance exam. I've always felt that if they focused more on learning in school and less on club activities they wouldn't need the juku. The students could actually then go home and do homework and study up on their own. I think the reasoning behind bukatsu is to help students to work in a group and for some kind of social interactions and bonding and such. of course they are important but everything in moderation right......? I don't know maybe I'm wrong. What do you think?

Brother that fake RU-vid play button looks excellent and don't remove it even if you get the original one.😌😍 Thank you #shunchan By the way I m from India 🇮🇳 Thanks for likes I am glad you agreed 😁

bruh I went to Japanese public elementary school and legit fainted. all I got was a "well you seem to have a easy-to-faint body type so just keep an eye on that" from the nurse. like bish how am I supposed to keep an eye on fainting when im passed out??!

"Japan tends to love our school life" My boyfriend from hokkaido who hated school: 👁👄👁

Yeah it's interesting watching these videos and not having a lot of the things mentioned apply to my normal schooling, but definitely applying to my military schooling. We had "note audits".

Scientist : " Hey! Study shows that more than half of the Japanese is lactose intolerant! " That one stupid teacher : " Let's force them to drink milk everyday. "

Me a Hispanic that loves having “arroz con leche” which translate to Rice with Milk, i kinda laughed but I like that combo though

Very interesting! I always wondered about the rooftop in schools AND the suicide rate in Japan. You answered my question thank you :)

I remember a video where mental health in Japan was being discussed. A Japanese man went to the psychiatrist and said he didn’t feel well and that he had depression. The doctor replied, “You should be happy more often.” 😂 It’s funny but...

I could get behind the no make up rule for girls if they were never expected to wear make up as adults everywhere

The part about taking notes is interesting because as a student in high school myself (attending a western high school), teachers STRONGLY advise us to *never* copy down things word for word from their notes/whatever they're lecturing. They always tell us to make notes in our own words as we can apply we're learning the information, and having to summarize and rewrite the teacher's notes helps strengthen our understanding of the lesson as well. I've had teachers who've gotten annoyed if we write every single thing they put up on the board... It's emphasized that we should only take down information that's important to take note of, as writing everything down is a waste of time. It's also preparation for when students go to college/university, where you must be capable of taking good notes; in a fast and effective manner where you leave lectures with the information you need.

"because my mom always told me I'd grow up taller than them when the time comes" "which never happened" I felt that bro😂

one of the points was quite funny to me. You said milk and rice dont go well together. I dont know how it is in other countries but i live in germany and there is a famous dish called "milk rice" where you cook rice in milk instead of water and ist really good!

you: "rice and milk is such a bad combination, thats disguating" my eastern european mum who cooks rice in milk: 👁👄👁

Shun: Shows something squishy and calls it „bread“. Me, a German: That‘s not bread. That‘s garbage. Shun: Milk and rice, what a disgusting combination! Me, a German: Chokes on my milk rice.

Cracks me up about having to submit your class notes for grading. This is inconceivable in the US. Granted, in my 14 years teaching college English, I often got the feeling the majority of my students never took notes at all, but that was probably just my grouchy nature coming through. :)

I love the tips because im moving to japan for education but is that a Play button in the background omg!!

This was all ridiculous to an American. No we dont turn in our notebooks to be graded we take notes however we want, but when I was in school I would naturally copy paste what the teacher wrote to make sure I had absolutely everything correct. Lol

You brought up the roof of schools being open and commonly used in anime and dramas, but I will add something to the anime and drama list. The student council having near limitless authority in school. To the point of them even having more authority than the principle or any teacher. As well as them usually just sitting around in a private room (often with their own security) and rarely attending class (with a few exceptions, usually that the member attending class will become a love interest at some point.)

This is my favorite RU-vid channel ✨✨✨

It’s very fun to watch your videos! I’m 21 years old and I’m Japanese American, and my father who immigrated from Japan, rarely or never talks about it! Watching your videos is a cool way to learn some Japanese culture from a Japanese man’s point of view!

"That's just a weird combination. Rice and Milk don't go well together." Me: *Eating Rice Pudding* ' . '

Stupid Japanese School Rule: "hey are you underlining something or just drawing a line in general for classwork? USE A RULER!"

You're cool man , you've very good English skills I really enjoyed your video , & I also did learn a lot from it well I hope you made more awesome video soon

"Rice and milk is just disgusting" Meanwhile my fave dessert is literally cinnamon rice and milk. You make me cry shun chan.

Most nonsensical rules in schools all over the world just come down to training children to be obedient without question. It's all about creating an army of good worker drones

I find this so interesting, i studied at a german school. And we had no rules at all. Well not no rules but really only a few like no smoking on school grounds or no mobile phones during class. But we could wear clothes and do our hear how we want and only during first year of „middle school“ (we have a different school system) we sometimes needed to get our notes checked. But mostly to check our writing skills and note about taking notes in general. We also got asked if we finished copying whats been written on the board, before its been removed. I kinda feel very grateful now :D

The note taking you were talking about is something that I had to do when I lived in France. It was kind of less enforced once we got to like sophomore year of high school, but we were still expected to follow a certain formula.

I don’t know about the rules, but I think you are the best at providing insight into your culture. Hooray!!

"...My mum always told me that I will grow up taller than them when the time comes...which never happened." BAHAHA! Nice one, mum!

“You need to submit a photo of your younger self” Me who’s hair turned from curly and blonde to straight up brown in 10 years 👁👄👁

The note taking thing sort of reminds me of binder checks. Which I think are very childish but at least in my school had all the way up to senior year of high school. It was to make sure we stayed organized and would literally get graded for it. But my organization is different than your organization. I just always detested it mainly because we aren’t in elementary school.

With the note-taking, it really depends, on my experience(I'm American btw), who your teacher is. I have had some who grade our notes, and do require it in a specific format; they even provided special papers that had sections devoted to each kind of notes. But there have been other teachers who don't even look at your notes at all. But that part of this video did awaken in me the memories I had growing up, that some teachers even did this lol(I'm going to college rn, and, so far, our notes aren't graded).

"Children must learn to endure hardship" What they expect you to be in the future, a Samurai?

This is how my students days living under a brutal dictatorship sounded like. It's more about making you docile and submissive than about actually educating you.

All throughout my years in school, I was graded on my notes twice. Once was just a free grade booster. So if we had notes to submit, the teacher gave us a 100. But there was another one where there were expectations for notes but wasn't clear. Even if word for word was copied, if it wasn't what the teacher wanted exactly, it was not a perfect grade. That really annoyed me since everyone takes notes differently.

This was actually really interesting! It even put a scene from Persona 5 (where Kawakami (a teacher) comments on a fellow student’s hair still being dyed blonde) into perspective. Thanks for the learning experience

Shun-chan: "Rice and milk don't go well together" (9:30) Me, a Romanian: hold my orez cu lapte

37 years teaching in Japan ... Sakshingakuin (briefly), Waseda, Geidai, TUJ, Komazawa, former Junkyouju at Jissen, frequent judge at E.S.S. All Japan Speech Contests (3 at Todai), and former textbook editor and cultural advisor for MEXT. A simple explanation behind it all, the primary purpose of the juken senso (exam wars) is compliance to authoritarianism. A shame, because young people all over the world are born with so much creative potential.

“Rice and milk don’t go together” NANI?? *sweats profusely while drops delicious spoon full of arroz con leche*

it's weird to hear rice and milk don't go together while growing up with my mom making rice and pouring milk in the bowl with a little cinnamon

Persona 5 was smart with the “rooftop” rule ....the game points they’re NOT supposed to be there

So "Slice of Life" anime is, in reality, "Slice of Fantasy" anime?

i think having some form of hardship in life in the younger lifetime sets one apart from the ones who didn't in the later life, i have seen the stark differences in their attitude towards life where one is totally ungrateful to most of the good things in life, and the other one is being appreciative for all the little things they have.

"rice and milk is just disgusting" clearly Shun hasn't tried Mexican Horchata with cinnamon yet. He would change his mind so quickly

The Japanese Hair standard is about conformity than about a "natural" look. As a black woman in Japan, I would often hear passive-aggressive comments from my coworkers (other teachers). I wear my hair in its natural state which I guess shocked a lot of Japanese people because they don't realize that black people typically have natural afro-textured hair. I definitely faced more discrimination about my hair in America but the ignorance of other races in Japan really shocked me especially because they know about black celebrities and have seen afro hair in the media a lot.

"Rice and milk don't go well together" Me: "Hold my arroz con leche"

5:18 I feel you man... especially in class photos, I’m always at the front row and people make fun of you because it’s the baby row. **short people problems**

oh man, 1 minute into your video and nobuta wo produce surely brings back memories hahaha. new subscriber here after watching your McD video LOL

Talking about haircut, my school isn't really strict on haircuts as long as the hair didn't reach ears for boys and girls had to tie their hair if it reaches their shoulders... And students absolutely cannot dye their hair... But if the boys were caught, teachers would cut their hair buzz cut... To the fact that buzz cut became a trend in my school that some boys are willing to send themselves to the teachers for buzz cut🤣 "free haircut" they said🤣

I always wondered why so many horror Animes and Mangas take place in schools.

HAHAHAH your take on rice+milk is funny because here in spain he literally have a dessert that's "arroz con leche" which is basically rice, milk, and cinnamon (and it's very yummy)