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COVID-19 Japanese school year to start in September

Should Japanese school year start in September ?

  • Yes

    Votes: 4 50.0%
  • No

    Votes: 3 37.5%
  • Don't care

    Votes: 1 12.5%

  • Total voters
    8

misternada

後輩
10 Sep 2017
85
32
33
The Coronavirus crisis might be the biggest chance for Japan to align with the rest of the World and start the academic year in September.

I think that would be a great chance for Japanese studying abroad and foreign students alike.

But If I get it right Japanese students should jump a year to be in phase with the students abroad.

I am really curious to see if this could work out or if the old Japanese guard will manage to keep the old system.
 
Interesting thought and one I like the idea of. They should not jump a year, otherwise my elementary school year 5 son will go into year 6 without having covered the work in year 5. Even though it may be desirable to align the starting time of year with much of the rest of the world (but not all the world, I know of one country that starts its academic year in January), I'm not sure whether it's desirable to align the ages. Britain is a bit of an outlier with school starting at 5, which I think is too young, and I think that Japan has the starting age right.

As well as the old guard, there may be cultural resistance to not having entrance ceremonies coinciding with cherry blossom, even if it no longer happens for most of Japan because of global heating.
 
Does the rest of the world really start in August/September? I never thought about it much before.
 
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Data from 2018.
 
Interesting that data is unavailable for some countries. It shouldn't be that difficult to find someone in Libya, say, and simply ask them when the school year starts in their country!
 
Japanese school year to start in September


FALSE! This has not been decided yet, along with a bunch of other random ideas that fly out of PM Abe's mouth like spittle from a rabid dog. Please change the thread title. It is false.
 
Interesting that data is unavailable for some countries. It shouldn't be that difficult to find someone in Libya, say, and simply ask them when the school year starts in their country!

As far as I know, Libya is still in shambles after being devastated by Obama, Clinton and friends. It might be easier to contact those war criminals about the situation in Libya. Public schools? Kids are probably lucky to be educated enough to know where its safe to play marbles.

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While I believe it would be wise for Japan to match the majority of the Northern Hemisphere with regards to when school starts, NOT now, like this, with no plan. No, I cannot agree NOW, but for the future, I answered yes to the poll.

They need to have a plan so that they can get kids in EARLIER rather than have some kids starting school at seven years old.
 
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There is no need for all humankind to behave like sheep. There is no bother having a different time schedule that goes along with ancient traditions.
That's what makes japenese culture so unique
 
There is no need for all humankind to behave like sheep. There is no bother having a different time schedule that goes along with ancient traditions.
That's what makes Japanese culture so unique
It depends on the reason for the tradition and whether or not modern life supports it. I wonder if it makes sense to start in September. Traditionally that was because children had to work on the family farm during growing season. Now that reason makes no sense, at least in the U.S.
 
Traditionally that was because children had to work on the family farm during growing season. Now that reason makes no sense, at least in the U.S.

Go to rural America to many family farms and that is still the case. When I was in high school there would be kids that were out because they had to help with the planting or the harvest.
 
There is no need for all humankind to behave like sheep. There is no bother having a different time schedule that goes along with ancient traditions.
That's what makes japenese culture so unique
I don't have strong views on this issue but I don't see it as a cultural one. There are often benefits to standardisation in that it allows different countries to work together smoothly, and two of the Japanese organisations I proofread for (one very well known) are at the forefront in the international standardisation of their areas. It's up to Japan to decide whether its beneficial to them to adopt a new schools year without all the emotive 'they're destroying our culture' arguments that poisoned the debate about whether Britain should stay in the EU.
 
There is no bother having a different time schedule that goes along with ancient traditions.
That's what makes japenese culture so unique
"Ancient traditions"? The start of the school year was moved to April in 1886 to match the start of the fiscal year. That's hardly "ancient" and has zero to do with "unique Japanese culture".

In the earlier years of the Meiji Era, it actually started off as September. (Before that, there wasn't any such thing as the "school year" because there was no uniform, universal education system.)


Anyhow, I don't get the sense that this is (or is going to become) a huge cultural divide issue. There might be a few people reminiscing and lamenting that schools will no longer begin during cherry blossom season (or what-have-you), but I highly, highly doubt that is going to be anywhere near a defining issue in the debate to come. Everything I've seen/heard/read suggests the main issue is the difficulty in adjusting, how much of a disruption it will or won't be if the school year doesn't coincide with the hiring season, etc. etc.
 
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