Junior high school students in Japan are required to wear uniforms and typically walk to school. Their day consists of classes in various subjects like English, Japanese, math, and science 4 times a week, with additional classes in social studies, fine arts, PE, music, industrial arts, home economics, and moral education on other days of the week. Students prepare and eat lunch at school, participate in cleaning duties, and may engage in after-school clubs and activities like sports day or chorus contests.
7. List of school subjects
4 times a week
English
Japanese
Math
Science
3 times a week
Social Studies
Twice a week
Fine arts
P.E.
Music
Once a week
Industrial Arts
Home Economics
Moral Education
Today we’re happy to have a great opportunity to meet you here. We appreciate all of you a lot to welcome us.
It’s a pleasure to tell you about Japanese junior high school. We’re going to tell you how we spend our school life in Japan.
Junior high school students in Japan are busy every day at school with classes and club activities. They usually have 6 classes. After school, they also have the club activities for about 2 or three hours on weekdays. Saturday and Sunday are holidays, but they have club activities on Saturday as well. Their only free day in the week is Sunday. Let’s take a closer look at a typical school life.
In Japan the students wear the school uniforms. These are their summer uniforms. Every student must wear their name tags and class pin. All of their indoor shoes are white / except for a colored design. Each grade level is assigned a different color. For example, this year, the 8th grade students wear shoes with blue designs. Students can’t wear accessories like jewelry, caps or hair accessories. They also mustn’t dye their hair.
Let’s follow them / through a day / at JHS. At my school, most students walk to school. Some students go to school / by public bus or by car. My school doesn’t provide a school bus. Students must change into their indoor shoes / once they arrive at school. They must be in their classrooms / untill 8 o’clock.
This is a typical classroom. There are about 30 or 40 students / per each classroom. Students desks are usually positioned in this way, all facing the front of the class. Usually teachers use blackboards for lessons. Classrooms usually don’t have computers.
The students can often use the screen and the projector / to present their ideas in the classroom.
Students follow a block schedule. For most of the day, students will stay in their home classroom. Instead of students / changing classrooms for different subjects, the teachers visit the different rooms to teach. Some exceptions are : fine arts, P.E., music, industrial arts, home economics and sometimes, Science and English. Some schools have an extra classroom for English!
Lunch starts between 12:10 and 12:30, after the end of 4th period. Students at my school / eat lunch / in their classrooms. They move their desks / into lunch formation. Some students are assigned lunch preparation duties. These students must wear aprons, masks, and kerchiefs on their heads. They are in charge of bringing the food to the classrooms and serving the food. When all the students are seated, all the students say / in unison / ” Itadakimasu ”. This phrase is a way / to give thanks / before a meal, similar to saying grace.
This is a pictures of typical school lunch . Usually there is a soup, rice, protein and vegetables, and milk. Sometimes there will be a dessert or bread or fruits. Each school has it’s own nutritionist / who creates balanced meals. Students are expected to clear their plates. Most students do, as this is the only food / that they will eat before they go back home // because students can’t bring snacks to school. They can only bring water, Japanese tea or sports drink / during the summer. Students must eat school lunch / because bringing a lunch from home is not an option.
When lunch is finished, all the students say / in union / “gochisousama-deshita.” This phrase gives respect / to the people who prepared the food. The students place their trays, plates, utensils and trash / in their separate places. They move their desks back. The lunch monitors will return the lunch materials and wipe down the tables. All the students then / brush their teeth.
In April or May, the students have some opportunity to see a doctor at school. Some doctor come / to check their health.
After the end of sixth period, we have cleaning time. Students are assigned different parts of the school / to clean. They will clean the stairwells, classrooms, hallways, bathrooms, entrances, and even the teacher / staff’s room. The teachers also clean with the students as well as supervise them.
We have a very big school events / every year. One of them is the Sports Day. All the students enjoy sports on the ground / on this day. Each class rival / for the championship. These are the pictures of a tug-of war.
We also enjoy running, a team rope jumping, and so on.
The other of the big school events is the Chorus Contest. Each class argues / to decide their songs, conductor, and the pianist. . They practice singing so hard / not only in the music lessons but also early in the morning before starting school, during the break after lunch, after school, for about 3 months / to get the golden prize of the contest. On the contest day / they show their chorus on the stage, and a lot of parents come to listen.
After the performance, all the students of the same grade sing a few songs all together like this.
Let’s take a look of the club activities. After classes are finished, the school day hasn’t ended. Now it’s time for club activities. Almost every student is a part of one club. These clubs vary from different sports, brass band, chorus, art & science. Students usually stay in one club activity / for their three years in junior high school.
Club activities finish / around 6:30 to 7:00pm. Students can finally go home! Students can’t bring cell phones to school / so they can use the school’s payphone to call their parents / if they need to. It’s not unusual / to see students walking back home / when it’s already dark.
Most of the sports teams practice so hard to win the first prize of the City Tournament held in June. Before the City Tournament / the students exchange yells and cheer with each other.
The sports teams declare their strong wish to win on the stage.
Only a few teams that go on to the finals can attend the next prefectural tournament. If they lost the game, most of the third grade players retire their club / and start studying hard for the entrance examinations of high schools.
This is only a part of our school life. We hope / you can understand how Japanese student spend our school life. Is it very different from yours ? I hope you’ll visit to see Japan some day. Thank you.