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I've been following the channel for 17 years and it's still one of the best channels on the entire youtube. The no-nonsense presentation of all kind of topics. Fun, educational, entertaining, serious, and relaxing. If you are looking for ONE channel that brings you a life well balanced look no further! Looking forward to the 20th annaversary still going strong! Thank you for doing this!
Chronic absenteeism in the US is defined as missing more than 10% of the school year and the national rate for chronic absenteeism was at 26% for the 2023 school year. That rate is actually lower than for 2021-22 when it was at 28%. Covid made the problem much worse than it was before.
Mums ignoring their babies was most surprising. I caught a toddler putting a stone in his mouth, and I told the mum, who didn't seem to care much and just took the stone out and went back to watching her phone.
That's the sad side of Japanese society for Children that as a tourist you don't fully understand or appreciate on a 1st visit until much later. I remember the news of 2 girls that decided over bulling & the insane one where a teacher killed a teenage boy with a sliding school gate as the gate was closed sharply on time and the boy was looking at his phone walking in and never knew what hit him. Japanese high-pressure society of achieving is not supported by mental healthcare is very behind the times & even used to be taboo.
The Japanese schooling system is more about learning by rote, and less about learning to be a thinker. Hence the propensity to blindly follow what the sensai says. Its how you gain control of the population. Probably not actually designed to be thus, but is the way it has evolved. Watching my grand kids schooling in Japan is depressing. Im glad you have a good handle on the realities of what works and what doesnt.
I encountered this and it's often due to bullying or social problems but no one will admit to it. They developed an open format school in Toyko for such children to finish school.
Hated school...Used to wag it and read poetry books in the fields around Manchester airport. Saw foxes, fish in ponds...Learnt more doing that and it formed me. Formed an independent nature. 69P is not a robot!
It all starts from the parents, then bleeding over to the dynamics in school and the student's personality itself - I don't think we understand how hard it is for these kids to even talk to their own parents who must have been emotionally distant and only caring about how they look to the world physically.. its way more complex than just talking to them - the 'Senseis' themselves and adults have their own issues that hasn't been met and solved that doesn't allow them to look at the students from their level rather than a "help"/"support" mindset.
I was the same, not feeling motivated, anxiety, bullying and no friends. Same thing happening in China, people are skipping schools, universities, they do not attend them due to the high prices of the fees or because they gave up due to the massive economic struggles in China. Poland didn't treat mental health issues as a real thing 15 years ago when I attended and skipped school, they treated it as if you belonged to psych ward. It has changed a lot, but unfortunately Japan still has the same way of thinking like Poland did back 15 years ago, one of many things that put me off this country. I watched loads of amazing documentaries by people who suffer from mental health in Japan, a lot of them don't seem to realise that other people also have such issues they're facing themselves.
I know widespread change in Japan tends to be slow, but the lack of basic mental healthcare for such a developed country is mystifying to me. That’s something you do NOT want to be 60 years behind on. Thanks again as always for the insightful video.
Shihan uses 'ossu' instead of 'hai', because it is tradition (from the 50's for him, but probably much older) - one translation is "push patience". We use it for greeting, agreement, farewell, cheering, etc, anything positive.
Well done you. You've entirely possibly saved a life, plus taught her skills that will leave her better placed to handle the rest of her life...and no doubt, she will at some point help a friend in the same way.
Yeah. I remember when I was going through a really tough patch at school while in Australia. It was a time where I didn’t go to school for nearly a term. My dad ended up talking me through it and he took me for a trip down to the snow to go snowboarding and spent some time with me. After that I went on and completed my schooling and graduated with no problems. I was able to get a high ATAR mark and got into uni. Talking to your kid and spending time with them does wonders.
I got the same impression after living in Japan for about a year, that Japan is like the States in the 50's or 60's. My wife and I joke about Japan is a distant #7 in the G7
It seems that Japan is _almost_ there. The school not taking responsibility for the kids social development is a good thing. Way too many parents around the world just expect the school to take care of their kids development and replace the parents in that arena. I like the idea of the school being hands-off in everything other than the kids actual education. That's a positive situation. And it's good that they're not just 'pushing' the kid into school. That solves nothing. I think the real issue here is outlined in the lack of communication between parents and child. The real solution is in teaching the parents how to parent, in how to actually do these basic psychological and problem solving techniques. Of course one has to worry about a lot of parents having mindsets that perhaps shouldn't be passed on, but that's a separate issue.
Back to the rice fields, nice! We're also having a mild winter here, in fact the weather these last couple years have been really strange. It's warm when it ought to be cold and dry when it ought to be raining. Winter has turned into autumn and spring barely happens at all. It'll be interesting to see how it unfolds this year!
I think all the 4 points given as reasons - why kids don't attend to school are very much interrelated together. Societal problems and cultural specifics are now being reflected on kids, But even if that was not that much of a problem the current education system is soo outdated. Its the equivalent of riding horses in the days of modern day of cars.
Oh the contortions I went through as a kid to stay home from school sick! I have no idea what would have happened if my parents easily let me stay home.
My son"s daycare teacher called my son clumsy because he could not do his buttons up at the age of 3... Talk about a looney society. Oh the daycare teacher went on stress leave 3 months later,,
I am surprised that absenteeism from schools is so prevalent over there. I ADMIRE the approach you took with your daughter who had trouble going to school. TALK it out. CARE about how the kids are feeling. I reckon seeking therapy over there wherein you can tell folks how you are really feeling, is seen as being profoundly weak and BURDENING a therapist with your problems? It is as though confiding in anyone is seen to be burdening them, as well. It is the lack of empathy and compassion for others that is troubling to me.
I had posted a clip to your twitter page, about neruodivergen people in the workplace, from nhk world (I know how you feel about nhk in particular, in regards to Japanese TV. But I think this would be an exception). Is it possible to cover this particular story. In regards to this video, as depression and anxiety are recognised as being neruodivergen and a hidden disability, what do you think of applying the same principles that the highlighted companies are doing, as well as the research into it. But in a high school setting? It just might curb or lower the % of those skipping school?
Good parenting is the answer, need to be a parent, not leave it to anyone else….. it’s called taking to your kids….. logical conversation not authority based… how hard is it to be a good parent 😂 my one was top 5% teachers and other parents didn’t like a half half to be doing better than a Japanese kid, so my daughter just adjusted and fails on purpose now in top 30% sad but it’s only school , she know she can easily out do the others and that’s what counts after they leave school and uni…. It’s ok she has to fit in but that doesn’t stop her in the future. Good parenting is flexible and understanding that she had to fit in….
Japan is GENERALLY a safe and stable country with very high educational standards and it's not clear to me that applying Western standards to solving their problems is going to help them. It's easy to cherry-pick an example of a student who was told to "ganbatte" (push through and persevere) then committed suicide, sure that's awful and unacceptable. But looking at the country as a whole, can we truly say that we in the West have a better system...with all of our crime in the schools, drug dealing, gang violence etc. not to mention our lower standards and near-illiteracy of high school grads?
All or nothing at all approach doesn't sound very helpful. Whenever I hear the (to non-Japanese) inexplicable things like this I always think of the 2003 film Fear and Trembling.
Wow either this was done a couple of months ago or the farmers are really lazy , ours have already recycled the earth 2 times so lots of dirt but rich black soil , burning season , flip side we don’t have much of this skipping school here in Tochgi cause it’s way to easy to get caught out by the locals and it’s like a small village so yeah lol😂
Wow... So after watching this, hearing about poor mental health awareness in Japanese society and how a sizeable chunk of an entire generation could be lost - your biggest take away was the state of the field he happened to be standing next to?! That you've misspelled the city you claim to live in is, I suspect, not unrelated 🤯 Please don't reproduce !
If you like what we do, please help us to continue by supporting us at www.patreon.com/TheJapanChannel or paypal.me/TheJapanChannel or Automatic $20/month plan with Paypal: www.paypal.com/webapps/billing/plans/subscribe?plan_id=P-2G153842NH307583MMEYDFQA or ko-fi.com/thejapanchannel .
I've been following the channel for 17 years and it's still one of the best channels on the entire youtube. The no-nonsense presentation of all kind of topics. Fun, educational, entertaining, serious, and relaxing. If you are looking for ONE channel that brings you a life well balanced look no further! Looking forward to the 20th annaversary still going strong!
Thank you for doing this!
"Children you learnt a very important lesson today; you tried your best and you failed.... therefore don't try." Homer Simpson 😄
Chronic absenteeism in the US is defined as missing more than 10% of the school year and the national rate for chronic absenteeism was at 26% for the 2023 school year. That rate is actually lower than for 2021-22 when it was at 28%. Covid made the problem much worse than it was before.
Mums ignoring their babies was most surprising. I caught a toddler putting a stone in his mouth, and I told the mum, who didn't seem to care much and just took the stone out and went back to watching her phone.
she cared enough to take the stone out, so your point is...?
That's the sad side of Japanese society for Children that as a tourist you don't fully understand or appreciate on a 1st visit until much later.
I remember the news of 2 girls that decided over bulling & the insane one where a teacher killed a teenage boy with a sliding school gate as the gate was closed sharply on time and the boy was looking at his phone walking in and never knew what hit him.
Japanese high-pressure society of achieving is not supported by mental healthcare is very behind the times & even used to be taboo.
Just discovered your unique channel. Unusual to see an Aussie farmer living in Japan talking about the life there.
Aussie pilot actually
The Japanese schooling system is more about learning by rote, and less about learning to be a thinker. Hence the propensity to blindly follow what the sensai says. Its how you gain control of the population. Probably not actually designed to be thus, but is the way it has evolved. Watching my grand kids schooling in Japan is depressing. Im glad you have a good handle on the realities of what works and what doesnt.
I encountered this and it's often due to bullying or social problems but no one will admit to it. They developed an open format school in Toyko for such children to finish school.
Hated school...Used to wag it and read poetry books in the fields around Manchester airport. Saw foxes, fish in ponds...Learnt more doing that and it formed me. Formed an independent nature.
69P is not a robot!
It all starts from the parents, then bleeding over to the dynamics in school and the student's personality itself - I don't think we understand how hard it is for these kids to even talk to their own parents who must have been emotionally distant and only caring about how they look to the world physically.. its way more complex than just talking to them - the 'Senseis' themselves and adults have their own issues that hasn't been met and solved that doesn't allow them to look at the students from their level rather than a "help"/"support" mindset.
We Americans can listen to an Aussie accent ALL DAY.
We love the three of them (Broad, Standard and Cultured) so much.
I was the same, not feeling motivated, anxiety, bullying and no friends. Same thing happening in China, people are skipping schools, universities, they do not attend them due to the high prices of the fees or because they gave up due to the massive economic struggles in China. Poland didn't treat mental health issues as a real thing 15 years ago when I attended and skipped school, they treated it as if you belonged to psych ward. It has changed a lot, but unfortunately Japan still has the same way of thinking like Poland did back 15 years ago, one of many things that put me off this country. I watched loads of amazing documentaries by people who suffer from mental health in Japan, a lot of them don't seem to realise that other people also have such issues they're facing themselves.
Go visit China and stop paroting western BS propaganda 😂 its visa free now btw
30 days a year! I didn't like school, but I didn't miss 30 days during my entire time in school, from kindergarten through high school!
I know widespread change in Japan tends to be slow, but the lack of basic mental healthcare for such a developed country is mystifying to me. That’s something you do NOT want to be 60 years behind on.
Thanks again as always for the insightful video.
The one time my friend and I skipped in 7th grade we got stung by bees and both fell in a pond later. Didnt skip jr high again.
Shihan uses 'ossu' instead of 'hai', because it is tradition (from the 50's for him, but probably much older) - one translation is "push patience". We use it for greeting, agreement, farewell, cheering, etc, anything positive.
Well done you. You've entirely possibly saved a life, plus taught her skills that will leave her better placed to handle the rest of her life...and no doubt, she will at some point help a friend in the same way.
Yeah. I remember when I was going through a really tough patch at school while in Australia.
It was a time where I didn’t go to school for nearly a term. My dad ended up talking me through it and he took me for a trip down to the snow to go snowboarding and spent some time with me.
After that I went on and completed my schooling and graduated with no problems. I was able to get a high ATAR mark and got into uni.
Talking to your kid and spending time with them does wonders.
I got the same impression after living in Japan for about a year, that Japan is like the States in the 50's or 60's. My wife and I joke about Japan is a distant #7 in the G7
Moreso the 60's.
It seems that Japan is _almost_ there.
The school not taking responsibility for the kids social development is a good thing.
Way too many parents around the world just expect the school to take care of their kids development and replace the parents in that arena. I like the idea of the school being hands-off in everything other than the kids actual education. That's a positive situation.
And it's good that they're not just 'pushing' the kid into school. That solves nothing.
I think the real issue here is outlined in the lack of communication between parents and child. The real solution is in teaching the parents how to parent, in how to actually do these basic psychological and problem solving techniques.
Of course one has to worry about a lot of parents having mindsets that perhaps shouldn't be passed on, but that's a separate issue.
Thanks TJC, I really enjoyed this one. An interesting insight into the move from gambatte to give up. The 4K visuals are nice too.
When I read the title I thought; "Oh, they have schools for teaching skipping?". 😅
Back to the rice fields, nice! We're also having a mild winter here, in fact the weather these last couple years have been really strange. It's warm when it ought to be cold and dry when it ought to be raining. Winter has turned into autumn and spring barely happens at all. It'll be interesting to see how it unfolds this year!
I think all the 4 points given as reasons - why kids don't attend to school are very much interrelated together. Societal problems and cultural specifics are now being reflected on kids, But even if that was not that much of a problem the current education system is soo outdated. Its the equivalent of riding horses in the days of modern day of cars.
I think it's better as far as possible for counselling to be done by family and friends, and teachers in a wider sense rather than professionals.
Hirokazu Kore Eda has a very nice movie that slightly relates to this, japanese title is Kaibutsu
Oh the contortions I went through as a kid to stay home from school sick! I have no idea what would have happened if my parents easily let me stay home.
Of all the English terms they could have adopted 'give up' is not the best. 'Soldier on' might be better.
Soldiering on is how they got in this problem
My son"s daycare teacher called my son clumsy because he could not do his buttons up at the age of 3... Talk about a looney society. Oh the daycare teacher went on stress leave 3 months later,,
I am surprised that absenteeism from schools is so prevalent over there.
I ADMIRE the approach you took with your daughter who had trouble going to school.
TALK it out.
CARE about how the kids are feeling.
I reckon seeking therapy over there wherein you can tell folks how you are really feeling, is seen as being profoundly weak and BURDENING a therapist with your problems?
It is as though confiding in anyone is seen to be burdening them, as well.
It is the lack of empathy and compassion for others that is troubling to me.
I wish it was mild in the UK. It's absolutely freezing!
You mammary!
You are right. They don't talk!!!
Yea and this leads into the hikikomori problem.
2:08 Is this a euphemism for bullying?
I had posted a clip to your twitter page, about neruodivergen people in the workplace, from nhk world (I know how you feel about nhk in particular, in regards to Japanese TV. But I think this would be an exception). Is it possible to cover this particular story.
In regards to this video, as depression and anxiety are recognised as being neruodivergen and a hidden disability, what do you think of applying the same principles that the highlighted companies are doing, as well as the research into it. But in a high school setting? It just might curb or lower the % of those skipping school?
I was also a futoko child one time.
Kids in Japan need to meditate more, to slow down their minds. Then life wouldn't seem so overwhelming to them.
Good parenting is the answer, need to be a parent, not leave it to anyone else….. it’s called taking to your kids….. logical conversation not authority based… how hard is it to be a good parent 😂 my one was top 5% teachers and other parents didn’t like a half half to be doing better than a Japanese kid, so my daughter just adjusted and fails on purpose now in top 30% sad but it’s only school , she know she can easily out do the others and that’s what counts after they leave school and uni…. It’s ok she has to fit in but that doesn’t stop her in the future. Good parenting is flexible and understanding that she had to fit in….
Japan is GENERALLY a safe and stable country with very high educational standards and it's not clear to me that applying Western standards to solving their problems is going to help them. It's easy to cherry-pick an example of a student who was told to "ganbatte" (push through and persevere) then committed suicide, sure that's awful and unacceptable. But looking at the country as a whole, can we truly say that we in the West have a better system...with all of our crime in the schools, drug dealing, gang violence etc. not to mention our lower standards and near-illiteracy of high school grads?
All or nothing at all approach doesn't sound very helpful.
Whenever I hear the (to non-Japanese) inexplicable things like this I always think of the 2003 film Fear and Trembling.
Japan has given up.
Wow either this was done a couple of months ago or the farmers are really lazy , ours have already recycled the earth 2 times so lots of dirt but rich black soil , burning season , flip side we don’t have much of this skipping school here in Tochgi cause it’s way to easy to get caught out by the locals and it’s like a small village so yeah lol😂
Wow... So after watching this, hearing about poor mental health awareness in Japanese society and how a sizeable chunk of an entire generation could be lost - your biggest take away was the state of the field he happened to be standing next to?! That you've misspelled the city you claim to live in is, I suspect, not unrelated 🤯 Please don't reproduce !
first!