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“After lunch in elementary schools all children are expected to clean up the school.”

Your description of Japanese schooling is amazing. Do you think they come out better equipped for a good adulthood than ours? Are there dirty little secrets about their education system? Suicides?

Are there dirty little secrets about their education system? Suicides?

They top the world in suicides.

There are also what we would consider an alarming number of young men who drop out. Not just quit school but become total shut ins. They are unable to deal with the pressure.

Half of all pregnancies end in abortion.

For everything there is a price.

Your description of Japanese schooling is amazing. Do you think they come out better equipped for a good adulthood than ours?

It all depends on what you mean for a good adulthood. Japan and the Japanese are not America and Americans. The Japanese salaryman is expected to show up early and cannot leave work until his supervisor leaves—so he might not leave work until 8. He’s expected to have drinks with his co-workers. He might not get home until 10. His kid will be working on homework from both school and cram school until midnight.

Office ladies can leave work at quitting time. But they are not expected to work very long. Their job is to get married and have a family. Young women indulge themselves in things like cosplay. You might call it a form of arrested development.

There is much to admire about Japan. Crime is very low. The place is clean and orderly. That said, America is a better place. I taught Jr. High for a long time and I’d much rather teach the much less polite, much less disciplined, much less respectful American kids.