Hello, Everyone!
Here’s Sachi!
And Why are Japanese Streets so Clean?
In addition to the temperament that Japanese people originally possess, I believe that the group responsibilities and routines taught during the 9 or 12 years of school years also has had a great influence.
- There’s time to clean up.
- Prepare their own school lunches.
- There is an evacuation drill.
There’s time to clean up.
Most Japanese schools have a cleaning time during which students clean the school premises themselves.
Not only classrooms, but also hallways, gymnasiums, restrooms, etc…, are targeted for cleaning, and each group takes turns cleaning a different area. At the elementary school I attended, cleaning time was after lunch.
In addition, playground equipment (unicycles, hula hoops, balls, etc.) used on the playground during recess must be put away before returning to class.
My hometown has a biannual festival, and the morning after the festival, the children volunteered to pick up trash.
Each neighborhood in the city has its own community group, and most neighborhoods have volunteer cleanups. Parents gather early in the morning and each pick up trash in their area, cut the grass, and clean up the ditch.
Some companies also have activities to pick up trash around the company. From a young age, we are taught to clean up after ourselves, and as adults, we have many opportunities to continue this practice.
I think one of the reasons why people say that Japanese cities are clean is because the cleaners keep them clean, and also because each community group conducts cleanup activities.
Prepare their own school lunches.
In Japanese schools, school lunches are provided for nine years from elementary to junior high school, and lunch is usually eaten in the classroom.
Students have a school lunch duty system. The school lunch duty person is in charge of everything from preparing food for all classmates to cleaning up.
Before lunchtime, school lunches arrive on a wagon in front of each classroom. Soup and side dishes are placed on the wagon in large pots and bat trays.
The children on lunch duty, wearing white aprons, masks and hats, bring out pots and bat trays filled with food from the wagon and place them in the classroom. The food is then divided into portions for each student, and the other students take turns taking their own portions.
Also, the duty rotates one week at a time, but on weekends the aprons and hats are taken home, washed and ironed, and turned over to the next child on duty on Monday (Of course, if you forget, the next kid on duty will be without an apron and hat, so you have to remember to bring them back to school).
In Japanese elementary schools, students are formed into smaller groups of four or five more students within their class. Groups are mixed gender, and are divided by lottery or other means.
Only children who are close to each other are not biased.
Groupings are held several times a year. (Varies from school to school) Each group always has a leader, and the leader takes the lead in group activities such as outdoor learning, cleaning duty, school lunch duty, etc.
When preparing items needed at lunchtime or in class, students follow each other in the group to prepare not only their own items, but also those of others in the group. In this way, they develop a sense of caring for others.
There is an evacuation drill.
All schools, companies, and entire communities always have evacuation drills. (Even large shopping centers sometimes have them early in the morning, for example.)
On September 1, 1923, there was the Great Kanto Earthquake (Kanto means the area that includes Tokyo and the surrounding satellite cities). As a result, September 1 was established as Disaster Prevention Day every year, and evacuation drills are held in various regions in autumn (around September to November).
In this drill, we confirm how we should act and where we should evacuate to in the event of an earthquake.
In schools, teachers will take the lead, but in companies and communities, roles may be assigned to each person. They confirm who will lead everyone to the evacuation site, who will prepare emergency supplies at the evacuation site, and so on.
Even though it is a training exercise, you never know when or what kind of disaster you may encounter, so of course you must take your actions seriously.
In fact, as we grow older, we tend to act lazily during training…
Even so, through training, we can recognize what actions we should take and where we should evacuate to.
Therefore, when an earthquake occurs, we can calmly judge the situation to some extent. Because we are able to remain calm, we are able to act in harmony with those around us so that we are not the only one who is disrupting the situation.
We act in groups from a young age. In elementary school, students are divided into groups of 6-12 years old in each area, with the 12-year-olds leading the group as leaders and taking the other children to school with them. (Each grade level has different class times, so they return home on their own.)
When gathering in the gymnasium, each class enters the gymnasium in turn and lines up. Then, after they have used the gymnasium, they always put it in order.
With these things in the background, I believe we can keep the area clean and live in order.
One of the interesting things about Japanese restrooms is that almost every private restroom has a sign that reads something like this:
I just want to use the restroom, but when I see such a phrase, it makes me feel like I have to clean the restroom.
I don’t mind if I make a little mess in an already dirty place, but if I make a mess in an originally clean place, I feel very guilty. Moreover, since I have been thanked with a “thank you,” I cannot make it dirty.
In fact, these little psychological devices are found here and there in Japan.
I believe this is also a unique and distinctive Japanese awareness. When you visit Japan and use a private restroom, please look for this statement.
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