Sleepy Japanese kids
More than half of school-age children feel lives are hectic
AP — July 13, 2009
More than half of responding elementary, junior high and senior high school students feel their lives are hectic and they would like to sleep more, according to results of a survey by an educational research institute released Sunday.
The survey conducted in November by the Tokyo-based Benesse Educational Research & Development Center found that 49 percent of the elementary school students, 59 percent of the junior high students and 64 percent of the senior high school students responded they have hectic lives….more…
Sleep deprivation is the hallmark of Japanese work- and study-life. The standard phrase that mothers use to admonish their children in their school studies is, 
“(sleep) four hours pass, (sleep) five hours fail”. There even has been one study that has shown that Japanese babies are forced to sleep least of any country in the world.
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July 14th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
And the other half didn’t understand the survey, and chose no as it was easier than asking, or admitting they can’t read…
July 15th, 2009 at 6:13 am
I always felt bad for them. One day off from school a week is not enough.
July 15th, 2009 at 8:48 am
What is worse is that everybody in Japan is working hard to undermine the “Five-school days a week” system in public schools started April, 2002 in Japan. As soon as that law was past, all the wacko parents signed their kids up for Saturday and Sunday juku/cram schools, sheesh.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:07 am
You mean, Taro, that they aren’t training to become future bureaucrats sleeping on TV, or future salarymen or OLs sleeping on the trains, or flat out on the streets? I thought that was the norm….