Whether we have the gumption to make them at all is the question. At the same time, Prime Minister Nakasone was visiting the U.S. and praised education in America. He had good reason to be looking around. Without drastic reforms, Japan's education system would not be able to recover to normalcy. It is normal for students to be subjected to the minute scrutiny of teachers who enforce hundreds of written and unwritten rules that govern every aspect of the youth at home and at school, indeed, anywhere that he may be at all times, during school hours, after school, or even during summer vacations.
Punishments can be severe.
As confirmed in a nation-wide survey, my own students reported being hit an average of 24 times in their school careers. Some students told me they had been hit hundreds of times. Punishments These hits were seldom love pats. Students usually reported being hit across the head. For example, a pupil who has forgotten something is made to lie supine on the floor with both legs raised, and the teacher sticks thumbtacks into the backs of his legs.