Nipponica

The Japanese game arcade industry, which took a significant hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has seen nearly 8,000 stores disappear over the past decade, with a 30 percent reduction in the last five years alone, a recent survey from credit research firm Teikoku Databank Ltd showed.

But claw machines have bucked the digital and console trend, with demand for prize games remaining high even during the pandemic. The Japan Amusement Industry Association says revenue from the games hit 306.2 billion yen ($1.9 billion) in fiscal 2021 and the genre now makes up nearly 70 percent of an amusement facility's overall sales.

UFO Catcher is my arch nemesis...

The survey was conducted from April to May. It was initially anonymous, but was later switched to a named format. Valid responses in the latter format totaled 64,829, with 24,343 from junior high students, 7,286 from high school students and 33,200 from parents and guardians.

Asked whether the 12 single-gender prefectural high schools should become coed, 56% of junior high children said, "either is fine," while opposing views were neck and neck, with 18% saying the schools should be coed and 19% responding they shouldn't.

In contrast, 57% of high schoolers opposed coeducation across the board, with only 7% in favor and 33% indifferent. The most common answer for opposing coed school was that "both coeducational and single-gender schools should be options," cited by 35%.

This seems like a strange result and am curious about more detailed reasons that students and guardians resist coed schools and if those opinions are skewed towards one gender over another.

This city's board of education issued a notice to a junior high school that students should stay properly hydrated, after the school established a rule stating that "in principle, it is considered good manners not to drink (water or tea from a water bottle) during classes or tests," the Mainichi Shimbun has learned from the board and other sources.

This is the second story I have posted about insane school rules in Okegawa. Absolute madness to force students to dehydrate themselves because of 'good manners'.

Students at a junior high school here are now able to set their own class rules apart from school rules in an initiative intended to address issues in school life. However, while the system reflects some students' input, others find it confusing, and parents are questioning the entire project, the Mainichi Shimbun has discovered.

This entire story is worth a read simply to see how feckless the school was from preventing students from abusing each other with the regime they created. A personal favorite to demonstrate the monster that was created:

Meanwhile, there are also rules that the school is unaware of, such as, "Gym short drawstrings must be the same color as when purchased." The male student said, "There was an uproar in the class when someone changed their drawstring color." His mother wondered whether the students had adopted the mindset of binding people with rules.