卒業

Mid march is graduation season in Japan, which is an important event at not only university and high school level but also junior high, elementary, and even nursery school!

I was able to attend the graduation ceremonies of two of my junior high schools and one of my elementary schools. Graduation is a very solemn ceremony here and every detail is performed with the sharpest precision. Everybody dresses to the nines for the occasion, mostly in black suits but a few people even wear kimono. The men wore white shirts with white ties under their black suits, and many men even wore a double breasted suit! The principal at each school wore a long tailed jacket and pinstriped pants suit, and had white gloves to wear while he handed students their diplomas. 

The ceremony opened with everyone singing the national anthem and then the school song. After that the diploma granting process began, similar to American graduation ceremonies except that the Japanese version has such exacting precision!. The students marched up to the stage in a carefully choreographed path, with military style turns, and pauses so that the time to grant the diploma was the same for each student. The principal reads the diploma and hands it to the students who receive it with a very formal bow. After bowing the students tuck the diploma under their left arm and walk off stage. This elaborate attention to detail was observed at each graduation I went to. 

Following the diploma conferral, the speeches commenced. A panel of high level people in the community attended the graduations, even at the elementary level. The principal, mayor, PTA president, and a representative from the Board of Education each gave a speech. Next was the student's part of graduation, which was of course the most personal part. 

A representative of the graduating class gave a speech of thanks, farewell, and reminiscence. Then each of the team captains gave speeches especially for their teammates and coaches. It was at this juncture that, particularly at one of my schools, everyone opened the floodgates. The baseball team captain broke down in sobs during his speech, which triggered tears from everyone else as well. One minute everyone in the room is solemn and quiet, the next I looked around and all the students and teachers are sobbing!

After the graduates finished their speeches, the younger students gave their speeches of farewell. Then both groups of students sang a song to each other. The singing segment is another emotionally charged part of graduation which brings teachers, students and mothers to tears. 

The graduation stage is adorned with flowers, the city, Japanese, and school flags, a well as a bonsai tree!

Graduations generally last about an hour and a half, and this society really shows it's discipline by nobody speaking a word! It is incredibly respectful and impressive that even the 6 year old first graders can accomplish this.

After graduation is over, there is one last fun Japanese tradition. The students all make two lines with clasped hands for the graduates to run through as they exit school "for the last time." If the weather is nice, everyone lines up outside in the parking lot. Next is a long goodbye, filled with tears, hugs, pictures, and lots of running around the parking lot.

The graduation ceremonies are very solemn and important events. They even have a couple professional photographers and camera men come in to record the proceedings. However, despite of all this grandeur and solemnity hardly any family shows up to support the graduating students. Of course family is always welcome, I was told by a teacher, but usually only one person per student shows up to see their child graduate. At first I was surprised that only one parent comes. In America, the entire family plus grandparents and sometimes more come to see their kids graduate! 

But after thinking about it, I suppose this could reflect that the Japanese generally do not mix their social circles, work and family. So perhaps at a thing like graduation it is important to have your school circle- classmates, teachers, etc- around you but not so much your family. Accordingly, your family's presence would be important for other life events, where your school/work circles would not be expected to attend. (For instance, from what I have observed about most weddings here, it seems they tend to invite friends and family only. Often co-workers do not even realize or know any details about the person's wedding.)

One perk of graduation time is awesome lunches! Since it is not a regular school day we do not have school lunch provided. Instead, we order bentos delivered to the school for the teachers, who have to remain at school for the rest of the work day. The food is always delicious! Japanese style eating is characterized by eating small portions of many, many, different foods in one meal. So a bento is a Japanese meal served in a box, like a lunchbox, with many different items to enjoy.