Policies and Practices in Japanese Public Schools

An ethnographic study of lunches and cleaning in Japanese schools

  • Introduction

    This blog explores two sets of culturally specific practices in Japanese schools: school lunches and daily cleaning. It analyzes the origins, purposes, and impacts of these practices, drawing on both my own ethnographic research and prior studies. My time spent attending Japanese public schools, as well as my fieldwork at a special school for hikikomori (those who withdraw from school and society for years at a time), deepened my interest in how these everyday routines have taken on unique characteristics and importance in Japanese schools. Using both an autoethnographic and ethnographic approach, alongside existing research, this study centers these practices within broader historical, educational, and cultural contexts. 

    Various scholars have studied the policies and customs in public schools in Japan, both as standalone systems and in comparison with schools in the United States. Amy Damrow, in her study “Navigating the Structures of Elementary Schools in Japan: An Ethnography of the Particular,” discusses various practices and daily rituals in Japanese schools, analyzing the experiences of one student as he transitioned from an American school to a Japanese one (Damrow 2014). Another paper, “An ethnographic study exploring factors that minimize lunch waste in Tokyo elementary schools,” by Betty Izumi et al., specifically analyzes how students, teachers, and administrators in the schools collaborate to minimize lunch waste (Izumi et al. 2020). Ryoko Tsuneyoshi et al., in their study “Cleaning as Part of TOKKATSU: School Cleaning Japanese Style,” explore school cleaning practices as an integral part of students’ education that furthers both cognitive and non-cognitive abilities (Tsuneyoshi et al. 2016). While these studies cover the customs, habits, and outcomes within Japanese schools, they do not consider the lived experience of various students who may have different reactions to these practices, nor do they consider school lunches and cleaning in relation to each other and in relation to hikikomori.

    To explore this gap, I aim to answer this question: What are the origins, purpose, and impact of policies and customs in Japanese schools, particularly lunchtime and cleaning? I do so by analyzing the characteristics, historical context, intended purpose, and impacts of these practices. In addition to reflecting on my own experiences through an autoethnographic account of Japanese public schools, I discuss the results of my fieldwork at a special school for hikikomori, and I analyze Japanese government documents and policies as well as the work of other scholars.

    Before I began this study, I hypothesized that the practices and customs in Japanese schools effectively promoted and taught values beyond academics to develop the students’ characters holistically. My findings both confirm and challenge this assumption. The policies and customs indeed aim to instill values such as discipline and responsibility, but they are shaped by other objectives as well, such as cultural sustainability. Moreover, these objectives can have unintended consequences such as social pressure, discomfort, and alienation for certain students, as evidenced by the struggles of hikikomori. This blog first examines lunches and cleaning individually within the context of Japanese schools to determine their individual objectives and impacts, and then examines their shared characteristics and unintended consequences.

  • Lunches Part 1

    School lunches were first served in 1889 at a temple school in Yamagata Prefecture for children who could not afford to attend other schools. This practice spread throughout Japan until World War II, when food shortages made it difficult to continue serving lunch to students. Backed by the American government and charity support, school lunches were reinstated after the war. This funding disappeared when Japan regained its sovereignty in 1951, leading to backlash from Japanese families at the lack of school meals available to their children. As a result, the government started to take over funding in 1952 and passed the School Lunch Act in 1954. The School Lunch Act established lunches as a fundamental component of students’ education, and the law still prevails today (Katsuo 2025).

    Considering the concept of lunches as a core educational component, I will first explore the idea of shokuiku. Shokuiku means food and nutrition education, with “shoku-” meaning food and “-iku” meaning education. In 2005, Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries officially instituted an act that touched on the importance of this kind of education. A main goal of the Basic Act on Shokuiku was to improve Japanese citizens’ health and make them aware of their responsibility for their health (Assmann 2017). It described shokuiku as “fundamental to intellectual education, moral education, and physical education” and as having a “significant impact on [children’s] physical and mental growth as well as their character formation” (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries 2005). As shokuiku is meant to impact every facet of a person’s growth and character development, teaching children shokuiku from a young age is said to instill healthy eating habits that are meant to benefit them their whole lives. This is enacted in schools through the variety of nutritious dishes served in the lunches and through the effort to educate students on why the meals are good for them.

    The following descriptions are from my experiences at a Japanese public school. At every meal, there is always rice, bread, or noodles, a meat or fish, and occasionally soup; once or twice a week, and on special occasions, there is a dessert. One example of a real lunch menu is the following from a lunch sheet that I received in elementary school: milk, white rice, mackerel marinated in miso, seasoned Napa Cabbage, and tofu egg soup – 631 calories and 26.4 grams of protein. These lunch menus are handed out to all the students at the start of the month, with a list of the meals for the following weeks. It is in table format with columns detailing each ingredient and why that item is nutritious. When it is for younger children, it will say “food that will become energy,” or “food that is good for the body,” instead of detailing protein or carbohydrates. The last column is the total number of calories and grams of protein. Japanese schools aim to make students aware of what they are eating and the nutritional value of each item from a young age; in this way, shokuiku is evidently an integrated, central component of a student’s education. This practice of shokuiku and the variety of foods served has led to students being exposed to a wide variety of dishes as well. By the time students are in their last year of elementary school, they have become familiar with various foods, gained the ability to appreciate and eat foods that they previously disliked, and expanded their palates (Izumi et al. 2020).

    With this variety of foods served, there comes an expectation that all students finish everything they are given in an allotted time, although teachers generally allow them to get more or less of a certain dish. In the younger grades, whenever there was food left over after all the students were served, teachers would go around the classroom and distribute it. In the older grades, people often played rock-paper-scissors for leftovers. When no one was interested, teachers would ask students – usually the boys who ate more food than others – to eat the leftovers even when they said they were full. This norm shows how there is an emphasis on finishing all the food that was given to that classroom, even more than on everyone finishing their own plates; there is pressure both on the individual and on the class as a whole to not leave leftovers. One study found that at a certain elementary school in Tokyo, school dietitians measured and reported the amount of leftover food to the principals; in other schools, there were reward systems and incentives in place to motivate children to eat (Izumi et al. 2020). These techniques are effective: only about 6.9 percent of food waste is produced from the national school lunch program (Izumi et al. 2020). This result would not be possible without expectations placed on students and teachers to ensure that all the food is consumed.

    Moreover, there is a strict timeframe for students to eat their lunches. Students who do not do so often stay in the room while the rest of the class goes on to cleaning or recess. Some teachers even set aside allotted time for students to eat in silence to ensure that no one is too distracted to finish eating (Izumi et al. 2020), creating an atmosphere in which students often glance at the clocks to finish eating on time.

  • Lunches Part 2

    Another distinctive aspect of school lunches in Japan is the kyushoku touban, or lunch duty. From first grade, students are split into han, groups of about five or six people, and take weekly rotations on lunch duty. I participated in this practice every summer when I attended public school in Tokyo. At the start of the week, students don white coats and caps (which had been brought home and washed over the weekend by the previous week’s owners) and wear them while serving lunch the rest of the week. The duties usually begin with retrieving the homeroom’s silver cart of food from the kitchen, setting up the stacks of plates, and uncovering steaming dishes of food. The teacher assigns students to specific roles, such as handing out pieces of salmon or pouring soup, and the other students, those who are not on duty, line up neatly to wait for their turn to get food and then go sit down. After finishing their meal, those on lunch duty complete their jobs by returning the now-empty cart to the kitchen. 

    Article 2, Section 5 of the School Lunch Act states that one of the goals of school lunches is “to deepen understanding that diet is supported by the various activities of people involved in food, and to foster an attitude of valuing hard work” (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 1954). Through setting up, serving, and cleaning the food and dishes necessary to feed their classmates every day, students are taught the work and effort that must be put into serving meals. Moreover, students are expected to treat this duty with utmost care and respect: before handling any food, they wash their hands, tie their hair back (for girls), and put on masks. In addition, working in the hans (the small groups) in duties is an essential part of the school curriculum, as it develops a sense of community and belonging while teaching students how to work together effectively. In this way, a sense of responsibility is intertwined with human relations (Damrow 2014). Students must learn to trust one another and cooperate to reach a common goal, creating a sense of shared identity and closeness. 

    There is another educational component of school lunches: an appreciation for Japan’s cultural heritage and tradition, along with a desire to preserve them. In addition to nutrition education, one of the other main goals of the Basic Act on Shokuiku was to make citizens aware of Japan’s rich food culture. It notes, “Blessed with an abundance of forest and water resources, Japan has developed our ‘food and nutrition’ and passed it down from generation to generation, consequently making it regionally diverse and rich in taste and culture; but it is at risk of being lost” (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries 2005). This is not a new idea: Article 2, Section 6 of the School Lunch Act states that one of the purposes of school lunches is to “deepen understanding of the excellent traditional food culture of our country and each region” (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 1954). Both of these government sources state the same goal – for Japanese citizens to recognize the rich traditional foods of Japan – although the Basic Act has the additional purpose of trying to save those foods from being lost. This education starts in school with the lunches, in which traditional Japanese foods are prevalent, as seen in the example lunch given above. As the students go through school and into society, they ostensibly will have learned the importance and value of incorporating these habits into daily meals and the value of preserving this heritage.

    In addition to the values of cultural sustainability is an emphasis on economic sustainability. The Basic Act on Shokuiku states that “contribution must be made to vitalizing rural areas whose economy is based on agriculture, forestry or fisheries” (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries 2005). This emphasis is also taught through school lunches. The menus given noted the location in Japan from which some of the ingredients, such as rice, were harvested. Through this, students learn an appreciation for supporting domestic agricultural products, a trait they can carry throughout their lives.

    This duty can teach students to be more attentive in other areas of their lives as well. In an interview with my Japanese school teacher, Ms. H, I asked her about her thoughts on the kyushoku touban (lunch duty). She believed that this duty promotes an emphasis on teamwork and a sense of responsibility that students can apply to their lives outside of the classroom. Students learning to serve lunch at school can then help their parents at home to prepare meals, and if they see someone in need of help, they will do so, because they know the importance of looking out for each other; there is a sense of collective care. However, there is a rigidity around the lunch practices that makes them less comfortable for certain students.

  • Lunches Part 3

    Although Japanese school lunches teach many values, there is also a lack of accommodations for certain groups. For those with allergies, parents may submit a form with their child’s dietary needs, and the school will then provide an alternate food item and set it aside from everyone else’s food so that the child can eat safely. Alternatively, students may bring their own lunch. However, although they may accommodate the specific allergy in the food, schools often do not address cross-contamination of ingredients when cooking. While there are provisions made for those who need it, it is not a comprehensive effort to make the food wholly safe (Ebisawa 2009). 

    For students who can’t eat food for non-physiological reasons, there are instances in which a student can have a smaller portion, yet the student must still finish everything on their plate. For many students, this may go beyond a refusal to eat due to picky eating and turn into a fear in which they struggle to eat in front of others or are physically unable to eat under the pressure of teachers telling them to finish their meal (Benesse 2024). Unlike how they try to address allergies, here the schools show an inflexibility in not allowing children to leave food uneaten on their plate, perhaps because there is no immediate physical danger when students are forced to eat everything. I have seen how this can create an environment in which students dread eating lunch at school; the environment may even exacerbate a student’s fears and anxieties instead of helping the student overcome them. 

    Finally, for those with religious restrictions, a study found that of a certain group who needed these specific dietary accommodations, more than half of them were told to bring their own lunches (Asada & Yoshida, 2025, p.15). Considering that some of these students might live in home environments in which it is difficult or impossible to bring lunch every day, this could present a strain on family resources. 

    Together, these factors may contribute to significant discomfort for certain students. Not feeling comfortable or feeling a barrier to eating lunch at school every day may cause a greater impact on a student that eventually leads the student to develop strong feelings against school.

  • Cleaning Part 1

    Students have participated in school cleaning since the Meiji era, although the origin of cleaning by a student or disciple can be traced back to Buddhist temples in medieval times. The Buddhist tradition stems from the idea that cleaning is good for a person’s development and character growth – values that have been adopted into Japanese society (Okihara 1978). This idea of cleaning as an educational tool remains today in Japanese public school cleaning practices. Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology writes in its Curriculum Guidelines, “Through classroom activities, students will develop positive interpersonal relationships, participate as members of a group in creating a better life in the classroom and at school, and develop an independent, practical attitude and healthy lifestyle that seeks to solve various problems” (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology 2008). The concept is that through cleaning in and around the classroom, students learn to work as part of a group and contribute to the betterment of their environment.

    Starting in first grade, students spend 15 to 20 minutes each day, after lunch, cleaning their homerooms and the surrounding hallways and communal spaces. The descriptions that follow are from my experiences at a Japanese public school. Like in the kyushoku touban (lunch duty), students are split into groups and assigned a different part of the school to clean, with the duties rotating each week. But unlike lunch duty, the entire class participates in the cleaning. One week, students will use a zoukin (cleaning cloth) to scrub the floors of the classroom and hallway right outside it; the next week, they will take out the trash; some of the other tasks are sweeping the floors, wiping down the chalkboards, and watering the plants. In one of the final days of the semester before summer break in elementary school, there was a whole-school cleaning – from the cubbies in the entryway, where students put on their shoes, to entire large rooms, like the theater. Perhaps surprisingly, students sometimes find that this is an enjoyable part of the day, talking and joking with their classmates: they may make doodles on the blackboard before cleaning it, or race to see who can sweep the floor the fastest.

    Through working together from such a young age, students learn how to collaborate toward a common goal. As Ryoko Tsuneyoshi et al. explain in their study “Cleaning as Part of TOKKATSU: School Cleaning Japanese Style,” the manner in which school cleaning is conducted “emphasizes the building of interpersonal relationships” and teaches students how to “work autonomously” (Tsuneyoshi et al. 2016). “Autonomous” can apply to both the students as a group, separate from the teacher, or as an individual. The students are assigned tasks by the teachers, but after that, their efforts are mostly self-directed, and they organize among themselves which members of the group clean each specific section. Individually, students must also work hard to play their part in the team to accomplish the goal and “gain internal satisfaction” from their work (Tsuneyoshi et al. 2016). A sense of responsibility is intertwined with these personal relations, and the entire group hinges on each individual’s responsibility (Damrow 2014). Each person must play their part in the group to create a productive atmosphere and to not let the others down. If one student fails to do something, it is not merely that one individual who bears the responsibility, but the whole group. The whole class may be chastised because some students were too rowdy during this cleaning period or did not clean thoroughly enough. These cleaning habits result in students learning to take care of a collective space. However, a problematic effect of these interpersonal relations is that when someone gets distracted or doesn’t fully complete the task they are assigned, relations between students may become “mildly strained” (Damrow 2014). As there is a large teamwork aspect to the cleaning, not performing the duties well can cause irritation and annoyance among classmates.

  • Cleaning Part 2

    There are other values that students may learn from this cleaning practice besides collaboration and responsibility. In addition to the collaborative relationships and personal development, students get the chance to actively make their school more comfortable and clean, and learn to live more healthily, both mentally and physically. This satisfaction at making their surroundings more comfortable can translate to how they act outside of this cleaning period as well. My Japanese teacher, in my recent interview with her, noted that having the habit of cleaning the classroom instills in students a care for their surroundings: because they are the ones who clean the space, they become mindful of the messes they make and the effort it takes to clean up afterwards. Eventually, as the students become members of society, they maintain these habits; my teacher suggested that is a reason for Japan’s public spaces being generally very clean. Students may gain a better insight into themselves and their strengths as well (Tsuneyoshi et al. 2016). Cleaning allows students to understand themselves better through learning how they work in groups, what their strengths are, and possibly even their leadership qualities, and through seeing these things, they can also strive to do better in the areas in which they are weaker. 

    Damrow’s concept of “institutionalized control” in Japanese public schools (Damrow 2014) is present in the strict policies regarding cleaning by students. The positive outcome of the practice is that the control is implemented in such a way that the students learn from it; as students are taught and expected to carry out these duties from such a young age, doing so becomes a natural part of school life. Through these practices, students learn responsibility and hard work, as well as caring for public spaces – values that are expected to stay with them into adulthood. However, in some schools, no talking is allowed during cleaning, and perfection is expected, with no leftover dust allowed (Damrow 2014). Alongside certain expectations for students to perform their duties thoroughly, there may also be pressure on students to meet expectations perfectly, which may create an oppressive environment. I observed these dynamics during my own experience attending a Japanese public school. 

    Rooted in Buddhist origins, the values of collaboration, responsibility, and learning gained from cleaning have become core components of Japanese society and a central lesson for students that remains today. The honoring and maintenance of these traditions serves as a mode of cultural preservation, instilled in each new generation. Through the schools’ perpetuation of the practice of cleaning today, they are honoring the values of Japan’s past and keeping them alive. However, the structured rigidity around both the cleaning and lunch practices has unintended and problematic effects for certain students.

  • Hikikomori Part 1

    Both school lunches and cleaning are structured around collective responsibility, discipline, and cooperation, as discussed in earlier sections of this blog. Through “institutionalized control” (Damrow 2014), the schools have established a strict set of expectations that all students must follow. For students who struggle with these tenets, these expectations may foster feelings of discomfort and exclusion. In a 2024 study done by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, one of the reasons for student absenteeism in school was noted as “maladjustment to school rules that require conformity, such as those related to uniforms, school lunches, and school events” (Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 2024). Students’ inability to meet these expectations may be a contributing factor in their inability, or lack of desire, to attend school. According to a 2022 survey by the same ministry, approximately 299,000 students – or about 3.2 percent – of elementary and junior high school students were frequently absent from school, an increase for the fifth consecutive year (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 2022). As schools retain their rigidity concerning these mandatory practices and the number of absentee students increases, so may the number of students who do not attend schools for long periods of time, potentially resulting in the phenomenon of hikikomori – students staying home, avoiding school and society.

    Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare defines hikikomori as “a state in which social participation opportunities are limited due to various factors, resulting in the long-term loss of opportunities for employment, school, or other activities outside the home.” Additionally, the ministry explains that hikikomori “does not arise from a single cause, such as bullying, family relationships, or illness,” but instead a “combination of various biological, psychological, and social factors” (Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare 2001). 

    Hikikomori has been the topic of academic research: Alan Teo, in “A New Form of Social Withdrawal in Japan: A Review of Hikikomori,” discusses the phenomenon of hikikomori holistically, touching on possible causes, symptoms, and treatments (Teo 2010). Dorota Krysinska, in “Hikikomori (Social Withdrawal) in Japan: Discourses of Media and Scholars; Multicausal Explanations of the Phenomenon,” synthesizes previous work on hikikomori and discussion of possible causes, focusing on family, societal pressures, and schools (Krysinska 2006). While these works study the case of hikikomori more generally, my research considers more specifically how expectations to partake in group activities, including cleaning and school lunches, may cause social pressures that make students not want to go to school.

    I explored this phenomenon by doing ethnographic fieldwork at a free special school for hikikomori youth (students who had withdrawn from school and society) in Tokyo, and by analyzing past studies about the hikikomori phenomenon. The school is located in Tokyo’s Hiroo district, in the central area of the city. I visited the school ten times, each weekday for two weeks, from July 21 to August 1, 2025. I was there as both a volunteer and a researcher, and each visit lasted four hours, during which I observed the school’s activities and interviewed administrators, teachers, and students. There were 15 students. Not all the students attended each day; although some did, it was up to the student when they wanted to attend this school. Most students were in elementary school and had been attending the special school for two or three years already. While I was there, the youngest student I observed was in second grade, while the oldest was in sixth. These students are not extreme cases of hikikomori – they go outside and interact with others to a certain extent. In the morning, the students arrived looking cheerful and said “good morning,” setting up their belongings. However, after this initial greeting, there were few interactions among the students and between the students and teachers. Most of the students then spent the day on their electronic devices, seldom talking to each other unless it was for a game or about a device-related topic. When I attempted to initiate a conversation, their answers were almost always very brief and indicated that they were not interested in holding a conversation. 

    The administrators asked me not to talk to the children about not attending traditional school. When I asked the administrators about their reasoning for this, they explained their desire to create an environment in which the children felt fully comfortable. They sought to provide the children with a respite from the social pressures they might otherwise face at a school, such as interacting with their peers and participating in group activities. In line with this aim, the school doesn’t facilitate structured timetables or activities, instead allowing the children to spend their time as they wish. This allows them the freedom to make their own decisions and exercise their freedom. While the students did not specifically tell me why they didn’t want to attend traditional school, they did mention that they enjoyed spending their days at the special school for hikikomori, having not felt fully comfortable at their respective traditional schools.

  • Hikikomori Part 2

    I will now discuss lunches and cleaning at the hikikomori school, as a contrast to those practices in traditional public schools. The school did not provide lunches; the children could either bring their own lunch or buy lunch at the nearby convenience store. Most children chose the latter option, and each day I accompanied them to the store, where they bought drinks and food of their choosing. There was no fixed time for lunch, so on some days I made two trips with different students. Once the students were back at the school with their food, the majority sat around the main table and ate together, often while using their electronic devices (phones, tablets, or computers).

    There was no specific time allotted for cleaning, and there was no organized distribution of tasks, either. Usually, at the end of the day, one of the administrators would start sweeping and ask for volunteers. On some days, a student would eagerly volunteer, while on others, all of the students went home without participating in cleaning. The volunteer was not always the same student, and the students’ willingness to participate in the cleaning varied from day to day. At most, only two students cleaned each day, and the others went home, seemingly not concerned about the cleaning or the person doing it that day. 

    However, I realized through both lunch and cleaning practices at this school that more students might have been willing to perform group activities had these been presented as optional or with more freedom, without the students feeling as though they had to conform to expectations to do so. A potential benefit of the required nature of these activities in traditional schools is that they might compel students to get out of their comfort zone, instilling the same values in everyone. However, the expectation to participate might make certain students uncomfortable doing so. At the hikikomori school, as the teacher framed both the lunches and cleaning as voluntary, the students had the freedom to take part when they wanted to. 

    In another specific incident during my time there, a mother and her daughter in first grade came to visit to ascertain if the school was a good fit for her. The daughter and I played with a cooking set while her mother talked to the administrators. Overhearing their conversation, I heard the mother say that in the school that her daughter had been attending, the girl faced problems interacting with her peers, and she was oftentimes put in a different space alone. I was not at the school long enough to see whether the girl joined. However, this conversation illustrates how difficulties with peer interaction can emerge early and be exacerbated by school environments that emphasize group participation, suggesting that the heavy emphasis on peer-based participation may pose challenges for children who struggle to engage with their peers.

    Although Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare states that there is no single cause for hikikomori, the pressures that students may face at school may strongly contribute to this phenomenon (Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare 2001). As described in previous sections, there is pressure for students to complete tasks and actively contribute to group activities. Taken together, lunch, cleaning, and other school practices illustrate how routines designed to teach important values outside of academics appear to also generate pressure and discomfort for certain students.

    As discussed earlier, a student’s inability or lack of discipline in completing certain tasks can lead to strained relationships among students. Teo writes that there have been reports of hikikomori students not wanting to attend school due to taunting, being shunned, and even being physically abused (Teo 2010). The strained relationship among students may increase vulnerability to bullying or social exclusion within peer groups, contributing to students’ feelings of not wanting to attend school. 

    Krysinska writes that Japanese schools are also known for their intense pressure on students to perform well on exams. This academic pressure stems from needing to do well on examinations and admissions in order to go to good universities and be successful later on in their careers, an expectation that can lead to immense stress and create a lack of desire to attend school (Krysinska 2006). These expectations extend beyond academic pressures to social pressures, as well, as students are expected to actively and successfully participate in activities with their peers. As Teo writes, an inability to do so may lead to cases of bullying or social discomfort that may eventually cause students to drop out of school, which contributes to their becoming hikikomori.

  • Conclusion

    Japanese public schools emphasize the development of a student’s character outside the classroom through the practices of lunch and cleaning. The lunchtime practices serve to teach social responsibility as well as promote food and nutrition education. The cleaning teaches group and individual responsibility, as well as care for shared spaces. However, both of these practices contain elements that may cause discomfort for certain students, enforcing rigidity, expecting perfection, and displaying a lack of accommodation. This can lead to strained relationships and a desire by certain students not to attend school, which, though not a sole cause, contributes to the problem of hikikomori. 

    Considering this, it would be valuable to explore what more flexible and inclusive attitudes towards lunches and cleaning look like, while still preserving their educational component. It would also be important to examine the extent to which the Japanese government, through its policies on public schools, is responsible for adapting or changing longstanding practices to accommodate students of diverse needs. It would be valuable to consider to what extent, and in what specific ways, cleaning and lunchtime practices in Japanese schools contribute to the hikikomori phenomenon. Additionally, it might be worthwhile to consider whether other practices in Japanese schools – such as mandatory uniforms – have similar intended and unintended effects, as compared to cleaning and lunchtime. However, even if Japanese schools change elements of their customs, there will nevertheless still be some hikikomori. Therefore, it would be important to consider what the causes and long-term effects of a student’s withdrawal from school are, and to what extent reintegration efforts – such as schools for former hikikomori – are successful and sufficient. Examining these questions will allow researchers to better understand how everyday practices in Japanese schools shape student experiences and produce wider social repercussions. The answers to these questions would help Japanese policymakers and government officials maintain and develop existing educational practices without compromising inclusivity for all students.