For a lot of kids in Japan, the first thing they do when they get to school in the morning isn’t to sharpen a pencil, take out a sheet of paper, or open a textbook and stand it up on their desk in just the right position so that the teacher won’t see they’re sleeping behind it. Instead, just after coming through their school’s front entrance, most kids take off their shoes.
After taking off their shoes, students slip on a pair of flexible plastic slippers called uwabaki (pictured above). Each student keeps their uwabaki inside a small cubby inside the school’s entry way when not wearing them, and they’re strictly for indoor use, so that the slippers’ soles, and by extension the school’s floors, stay clean.
But are uwabaki really necessary? Though they’ve been the norm at Japanese elementary, middle, and high schools since the 1950s, they’re falling out of favor in Tokyo’s Minato Ward, where out of the district’s 19 ward-administered public elementary schools, 18 of them have done away with the practice and switched to an issokusei, or single shoe-set, policy, allowing students to continue wearing the same shoes they came to school in throughout the day.
According to the Minato Board of Education, the reason its elementary schools have been phasing out uwabaki has to do with enrollment sizes. While Japan’s population as a whole may be shrinking, the number of Tokyo residents continues to increase. 20 years ago, Minato Ward had roughly 10,700 kids between the ages of 5 and 14, but by the start of the last school year in April of 2024, that number had grown to nearly 24,000. As schools are becoming increasingly crowded, many of them have decided that there are better and more important ways to utilize their available space then with hundreds of shoe lockers, so they’ve removed them and done away with uwabaki at the same time.
The lack of indoor-only slippers is also allowing for better use of students’ and teachers’ time, says Naoto Miyazaki, principal at Minato Ward’s Shibahama Elementary School. “Not having everyone changing their shoes [at the same time in the morning] makes for less congestion and helps students to get to their classrooms more smoothly.” Miyazaki also believes that allowing students to continue wearing their regular shoes during class is a safety measure in that it makes for quicker, more orderly evacuations in the case of an emergency, as uwabaki generally aren’t sturdy enough for extended outdoor use.
The immediate ostensible downside that comes to mind, though, is that students wearing their regular shoes indoors will result in dirtier school interiors. After all, the ostensible point of changing into uwabaki is to prevent students from tracking dirt, dust, mud, and other sorts of grime into the hallways, classrooms, and cafeteria. That focus on cleanliness also aligns with social norms for homes in Japan, as everyone takes their outdoor-use shoes off in the entryway. Taking your shoes off is also the norm when visiting traditional Japanese buildings or restaurants with tatami reed or classical/preserved wooden flooring, and some offices in Japan ask employees to change into indoor slippers when they show up for work.
That said, there are also plenty of offices, shops, and even restaurants in Japan where everyone keeps their outdoor-use shoes on, and yet are not considered dirty, unhygienic, or otherwise gross spaces. Especially in urban and suburban neighborhoods, it’s unlikely that people have been walking through farm fields or across muddy riverbanks before arriving at their destination, and that goes for kids showing up at school too.
Minato does, however, have a single ward-administered holdout elementary school that still requires uwabaki. Akiko Kani, principal of Aoyama Elementary, explains her school’s policy with “Children’s moods change to a surprising degree when they change their footwear. By having them change into different shoes, it’s a changeover in mood [to get ready to study].”
Source: TBS News Dig via Yahoo! Japan News via Jin
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9 Comments
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collegepark30349
I wonder if this writer has kids in Japanese schools or has done any research. The uwabaki my kids wear are not cheap and are very sturdy canvas with thick rubber soles (as actually shown in the picture, smh). They are not simply "slippers." While my kids have out grown several pairs, they have never worn them out. My daughter wore my son's hand-me-downs, and older, smaller pairs make their way around the neighborhood along with second-hand uniforms and such.
Also, in all of the disaster drills that I have witnessed, the kids don't change shoes. They go outside with either their uwabaki or taiikukan shoes on and just clean them off before going back inside. It is nonsense if this principal claims kids change shoes in drills.
As for the practice of uwabaki (interesting term, they are called uwagutsu here in Okayama, maybe a local term), being American I found it odd at first, but do like the practice. Aside from keeping the school cleaner, kids often have to walk in rain or wet conditions. It's nice to not have to spend the day wearing wet socks and shoes. Some kids do wear rain shoes, but they are not the most comfortable thing ot have to wear all day either. My kids also didn't walk on paved roads the whole way to school and their tennis shoes did get quite dirty.
JamesTCL
I agree with collegepark30349. On top, dragging all that dirt into the schools means more time cleaning the schools. I'm sure that is a lot more time cleaning compared to waiting around to put one's shoes on.
I also like the idea of Akiko Kani, principal of Aoyama Elementary. Many of us change moods when we change into different clothing.
If student numbers are growing as much as stated above, surely the local wards should be adding more schools to compensate for the increase.
Jay
The obsession here with separate shoes has its place in private homes, but when it extends to places like gyms, offices, and public buildings, it becomes nothing more than an IRRITATING RITUAL.
As a gym-goer, there was NOTHING MORE POINTLESS than lugging around an extra pair of "indoor-only" sneakers just to walk on the same artificial floor where no one is eating dinner or rolling around barefoot.
The idea that somehow "outside shoes" are contaminating these spaces, while people are sweating all over the equipment, is absolute selective hygiene theater.
So glad Western-style gyms have become the norm here.
As for school, if they're also starting to wake up to how unnecessary this is, maybe the rest of the country can follow suit and do away with this needless shoe-swapping charade.
garypen
@Jay
Exactly! Home is one thing. It's a perfectly understandable practice there. I've been removing my shoes when entering my home for decades, well before moving to Japan. And, asking guests to do the same.
But, other than a select few public places, ones with tatami flooring for instance, removing ones shoes is an annoying waste of time.
I hate going to a doctor's or dentist's office and having to remove my shoes and put on a pair of slippers that hundreds of strangers have had on their disgusting feet. Plus, they never fit me. They are always too small.
My current GP doesn't require it. And, her office floors are squeaky clean, which proves how pointless the ritual is. My physical therapy facility doesn't require it, either. Also has clean floors. (Of course, shoes are removed when using treatment tables/beds.)
I'm thinking of changing dentists just because he still requires it.
toolonggone
When I was a kid, we had to change shoes in the winter. More specifically, we had to change out of our boots or whatever we’d worn outside, leave them on a shoe mat outside our homeroom and change into other shoes, shoes of our choice. The reason was to keep the snow on our boots from melting all over the floors. In the spring, it was to keep the mud off of the floors. This was also done on rainy days. I don’t recall having to do it in the fall or the spring, once mud season was over. It’s seemed practical and a good safety measure so you didn’t have kids and teachers slipping on wet floors.
ian
He'd an idiot if he's requiring students to change shoes during emergency evacuations
ian
So the schools will be squeaky clean too even if the students don't change shoes?
Hahaha
OkinawaRider
I hate going to a doctor's or dentist's office and having to remove my shoes and put on a pair of slippers that hundreds of strangers have had on their disgusting feet. Plus, they never fit me. They are always too small.
You are so right about this.
My current GP doesn't require it. And, her office floors are squeaky clean, which proves how pointless the ritual is. My physical therapy facility doesn't require it, either.
Really? Interesting, I'm yet to find a GP / dentist /PT that doesn't require changing shoes.
garypen
That's what the cleaning staff is for.