Unlike many countries, Japan's school year starts in April. What do you think about this?

It's an arbitrary date, just like everywhere else in the world.

Don't think it matters.

I am glad the schools are closed during the hottest part of the year. Try to be gengki in front of a class while sweat rolls down your back

It messes up the livers of many Japanese on foreign study programs, from ESL teenagers to Ph.D candidates. Another case of the world doing one thing, and Japan doing something else.

Merits and demerits with an April start.

But for me the greater problem is there is insufficient time between school years. Often it is less than 2 weeks break for continuing school kids and not much more for those moving from one level to another - ie primary to jnr high to high to university.

Many high school graduates have only a very short time in which to move (often another prefecture), set up and settle down before classes begin.

The longer summer break here is not going away, so it is the obvious time to create a more leisurely transition to a new environment, allowing for far less stress to students, families and schools, and also giving people the chance to properly farewell each other.

Or make the spring vacation at least 4+ weeks long.

Pretty arbitrary. But that said, having the school year bridge the summer holidays, means the teachers can give homework to be done over the holidays. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing, depending how you look at it.

I disagree that it doesn't matter. It DOES matter, because I think it's stupid to start a new school year and then soon after have the longest break from school (summer vacation) before starting up where you left of 9 weeks before. It makes more sense to end the school year, have a long vacation, then start up again at the START of a new year. Some of hte other countries that start the school year in April have a long holiday from February at the end of the previous year, for example. Then a shorter summer holiday between terms. Japan seems to like to HALF follow foreign models, and half not, making a big mess.

before starting up where you left of 9 weeks before.

Where are they getting 9 weeks of summer holidays?! My kids certainly aren't. I think they got 5 weeks last year.

smithinjapanAPR. 14, 2017 - 12:56PM JST

before starting up where you left of 9 weeks before.

I was also wondering what Smith meant to say.

One irritating thing in Japanese year-to-year life is that nothing ever seems to bloody end. Starting school in April after ending in March (???) is just another part of that.

Other Northern Hemisphere countries are just as odd - starting school years in September (???). After 35 years I still cannot get used to it.

The Southern Hemisphere is the only sensible place to be, where school things finish at the same time as everything and everybody else, at the end of the year, in November-December and start in the New Year in January.

Kind of wish things were all split all up in Japan, the company changing, moving, graduation, tax etc etc all being at the same time is a bit painful at times.

I have always been leery of starting anything on April Fool's Day.

It's an arbitrary date, just like everywhere else in the world.

Not really. The start of the fiscal year for most companies in Japan is on April 1st, so hiring new workers in April is easier for payroll and tax purposes than hiring at other times.

In America and other places, agriculture has always been an important part of the economy, and students needed to graduate before the busy summer farming season began. This is also why summer holidays were so long. My great-grandparents owned a large farm, and had 13 children, all of whom worked in the fields before and after school, and during the summer season. In those days, families had lots of children, whose labor was cheaper than hired help.

Not really. The start of the fiscal year for most companies in Japan is on April 1st, so hiring new workers in April is easier for payroll and tax purposes than hiring at other times.

Which is in itself an arbitrary date.

Seems for most, school revolves around when the hottest part of the year is = school vacation, when previous school year ends and before the next one begins