School children are always in their uniforms.  Even on weekends.  You see flocks of uniformed adolescents on the trains chattering away with their school gossip.  I always figured they were going to or from some sort of school function, like a club or sporting event.  But they even show up in the mall and at festivals in their school uniforms, especially the high school girls.  I just chalked it up to one of those great Japanese mysteries.

But at the English conversation group I help with I learned a piece of the puzzle.  Apparently it’s also a bit of a conundrum to Japanese adults.  One of the men at my table asked a well-spoken high school girl why they were always in their uniform, even outside of school.  She said it was easier than trying to pick out clothes in the morning.  And besides girls at that age are so critical of each other’s style.  You have to wear the right things.  It’s safe to just wear your school uniform because everyone else wears it too.  Teenage insecurity strikes again, universally, cross-culturally.

But then this makes me wonder.  How many sets of uniforms do they have?  And how often do they wash them?

Then someone at the table mentioned a rumor that he had heard.  That there was a prefectural curfew that said anyone under the age of 18 in Gunma had to be in their homes by 10pm. There were no exceptions.  Not even if the kids were accompanied by their parents.  I couldn’t believe this outrageous law.  But everyone else at the table agreed that it was true.  Why couldn’t children go out with their parents?  Someone suggested that it might have something to do with young parents brining their children to bars with them.  Most of Japan’s problems seem to be blamed on young parents, especially young mothers.