January marks the start of 受験シーズン (juken season), when thousands of Japanese high school students take the most important tests of their lives, the dreaded university exams, and junior high school kids also take exams to enter high school. These tests are so difficult that students prepare for them for a solid year (if not longer), and when my son did his “juken hell,” he wasn’t able to go see the newest Harry Potter movie with me because of his studies — can you imagine being that focused on a goal at the age of 15? While many Japanese have to endure these tests twice (once to enter high school and again to go to university), my son had the good fortune to get into a high school affiliated with a university, so he’s got a direct route in. Instead of an entrance exam, he had to write a long graduation thesis, and he chose to do an analysis of how different kinds of tastes are perceived, with a focus on the ramen served at his school’s cafeteria. During his research he read several books related to nutrition and became quite annoying, constantly critiquing the nutrional value of the meals my wife cooked.
Japanese students are entering juken hell.
