Figure 1.--These junior boys are wearing their black randoseru. Note the older boys at the same school have a different uniform and different book bags.

There are a variety of different garments and styles used by Japanese school children at different ages and school levels. Very young children often wear brightly colored caps in many different styles. Many primary schools insisted on short pants, especially the schools requiring uniforms. Another major change was the shift to the Prussian-styled military uniform when school children began junior the standard uniform shifts when boys go from elementary into middle school (invariably in Japan from the 6th into the 7th grades -- or first grade middle school as the Japanese would say). There are three primary school boys depicted in the foreground of the picture. Farther along are a group of middle school boys from the same elite private boys school. They illustrate the three critical differences between elementary and secondary boys uniforms.

Pants

Elementary boys wear short pantss; junior high boys wear longs. (The uniforms depicted here are summer uniforms, but this would also be true in the winter. Uniformed primary boys in Japan were short pants all year except in the far north; uniform secondary boys wear long pants all year. There are a few exceptions. Some middle schools had short pants uniform through the 1970s, but this is now quite rare. A HBC reader rports a Tokyo middle scool wear boys wear a summer shorts uniform, an atheletic type of uniform. This is not, however, very common.

Caps

Elementary boys commonly wear caps while secondary boys are commonly bare-headed. This used not to be the case. Secondary schoolboys wearing the common Prussia-style school uniform also wore caps. But they are rarely seen today, whereas virutally ALL primary boys wear headgear of some sort -- even those in non-uniformed schools.

Bookbags/Backpacks

3 Elementary boys carry backpacks (usually black -- girls often have red ones) made of a stiff material. Secondary boys carry shoulder bags (often emblazoned with the school symbol) made of a soft material. The elementary school book bags seen here are the traditional leather ones. They are the same style as those commonly worn by European boys before World War II. The older boys in front have more modern bags.

Created: May 30, 2003
Last updated: May 30, 2003