The disastrous state of the American public school system has understandably led many to look more closely at the school systems in other countries, in an effort to figure out where it all went wrong.
What are they doing that we’re not? Why are schools in countries like Japan doing so well, while ours are going down the drain?
While there are many reasons you can point to to explain this decline, a recent story from a school in Japan might provide some new insight into this matter.
A recent story in the Japanese news outlet The Asahi Shimbun tells the sad story of a principal losing everything for what most would consider a minor infraction.
On Dec. 21, 2023, a junior high school principal in Takasago, Japan, was getting his coffee at a local convenience store, paying for a regular-size cup of coffee, costing 110 yen (about 75 cents).
However, the clerk at the counter noticed that he pressed the button for the large coffee (180 yen, or $1.25), rather than for the regular.
After the clerk confronted him, the principal admitted to having done this a half-dozen other times. Long story short, the clerk called the cops and, after a brief investigation, the local school board dismissed him.
They not only dismissed him, but took away his retirement pay (about $135,000) and revoked his teaching license.
Now, even in Japan, some thought the punishment unduly harsh. Takashi Sakata, professor of public education at the Japan Women’s University in Tokyo, agreed that the principal deserved a harsher punishment due to his position as a role model in the community, but also argued that the “loss of a teaching license and retirement pay have significantly larger impact than the losses the principal was responsible for.”
Did this punishment go overboard?
Which, most of us would agree with — in the United States, a high school principal overfilling his coffee would barely arouse interest, let alone outrage.
Principals in the United States have been found guilty of far greater crimes and escaped with barely a slap on the wrist.
The number of sex crimes committed by educators in this country alone is astronomical, with over 180 K-12 educators charged with sex crimes in 2022 alone.
But Japan does things differently.
Not only is it not unusual to face legal consequences for overfilling your coffee, as reported in Business Insider, but Japan takes this kind of dishonesty much more seriously as a whole than we do.
While in this particular instance the punishment probably went overboard, it speaks well of their culture that they take dishonesty and someone’s position as a role model incredibly seriously.
Japan doesn’t play around. There’s a reason the country is a comparatively crime-free and clean nation.
The Japanese take honesty and respect seriously, and anyone going against the grain is not tolerated.
As this poor principal learned, the consequences for even minor theft are swift and unforgiving.
Stripping this man of everything for overfilling his coffee a few times is probably overkill, but compare his punishment for some petty theft to the punishments — or lack thereof — that American educators receive for making porn or attacking political candidates they disagree with.
Japan’s society definitely isn’t perfect, but maybe we Americans can learn something from their country.
