Grass and trees in Japanese schools are all soldiers. (Note: This is a literal translation. The phrase "草木皆兵" is a Chinese idiom meaning extreme nervousness or paranoia, literally translating to "every blade of grass and tree looks like an enemy soldier." It might not make sense in English without additional context about its idiomatic meaning. If you'd like a more interpretative translation or explanation, let me know!) If you mean to use it idiomatically, a better translation might be: "Paranoia runs rampant in Japanese schools."
After the school promptly notifies the parents through the "Emergency Contact Network," the above message will also be conveyed to the classmates by the teacher, reminding the children to go home after class and not linger on the way. Additionally, it will be printed out, with one copy given to each child to take home, making it convenient for busy parents who may have missed the email to review it. It is also essential for physical fitness in responding to emergencies. First-grade elementary school students in Japan have already completed an 800-meter run, which is more important than "police guarding schools" or "dedicated school security." Direct training of children's psychological resilience and emergency response capabilities when facing urgent situations are emphasized. Second-grade students have already completed a 1200-meter run, while third and fourth-grade elementary school students have finished a 2000-meter run. Whether from physical training or safety awareness, running is very important. Following the campus tragedy, a similar campus safety incident occurred in Japan in 2001. A 37-year-old man suffering from depression broke into Ikeda Elementary School affiliated with Osaka Kyoiku University with a weapon, resulting in the death of eight children, injuries to 13 children and two teachers. The middle-aged man who intruded confessed during police interrogation: this world gave him too many unpleasant memories, and he felt weary of everything, having once attempted suicide but failed. He then decided to commit mass murder so that if captured, he would be sentenced to death, fulfilling his desire for death. This completely shattered the myth of safety in Japanese schools. The 2001 campus safety incident in Japan prompted a significant transformation in kindergartens and primary schools across Japan, particularly in Osaka, transitioning from an "open campus" to a "closed campus." Prior to the incident, to enhance interaction between children and local residents, the gates of Japanese kindergartens and primary schools were closed to local residents. After the campus safety incident, although Japanese kindergartens and primary schools did not adopt the grand "police guarding schools" measures like those in our country, they swiftly implemented a series of targeted preventive measures. Such as increasing police patrols, arranging guard booths at the school gate, requiring registration upon entering the school, installing surveillance cameras in multiple locations within the campus, some of which are similar to those in our country. Moreover, Japanese kindergartens, schools, and children's facilities all hung signs indicating "Police Patrol Duty Points." Children are grouped by residential neighborhoods, escorted by voluntary safety officers from the school-parent association, walking to and from school in groups, carrying alarms, etc. Excluding the criminal's twisted psychology, the investigation and evidence collection by the Japanese police into the Ikeda Elementary School incident in Osaka revealed that the main reason for the heavy toll of this campus safety incident was due to the lack of strict daily safety precautions at the school, coupled with insufficient safety training for teachers and students, leading to a clear deficiency in emergency response capabilities during critical moments. As a result, effective subduing of the assailant and timely rescue of the victimized children were not achieved, contributing to the severity of the outcome. Consequently, after the incident, many kindergartens and schools in Japan began formulating their own "School Crisis Management Manuals" based on their specific safety environments. In addition to enhancing the physical safety features of the campus, they also developed training programs where teachers regularly participate in safety prevention training and periodically conduct safety drills for the children.
My daughter was four years old a few years ago and attended kindergarten middle class. One day, she came home and told me, "Mom, there was a masked bad person at the kindergarten." This statement shocked me. At that time, I had just moved into a new residence, and my daughter had just transferred to a nearby kindergarten. This kindergarten was close to the train station and located directly under an elevated bridge, making its location less ideal from a safety perspective. Upon hearing her words, I immediately became nervous and quickly questioned her: "A masked bad person? Really?" She confirmed. "What did you do? Where were the teachers?" She replied, "All the other children and I quickly gathered in one classroom according to the teacher's instructions and locked the door. The teachers stood outside with thick sticks and chased away the masked bad person."
After listening to her description, I sighed in relief and immediately looked up the annual activity schedule distributed by the kindergarten at the start of the school year. Finding the date of the event, I saw these words written in the activity column for that day: "Safety Prevention Training Day." It turned out that the "masked bad person" mentioned by my daughter was actually the teachers themselves, dressed up for the regular anti-violence training exercise held at the kindergarten that day.
Each year at the beginning of the school year, after entering elementary school, students bring home an annual activity schedule formulated by the school. Through this "annual activity schedule," parents can clearly understand the school's yearly activity arrangements. Below is an excerpt from part of the student safety training plan for this year at my daughter's elementary school:
May 21st - Earthquake Evacuation Drill
May 25th - Backup Date for Earthquake Evacuation Drill (in case of rain on May 21st)
June 3rd - Safety Prevention Classroom Training
June 8th - School Safety Emergency Drill
June 14th - Campus Assembly for Violence Prevention Training
October 19th - Fire Drill
November 11th - Violence Prevention Classroom Training
February 21st, 2011 - Evacuation Drill
In terms of physical fitness required to respond to emergencies, first-grade students in Japanese elementary schools have already completed an 800-meter run, which is more important than "police guarding schools" or "dedicated school security personnel." This directly trains children's psychological resilience and emergency response capabilities when facing urgent situations. Second-grade students have already completed a 1200-meter run, and third and fourth-grade elementary school students have finished a 2000-meter run. From both physical training and safety awareness perspectives, running is crucial because, in the event of an emergency, for children lacking physical strength, being able to quickly escape is the most effective, direct, and simplest method of self-rescue.
Relying on community prevention, the term translates to "collective queuing for school" in Chinese. Japanese elementary school students, wearing yellow safety caps, hand-in-hand in queues, have become a common sight on Japanese streets every morning. Japanese children attend schools near their homes, and children living in the same neighborhood attend the same school. During commuting hours, children gather by residential areas at designated times and locations, then walk to school in pairs, with fifth and sixth graders holding hands with first and second graders, going to school together and returning home together.
However, they must cross several roads. To ensure the safety of children going to and from school, it takes about ten minutes to walk from my residential area to the school. Although it is almost a straight line, like other nearby neighborhoods, our neighborhood has established a "Children's Association." Members of the "Children's Association" are mostly parents of the children (due to the higher number of full-time housewives in Japan, most members are mothers). Besides regularly organizing parent-child activities, the most important work of this "Children's Association" is to collaborate with the "Children's Associations" of nearby neighborhoods. Mothers take turns on duty, working in pairs to stand guard at signal intersections, ensuring the safe crossing of children going to and from school.
Besides the presence of "Children's Association" parents at each signal intersection, along the route of "collective queuing for school," there are volunteer safety officers wearing armbands patrolling. These "volunteer safety officers" are mainly retired elders organized by the local government. They patrol their residential areas in a planned and organized manner, assisting the police in maintaining traffic safety and regional security management.
Recently, under the guidance of teachers, Japanese schools also feature a unique "neighborhood exploration" activity. In the past few days, teachers have been leading the children around the residential area near the school, including the school itself. The school requires the children to draw maps of the neighborhood themselves. This not only enhances the children's memory of the neighborhood terrain but also informs them of unsafe blind spots that require caution. Additionally, while drawing the maps, children can mark from their perspective what they consider to be unsafe blind spots.
By sending an empty email to the email address provided by the school, parents can join the "emergency contact network." The main purpose of the "emergency contact network" is to reflect all emergency incidents, either major or minor, promptly to each student's parent via the "emergency contact network." It is also a component of building a student safety prevention network. Schools require parents to necessarily join this "emergency contact network," and the method is very simple.
Not long ago, a neighbor living north of my house noticed a cycling adult man who kept following two girls playing by the roadside after school. The neighbor found this man suspicious and called the police. Minutes later, all parents received an emergency email from the "emergency contact network": On the date and time specified, near a certain school, two female students were followed by a middle-aged man wearing a navy shirt and jeans, pushing a bicycle. The girls noticed and quickly fled, and the man subsequently left. This matter has been reported to the police, who will strengthen the neighborhood safety patrol.
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