Short read: The Book Bag That Binds Japanese Society

The Japanese are known for their customs followed religiously like unwritten rules not imposed by any authority but societal norms and peer pressure.

“During the coronavirus pandemic, for example, the government never mandated masks or lockdowns, yet the majority of residents wore face coverings in public and refrained from going out to crowded venues. Japanese tend to stand quietly in lines, obey traffic signals and clean up after themselves during sports and other events because they have been trained from kindergarten to do so.”

One such custom is the children’s school bag called the randoseru – they all look alike. Whilst school uniforms are followed in several societies, uniform school bags are unique to Japan. What’s behind this custom?  

“The near totemic status of the randoseru dates back to the 19th century, during the Meiji era, when Japan transitioned from an isolated feudal kingdom to a modern nation navigating a new relationship with the outside world. The educational system helped unify a network of independent fiefs — with their own customs — into a single nation with a shared culture.

Schools inculcated the idea that “everyone is the same, everyone is family,” said Ittoku Tomano, an associate professor of philosophy and education at Kumamoto University.

In 1885, Gakushuin, a school that educates Japan’s imperial family, designated as its official school bag a hands-free model that resembled a military backpack from the Netherlands known as the ransel. From there, historians say, the randoseru quickly became Japan’s ubiquitous marker of childhood identity.

The military roots of the randoseru are in keeping with Japanese educational methods. Students learn to march in step with one another, drilling on the playground and in the classroom. The school system did not just help build a national identity; before and during World War II, it also prepared students for military mobilization.

After the war, the country mobilized again, this time to rebuild an economy with dutiful, compliant workers. In recognition of the strong solidarity symbolized by the randoseru, some large companies would give the backpacks as gifts to the children of employees.

That practice continues to this day. At a ceremony earlier this year at the Tokyo headquarters of Sony, Hiroki Totoki, the company’s president, addressed a group of 250 rising first graders.

He described the randoseru ceremony — the company’s 66th — as “an important bond that connects families.” After Mr. Totoki’s remarks, Sony employees handed out the backpacks, all of them embossed with a corporate logo.

…Grandparents often buy the randoseru as a commemorative gift. The leather versions can be quite expensive, with an average price of around 60,000 yen, or $380.

Shopping for the randoseru is a ritual that starts as early as a year before a child enters first grade.

At Tsuchiya Kaban, a nearly 60-year-old randoseru manufacturer in eastern Tokyo, families make appointments for their children to try on different-colored models in a showroom before placing orders to be fulfilled at the attached factory. Each bag is assembled from six main parts and takes about a month to put together.

Each Tsuchiya Kaban bag comes with a six-year guarantee on the assumption that most students will use their randoseru throughout elementary school.” 

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