The Book Bag That Binds Japanese Society

Nearly every elementary school student in Japan carries a book bag known as a randoseru, a staple of Japanese childhood for close to 150 years.

No one mandates that students use these backpacks, but strong social norms lead most families to purchase them for their children.

When fully loaded with textbooks, worksheets, pencil cases and, more recently, digital tablets, the randoseru can weigh close to nine pounds.

Made of leather or some sturdy facsimile, randoseru, which cost hundreds of dollars, are meant to last for the entire six years of elementary school.

More than a simple school bag, the randoseru is a unique Japanese symbol, reflecting the conformity and consistency that is deeply rooted in the culture.

July 15, 2024

In Japan, cultural expectations are repeatedly drilled into children at school and at home, with peer pressure playing as powerful a role as any particular authority or law. On the surface, at least, that can help Japanese society run smoothly.

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.

Carrying the bulky randoseru to school is “not even a rule imposed by anyone but a rule that everyone is upholding together,” said Shoko Fukushima, associate professor of education administration at the Chiba Institute of Technology.

On the first day of school this spring — the Japanese school year starts in April — flocks of eager first graders and their parents arrived for an entrance ceremony at Kitasuna Elementary School in the Koto neighborhood of eastern Tokyo.

Seeking to capture an iconic moment mirrored across generations of Japanese family photo albums, the children, almost all of them carrying randoseru, lined up with their parents to pose for pictures in front of the school gate.

Elementary school students packing their randoseru before going home in Tokyo. Students frequently carry textbooks and school supplies back and forth from home.