Name: Ariake High School
Private school, semi-elite, over 600 students.
Like other Japanese high schools, it includes grades 10, 11 & 12 (grade 9 is part of junior high in Japan), but unusually it also includes an additional two year program that prepares students to take the national nursing exam.
As in all Japanese schools, students and teachers participate in a cleaning time of the school; everywhere one looks, kids and adults are busily using sponges, cleaning cloths, brooms and other cleaning utensils to clean everything from windows to toilets to floors. (I asked the principal of the elementary school that we visited the day after the high school whether custodial staff do any additional cleaning, and she said no -- there is no need for any cleaning beyond what students and teachers do daily for about 20 to 30 minutes.)
