Film Review: The Making of a Japanese

As if placed on a chessboard, first graders stand at equal intervals in the schoolyard of a Japanese primary school and jump rope. From the morning greeting to the afternoon send-off, every school day is precisely structured. What appears to be effortlessly harmonious togetherness from the outside is actually instilled from an early age in Japan’s schools and homes, and takes a lot of time and practice. We find out more about what exactly this learning process looks like in the documentary with the fitting title ‘The Making of a Japanese’.

For one year, the documentary follows first and sixth graders at a state primary school in Tokyo. Alongside the traditional school curriculum, they are also taught values such as community spirit, discipline, and punctuality. Between maths homework and earthquake drills, larger sociopolitical issues manifest in their daily school routine. The documentary dives deep and challenges the idea that respectful behaviour is a law of nature in Japan.

With loving attention to detail, director Ema Ryan Yamazaki observes the constant balancing of individualism and community focus in everyday life. She immerses herself in a school system that is very different from the German one. The director grew up with a Japanese mother and a British father. This unique perspective allows her to look at Japan’s culture both from the inside and the outside. At age nineteen, she moved from Japan to New York, where she realized how highly valued respect and punctuality were in Japanese society: ‘ ... trains running on time, people patiently lining up, avoiding wastefulness, being considerate, and a sense of personal responsibility. These traits, learned from a young age, are so normal in Japan that they are taken for granted.’

The director manages to create a feeling of ease throughout the movie and generates many warm moments that make the viewer smile while watching. At the beginning of the documentary, we meet a first grader who, bouncing slightly with excitement, is at home with his mother, practising carrying a lunch tray ‘correctly’ without dropping it. When he successfully manages to get it back onto the table, he sighs with relief—showing how much importance is given to the small details of everyday life.

A few weeks after the festive first day of school, children’s shoes are lined up at relatively even intervals at the entrance to a classroom. But for one teacher, this is not neat enough, as some of the shoe caps are sticking out slightly past the markings. By taking a detailed look at everyday situations like this, the director shows that it is these myriad little rules and arrangements that ultimately create the harmonious overall picture. It is as if she is taking a very close look at the individual pieces of the puzzle and, in doing so, unravelling the big picture.

Constant calls for improvement have different effects on the children. The documentary moves almost like a dance between moments when the pressure seems to be too much and scenes in which children’s eyes sparkle with pride. These feelings are conveyed with great compassion for the children. It is these many insights into the children’s emotions that allow the documentary to feel so intimate.