BUKATSU - 部活

WHAT IS BUKATSU?

• Bukatsu is after school club activities and is present from Kinder-12
• It's unavoidable if you're a student, and participating in at least one club is either strongly encouraged or compulsory.
• Participating in these clubs takes up a significant amount of "free" time.

There are many different clubs for many different interests
Study clubs, Chess clubs, various sports clubs, reading clubs, music clubs and even cultural clubs

WHAT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO DO IT?

• You must become an inactive member of a club
• They could also join the 'Go-Home-Early-Club' or viewed as by some people the 'Shame Club'

The clubs require a lot of commitment. Some meet up every day of the week.

School days would take up time from the end of school till about dinner time and weekends can take up whole mornings.

Teachers hardly provide full supervision of some clubs, so senior students (せんぱい) would become club presidents and assist the younger students (こはい). But that would involve the younger students cleaning up after club meetings.

PARENTS THOUGHTS

• Some parents in Japan (especially foreign) really don't like the idea of Bukatsu
• Bukatsu's demand on giving up students free time some parents disagree with
• Recently most students are dropping Bukatsu at the end of high school as they prepare for college entrance exams, and is lower in the big cities, where students often have more options for passing the time