By Makoto Hattori

8:00 JST, September 27, 2025

Children begin developing the skills necessary to become members of society from an early age. In Japanese schools, this process is supported by “special activities” in which children work together to improve their daily school lives, thereby learning cooperation and other essential qualities, growing into builders of a healthy democratic society.

Special activities include classroom activities, student associations, school events, and, in elementary schools, club activities. The National Curriculum Standards state that by voluntarily and practically engaging in various group activities, and by solving issues of daily life for themselves and their groups while drawing on each other’s strengths and potential, children develop the competencies necessary to be members of a community.

The competencies to be fostered are organized under three perspectives: “building human relationships,” “social participation,” and “self-realization.” Among these, the skills of “social participation” have recently drawn particular attention as the spread of social media is reshaping the nature of democratic societies.

In mid-September, I visited Urawa-Osato Elementary School in Saitama City to observe a meeting of the representative council, the core body of student association activities. This meeting is held once a month during lunch recess. Gathered in the student association room were 40 representatives: one boy and one girl from each class in grades four and up, along with the chairpersons of 11 committees, including Library, Health, and Bulletin Board.

The school has been designated as a “community school,” where residents and parents take part in school management through a School Management Council. One item on the agenda of the children’s representative council that day was “What to report to the School Management Council.”

To improve school life, the representative council set this year’s school slogan as “Let’s All Smile” and, in the first term, carried out a variety of initiatives to promote communication across the school. In one campaign using worksheets, students adopted 15 small goals such as “Make eye contact when greeting,” “Say hello with a cheerful voice,” and “Say ‘great job’ to at least 10 people.” Classes colored in the relevant parts of their worksheets when 80% of the class met a goal.

“Leading the school toward achieving the slogan of smiles is the role of the representative........

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