Quote:
Originally Posted by SeijiSensei
In Shion no Ou 13-yo Shion announced that she was not intending to go to high school in order to pursue her career as professional Shougi player. Some of her friends were surprised, but no one seemed to think that she might be better off finishing school first.
|
Seiji you might recall that in Hikaru no Go, Hikaru also does not go to high school and instead sticks to being a professional Go player.
It's not in the dub version but in Whisper of the Heart Seiji also decides not to go to high school and then to pursue the violin.
I think we hear "not go to high school" and think drop out but this isn't the case since High school is just not mandatory in Japan, even though most Japanese do attend high school. The mandatory schooling stops at middle school.
So I think when a character doesn't attend high school it's not saying education is not important but if you have a dream/goal you should pursue it if that is the path you believe in.
As for the AKB48 idols what I understand that while they perform every day, there are so many of them that no one is constantly performing, perhaps freeing up time for education if they want to attend.
However while I don't think education is being taking away from those girls, I have other problems with the industry. The "no dating" thing bothers me immensely. It's not even about the girls, it's about keeping them "pure" for their fans. I just find the whole notion of that very sexist. And heck I don't even see this as a cultural difference as I don't think idol culture necessarily represents Japan as a whole.