Tokyo, Wednesday

Junior high school teacher Shiro Fukazawa has been instructing his second year students in the many ways in which Japan is unique. Students at the school in Tokyo's Hino city have been learning that Japan is an island, that Japan has four seasons, that Japanese is uniquely difficult to learn, all as qualities that separate it from other countries in the world.

"It saddened me to think that Japanese children could complete an education without having a sense of the uniqueness of their own country," Fukazawa, 47, told the Rising Sun-Times. "So I introduced a social studies class where they can learn stuff like this to fuck up their relationships with the outside world for the rest of their lives."

Fukazawa has also been teaching the students that Japanese can use chopsticks, a feat unaccomplished elsewhere in the world, that Japan has a uniquely long history, and that Japan is a small country.
"It's the little facts that make this class special," mused Fukazawa. "For example, a lot of people might think that a foreigner can learn good manners and humility, when in fact these are qualities unique to the Japanese. An unenlightened student might be beguiled into thinking that other people respect their elders, when in fact you will only find this in Japan."

Fukazawa envisaged his students going on to prosperous careers both in Japan and overseas.
"When I think of my students meeting up with Joe Gaijin in Roppongi or New York and whelping in amazement when he fumbles round with a pair of chopsticks or says 'Doemoe ARIgatoe' to the waiter, I just piss myself laughing. It's what makes a teacher's job so fulfilling."

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