In most Japanese schools there is a daily cleaning period, called soji, when pupils put down their pens, pick up brooms, dustpans and cloths, and clean their own classrooms, corridors, stairs and other shared spaces. They work in small rotating groups, each responsible for one area, and at the end of term the whole school does a bigger, deeper clean known as o-soji. Caretakers still exist and handle the jobs that are unsafe or unsuitable for children.
The routine is not about saving money on cleaners. Japanese teachers see it as part of education: a daily, practical lesson in responsibility, cooperation and respect for shared space. Here is how it works, what it aims to teach, what visitors often get wrong about it, and how the idea has started to spread abroad.
How a school cleaning period works
Each school sets its own timetable. According to teaching materials from The Japan Forum, a Tokyo-based foundation that supports Japanese-language education, cleaning most commonly takes place right after lunch or at the end of the school day. Sessions are usually short, often around fifteen to twenty minutes, though the exact length and frequency vary from school to school.
Pupils are divided into small groups called han. Every week the groups rotate through different areas: their own classroom and the corridor outside it, the gym, the entrance hall where shoes are changed, or special rooms such as the music room and science lab. That way nobody is stuck with the same job all year, and everyone learns to clean every kind of space.
The equipment is simple and kept in each classroom: brooms, dustpans, buckets and zokin, the small folded cloths used to wipe floors and surfaces. Many schools are known for the sight of children running down a corridor in a line, pushing damp zokin along the floor with both hands. Desks and chairs are pushed to one side so the whole floor can be swept, then put back in order.
Many schools play music over the speaker system to mark the start and end of cleaning time, sometimes a familiar school tune, sometimes classical music. It works as a signal, much like a bell, and makes the work feel a bit more cheerful.
The video above shows a typical cleaning period: pupils in gym clothes and caps sweeping, wiping and tidying together, with teachers working alongside them rather than simply supervising.
O-soji: the big end-of-term clean
The everyday routine is called soji. The word o-soji (大掃除, literally "big cleaning") refers to the thorough clean held before the end of a term or school year. This is when jobs that are skipped during the short daily sessions get done: cleaning windows, clearing out cupboards and lockers, scrubbing corners and, in some schools, waxing the floors.
The custom reflects a wider tradition in Japan. Households and workplaces also do an ōsōji at the end of the calendar year, cleaning thoroughly so they can start the new year fresh. Children who grow up with it at school and at home tend to see a deep clean as a normal part of marking the end of something and starting again.
What cleaning is meant to teach
A tidy building is the most visible result, but Japanese educators usually describe cleaning as a lesson in character. It belongs to a broader set of school activities known as tokkatsu, short for tokubetsu katsudō or "special activities", which also include pupils taking turns to serve school lunch to their classmates, holding class meetings and organising school events.
The ideas behind it are easy to recognise:
- Responsibility for your own mess. When you know you will be sweeping the floor later, you think twice before dropping litter on it.
- Respect for shared space and other people. Pupils clean rooms they share with others, so they learn to leave spaces in good condition for the next person.
- Cooperation. A han only finishes on time if everyone pulls their weight, and older pupils often help or guide younger ones.
- No job is beneath anyone. Teachers, and in some schools head teachers, clean alongside the children. The message is that keeping a community running is everyone's work.
Visitors sometimes point to this habit when they notice how clean Japanese streets are, or when Japanese football fans make headlines for picking up rubbish in stadiums after matches. It would be too simple to credit one school routine with all of that, but it is one of many places where the same values are practised every day.
Common myths about Japanese school cleaning
"Japanese schools have no cleaners." Not quite. Most schools have caretaking staff, often called yōmuin, who handle repairs, heavy cleaning and anything that could be hazardous. In many schools, adults or contractors also take care of specialised tasks. The children do the daily upkeep of their learning spaces.
"Every school does it exactly the same way." Practices vary by school, region and age group. Some schools clean after lunch, others at the end of the day; some have pupils clean toilets as part of the rota, others leave toilets to adults. Primary pupils and secondary students also take on different jobs.
"Most Japanese children are only children, so school is where they learn to work with others." This claim, repeated in many viral articles, does not hold up. Japan's National Fertility Survey has found that married couples in Japan have, on average, close to two children: about 1.90 in the 2021 survey and 1.86 in the latest round. Mixed-age cooperation at school is valuable, but not because most pupils lack siblings.
"Cleaning time replaces lessons and hurts results." Cleaning takes a modest amount of time each week, and Japan continues to perform well in international comparisons of pupils' skills. Whether a particular school finds the time worthwhile is a debate for each community, but there is no clear sign that the practice holds pupils back.
The idea travels abroad
Japan's approach has attracted interest elsewhere. Under the Egypt-Japan Education Partnership agreed in 2016, Egypt opened a network of Egypt-Japan Schools that adopt elements of tokkatsu. According to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), pupils in these schools clean their own classrooms and take turns serving lunch, alongside activities such as class discussions and hygiene routines. The plan called for 100 new schools, and JICA reported that around 20,000 children were learning this way.
Teachers in other countries have experimented with smaller versions: a daily ten-minute classroom tidy, rotas for wiping tables and stacking chairs, or pupil teams that care for a school garden or library. The common thread is giving children a real job that matters to the people around them.
Trying it at your own school or at home
You do not need to copy the Japanese model in full to borrow its strengths. A few practical tips:
- Keep sessions short and regular, so cleaning becomes a habit rather than a punishment.
- Rotate jobs so everyone tries each task and nobody gets stuck with the least popular one.
- Give children proper, child-sized tools, and keep cleaning chemicals and hazardous tasks for adults.
- Let adults join in, so children see it as shared work, not a chore handed down.
- At home, the same idea works as a family "reset" for ten minutes after dinner, with everyone owning one small area.
The lesson Japanese schools teach with brooms and cloths is simple: the places we share are cared for by the people who use them. That is a habit worth learning young.
Sources: The Japan Forum: Soji (school cleaning); JICA: How Japan's education system is making a difference in Egypt; National Institute of Population and Social Security Research: Japanese National Fertility Survey; Wikipedia: Education in Japan.
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