Gender in Japan

A few years ago, my professor ask his student when we become aware of differences between men and women. I had no idea. He told us that it might be from we entered elementary schools. According him, randoseru(a school bag for elementary school students) is playing the important role in that way.　



I don't know what he said is true or not, but I agree with him about randoseru having some influence on children.


Most of elementary school students, especialy public school students, have randoserus. Students put all they need for classes in their own randoserus and go to school having them on their backs everyday.
There are mainly two colors of randoseru, black or red. All boys have black one or sometimes blue one, and all girls have red or pink one. There is no girl having black, and no boy having red.
I guess this could be the first step they realize that boys and girls are different from each other.
In kindergartens, they all are same. They play together with no concern of gender. After entering school, however, some groups start to appear in a class room. These groups often consist of boys only or girls only.


randoseru with my cousin.







black one







randoseru in classroom from Wikipedia

However, new elementary school students can choose the color of their randoseru in these days. We will see a lot of students having colorful randoserus on their back.

many colors:http://item.rakuten.co.jp/kagunavi/gd-00110/