Name: What a Day in a Japanese Daycare is like
Uploaded: 2025-11-17T18:03:43.000Z
Duration: 16 min 8 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

This is a typical look at a Japanese nursery school.

Adverbs of manner

Today, I'm going inside of a Hoikuen Japanese nursery school, similar in Western countries to a daycare called Saint Marion, which is privately run and located in Tokyo's Ebisu area, with an attached learning center.

Basic passive voice

The nursery is known for their exam preparation course for students to feed into prestigious elementary schools.

And my curiosity got the better of me as I had to find out what really happens in a day here and what they're actually learning at such a young age.

This is Aika, a teacher at this nursery school responsible for their kindergarten class called Here kinder for short, which is between 4 and 5 years old.

She actually has eight years of experience working as a nursery school teacher.

Originally from Aichi Prefecture, she moved to this school about one year ago.

The first thing she does is review notes from parents.

At Japanese nurseries, it's common to use a reporting system where parents record detailed information from what their kids ate for dinner and breakfast to how they slept, their health, and

Helping teachers understand each child's condition on that day, ensuring that they can provide the best, best care and attention possible.

Aika handles a handoff in greetings while the other staff help to put things away.

In Japan all the way up to high school, kids usually change shoes at the entrance to keep the interior of the school as clean as possible.

These indoor shoes are also non slip, making it slightly for kids to play in.

Oh, you have elementary kids in the class too?

At this nursery, they also accept temporary daycare for foreign travelers.

Quite useful for families with extended stays in Japan.

While waiting for the other kids to arrive, the teachers play with the ones that are here.

In Japan, nursery kids learn how to manage their belongings and get ready on their own in the morning, like unpacking their bags when they arrive, getting dressed and putting away their supplies, which is believed to grow their independence and responsibility.

It's a traditional Japanese pastime that continues to this day.

Still loved by children as part of their everyday play.

It's also known to improve hand, eye coordination and concentration, making it both a fun and educational activity.

It looks like they're gonna be just playing around here for a little bit.

So while they're doing that, let's go explore a little bit.

It looks like we have the 0 to 1 year olds here.

Apparently she's responsible for making different dishes depending on the age of the kids.

Japanese kindergartens and nurseries generally have their own nutritionist to make food for them.

It's common for Japanese students to eat balanced meals at school, not just for health, but

Teaching them what they should be normally eating, preparing them for their adult life.

Now that all the kids are here, each kid goes to their own class.

Next, it's time for their asanokai, meaning morning meeting.

It's a short session to greet each other.

The assigned helpers of the day announce today's lunch menu and schedule.

The style varies from school to school, but

it's a meaningful way in Japan for kids to practice speaking in front of others while also taking on responsibilities.

So this nursery has an exam prep class where kids study different subjects to prepare for entrance exams for prestigious elementary schools in the country.

In Japan, the entrance exam system for ladder schools is called Ojuken and it's extremely competitive with the top schools having an acceptance rate as low as 12%.

These exams include everything from academic to physical exercises, behavior training, art activities, and even interview practice.

So parents who want their kids on this school track are forced to place their kids in into cram schools.

This particular nursery school though, helps alleviate some of that burden as it prepares its students for the exams as part of their standard everyday curriculum.

Now the kids are doing their monthly emergency evacuation drill called Hinan Kunren and today's focus is is on earthquakes.

It's critical that students are well prepared for such disasters in Japan as it's an earthquake prone country recording more than 3,600 quakes of magnitude 1 or higher in 2024 alone.

These drills have become a standard part of Japan's educational system, regularly practiced all the way through to high school.

Now the students memorize the basic rules of every evacuation using the acronym O hashi, meaning don't push, don't run, don't talk, with the emphasis on keeping safe, especially when they're in groups so they don't panic.

Oh, that's a bosai zukin, a traditional protective hood used in Japan.

Its origins date back to World War II, when it was designed to protect people from falling debris and fires during air raids.

Even today, it remains one of the most common safety items used during school evacuations.

Children regularly practice putting them on quickly and correctly to ensure they're always prepared.

Next, the students go outside to play with water called mizu asobi.

It seems like they're learning color mixing through painting experiments.

As a Japanese nursery school teacher, Aika must also use her creativity to plan fun and interesting activities for the students.

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What a Day in a Japanese Daycare is like

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