Documentary highlights the pros and cons of Japanese schools

! Introduction & Motivation Behind the Film

''Can you start by telling us why you decided to do this film, your background, and what kinds of messages you wanted to make?''

I went to a Japanese public elementary school, much like the one I filmed. I grew up in Osaka and Tokyo, and over 90% of people who grow up in Japan go to a public school. The system is very uniform and steady. When I see these kids and teachers, I see myself and my own memories. My father is British, so I went to an international school in Japan for middle and high school and eventually moved to New York City for college and spent almost a decade there. As a young adult in New York, I would get compliments on being hardworking, responsible, always on time, and good at teamwork. I felt this wasn't about me personally, but about being Japanese. This made me start to think about how I became like this. I realized that the things I thought were normal from elementary school, like learning to work hard and accomplish things as a team, were actually special and gave me a foundation. My American friends were confused by things like me being the "minister of cleaning" in fifth grade. I appreciated how other aspects of Japanese culture were received in the US, like sushi, ninjas, or anime, and I wanted to capture the essence of modern Japan and where it might be headed in a way that hadn't been done before. I made the film with English subtitles to show the world, but I realized that people in Japan also gained new insights from my interpretation, providing a conversation starter within Japan as well.

''What would you say to Westerners who have stereotypes about Japanese education being very rigid and producing people who are all the same?''

When I made my previous high school baseball film, a big reaction on Twitter was, "I didn't realize Japanese people cry." The stoic image of a Japanese man was so strong that seeing grown adults weeping was a shock. My goal with documentaries is to convey that everyone is human. Teachers around the world, especially in Japan these days, can get a bad rap in the media for being overworked and underpaid. My attempt was to show the human side—that so many teachers feel joy in guiding kids to grow. I went to 30 schools to pick this one and interacted with thousands of kids. While schools are designed to feel the same physically, I spent a year there to highlight individuals and show the uniqueness within, because it's all human. My goal was also to represent something universal, not to pick a special school or special kids, so that people would have some reference. The biggest issue is just getting to that broader understanding that we're all human, especially when you see parents fighting with teachers. We need to respect each other as humans for the sake of the kids and our societies.

!! A Parent's Perspective

''Now that you're a mom, do you look at some of the things in the film, like the little girl crying, differently?''

Not particularly for the kids. I was those kids. In the moment it's hard, but it took me 15-20 years to appreciate some of those hardships as life lessons that made me more resilient. Kids are chosen by teachers who know they can do more. I believe that having roadblocks as a child sets you up better for adulthood. I empathize more now with the difficult parents I had to deal with during filming. I realize all they wanted was to make sure their kids were okay. I see that more clearly now that I'm a parent.

! The Filmmaking Process

''How did you decide to focus on these particular students and how did you go about editing down all that footage?''

With a year of preparation and Covid postponements, I spent about 4000 hours in the school and its community. We filmed 700 hours over 150 days of one school year. Most of that was routine classes because I knew my target was the incoming first graders and outgoing sixth graders. I filmed many more kids and teachers than you see in the final film. The school itself is the main character. You don't know who will be in the film until you're editing and see what happens on the last day of school. There's no waste in filming; you need that volume because you don't know what will happen. The goal is to maintain hundreds of relationships so that when things unfold, you're there with the trust of everyone. Of course, I'm subjective in picking what moments go in. It's a condensed reality from my perspective, which is why it took a year of test screenings to see how that lens worked. There are so many characters, and it's okay if you don't get every scene. The feeling should be of a collective school year. My goal is to leave it open-ended so everyone can draw their own conclusions, while still directing you in some direction.

''Do you have any thoughts of doing a sequel about middle school or high school?''

I get asked this all the time. I consider this film a sequel to my high school baseball film. I'm thinking of doing a trilogy and moving on to adults in Japan next—like the incoming 20-year-olds and outgoing 65-year-olds in a Japanese company. The value system differences between those generations are intense. For elementary school, the Japanese system has a lot of benefits, and we plan to send our son to one. I can't say the same for middle school onward. The things that work for first graders, like feeling empathy for others, can clash with forming your own identity in middle school. I don't make films about things I don't want to spend years on, and there's already a lot of exposure on middle school issues. So, I'm moving on to adults, even though I'm told it's impossible. I hope it doesn't take me ten years, but I'm working on it.

! Audience Q&A: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Cultural Exchange

''What are the potential drawbacks of Japanese elementary education, and what can the United States learn from it?''

In Finland, which reveres individualism and creativity in education, there was a big reaction to the film. They felt they might have pushed it too far, leading to selfish kids who don't care enough about community. They saw the film as a textbook for how to learn to live in a community. In Japan, "group" can have a negative connotation, but "community" feels nicer. The Japanese system is like practice in learning to live with people—you clean your own class, you serve your friends lunch. It's not just about academics. This is a skill many places could benefit from, as we saw during Covid when we needed to work together. The drawback is the double-edged sword. The same system that teaches community can make it difficult to be different, leading to bullying or kids not coming to school (almost 350,000 in Japan this year). The system isn't adapting fast enough to cater to individuals and diversity. In the West, kids are asked "Who are you?" and "What makes you unique?" There's little of that in Japanese elementary school. While it's fine for a ten-year-old, by 13 or 14, it can lead to a struggle with a sense of self and feel suffocating. A balance somewhere in the middle is needed.

''As a filmmaker with a British and American perspective, do you have any insights into the Japanese middle school system?''

I feel I get away with the film's title, "The Making of a Japanese," because it's a question I've dealt with my whole life as a half-Japanese person. Japan is still a country where so much is uniform. I don't think you could film one school and say, "This is how an American is made." I hope in a few decades, as my three-quarters white son grows up in Japan, the title won't stand up because there will be too many versions of Japan. An insight from the film, especially the reaction in Japan, is that parents realized how much teachers care. It's easy to forget that very few teachers are there to do a bad job. They are doing the hard work, even on days they don't feel like it. In Japan, there are few TV programs about education because they don't get ratings, leaving it disconnected from the public. My role was to bridge that gap. Education will shape our future, and it's not just what they learn, but how they learn it.

! Audience Q&A: The Nitty-Gritty of Production

''How did you select this particular school, how did you shoot it without a big crew, and what were the challenges you faced?''

I received 29 no's before this yes. It took five years and 30 schools to find the right circumstances. I didn't want a school that was unique. This school is in a suburb, a bit more well-off, but public. I needed the principal to be dedicated to the non-academic, human growth part. We also used the occasion of the Tokyo Olympics, as the city was hosting the US Olympic team, to get buy-in from the city and education board. We were there from the first day of school, so the first graders didn't know school without being filmed. They were so nervous, it was just part of their environment. We were there almost every day to become part of the background. We had a small crew of one camera person and one sound person to be low-stress and someone the kids liked to be around. The endless challenge was being in the right place at the right time to capture something cinematically with perfect audio, not just with an iPhone. Amazing things are happening all the time, and my job was to capture them. I also had to hold my breath until graduation day, because without an ending, the whole year wouldn't have made sense. Maintaining relationships so I wouldn't get kicked out was key.

''How did you go about cutting from 700 hours down to the feature film, and also to the short film "Instruments of a Beating Heart"?''

I had partners like The New York Times, who only make shorts, as co-producers. In return for funding, I promised them a version of the film. When that specific story happened during filming, I knew immediately it had to be a separate short film. It has a similar goal but is more digestible for a mass audience. The short is more dramatic and emphasizes the strictness and resilience of one person, while the feature shows the whole system. I made them at the same time. The short ended up being one of the most-watched New York Times documentaries ever. My goal is for people to care about education, whether for 30 minutes or 100 minutes. I took the main student from the short, Yamato, to the Oscars with me, which was a full-circle moment.