I’ll be up-front: I’m no fan of school.
Having been bullied at schools in a small town for years, I barely scraped past high school, and left college after one year in. Fortunately, a lifelong love of learning saved me, and led to the career and the life that I have today. I was too young to enjoy the homeschooling boom in the United States, but if it had been an option to me, chances are I’d have taken to it like a fish out of water.
So I have a lot of sympathy for our subject today: 10-year-old Nakamura Yutaka (中村逞珂), who lives in the city of Ginowa in Okinawa. Yutaka – who posts under the nickname “Yutabon” – made waves last month on his YouTube account when he posted a video entitled “There’s No Sorrow in Skipping School!” (不登校は不幸じゃない！; futoukou ha fukou ja nai).
Yutabon began uploading at the recommendation of his father. After expressing his desire to one day be a comedian, his dad urged him to get a head-start by recording his own videos. In the video above, Yutabon talks about his own decision only to go to school when he wants. He also talks to other kids who are avoiding school for whatever reason, such as depression or fear of bullying.
In its piece on Yutabon, Ryuku Shinpo related how the precocious kid takes his message directly to other kids who contact him online:
活動をしていると「死にたい」という子どもから相談が寄せられることもある。そういう時は友達になり「死ぬな。苦しむな。学校なんて行かなくてもいい」と言い続けている。 As a Youtuber, he’s received messages of consultation from other kids saying, “I want to die.” He befriends them, and keeps telling them, “Don’t die. Don’t despair. It’s okay if you don’t go to school.” Yutanbon’s plans go beyond mere consultation, though: he wants to gather other kids onto a “peace boat,” and circle the world spreading an anti-war message.
As you can imagine in a country that places a high value on education, Yutabon’s “f!ck the man” stance doesn’t go over well with many people. Yutabon’s videos are highly viewed – the one above has racked up over 1.5 million playbacks. But they’re also highly panned, with the above vid having 5,000 likes versus 81,000 dislikes. The comments on another one of the budding YouTube star’s videos are often biting, with the top-most comment playing on the words 投稿 (uploading a post to online media) and 登校 (going to school), both pronounced toukou:
ゆたぼんには毎日投稿より毎日登校をオススメしますよ。 I’d recommend Yutabon go to school everyday rather than uploading every day. According to magazine Joshi SPA!, the youngster’s fame (or infamy) has led some to scrutinize his family – particularly his father, Nakamura Yukiya. Now a mental health counselor and self-help author, Yukiya is open about his past as a middle-school drop-out and gang member. And despite calling himself a counselor, Yukiya doesn’t appear to hold a certification in counseling.
In a piece on the magazine Ironna, Yukiya shot back at the criticism and defended his parenting style as respecting his son’s rights as a free-thinking human being:
子供は好奇心が旺盛です。そして人が成長するのに好奇心は欠かせません。好奇心を満たしてあげることで子供は育つし、その子の可能性を大きく伸ばしていくこともできます。だから僕はなるべく子供の「好奇心の芽」をつまないように気を付けながら見守っています。
Kids are brimming with curiosity. And curiosity is vital for growth. You can enrich a child’s potential by raising them so their curiosity is satisfied. That’s why I watch over my children while also taking care not to trod on that budding curiosity.
Yukiya’s argument here, of course, is not unique: it’s quite similar, actually, to what you might hear from most secular homeschoolers in Western countries. But it’s a unique argument to hear in Japan, where homeschooling is only legal by a technicality: parents have a legal duty to create the conditions for their children to go to school, and can be fined if they don’t, but they can’t be held legally accountable if their child chooses not attend of their own volition. According to the Japanese NPO HoSA, no alternative outside of schools is officially recognized as an alternative to compulsory education.
Despite the detractors, Yutabon and his dad have some pretty high-profile champions on their side. He’s won praise in particular from Dr. Mogi Kenichirou (茂木健一郎), a senior researcher in AI and human consciousness with Sony CSL, and a best-selling author of books on life-long learning. Dr. Mogi has come to Yutabon’s defense on Twitter, and even recorded a video with him for his channel:
Dr. Mogi has continued to defend Yutabon, and has used his Twitter account to share out the father’s defense of his parenting:
A note from Yutabon’s father. This part hits the mark. “For those who are saying you can’t learn general knowledge without going to school, what did you learn at school? Did you learn to attack people anonymously? Is that the ‘general knowledge’ you learn at school?”
While Yutabon and his dad’s educational philosophy may not be popular at the moment, it may prove of value going forward. The country continues to struggle with its hikikomori population – adults, many of whom had terrible experiences in school, who shelter themselves in their parents’ homes, avoiding outside society. Youth suicide statistics in Japan haven’t budged despite a decline in suicide overall – a sign that some of the country’s youth still find it difficult to manage the expectations society places on them. Some variant of homeschooling could help such kids focus on learning sans social pressure.
Whether such an approach ever takes off in Japan remains to be seen. Either way, Yutabon seems to be off to a healthy start on his road to stardom. And he’s learned one of the key lessons of fame: controversy sells.
