{"id":420,"date":"2025-05-18T18:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T01:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=420"},"modified":"2025-05-18T18:00:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T01:00:07","slug":"japans-rental-high-school-student-project-is-more-wholesome-than-it-sounds-good-for-its-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=420","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s Rental High School Student Project is more wholesome than it sounds, good for its community"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-702235\" src=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/RH-1.jpg?w=640\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Program creates connections and offers help for senior citizens<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cRental High School Student\u201d<\/strong> might sound like a dubious extension of Japan\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/2020\/12\/09\/we-rent-a-sister-in-japan-act-out-sibling-scenarios-with-frightening-realness-%E3%80%90video%E3%80%91\/\">rent-a-family-member services<\/a>, or perhaps even some shadier sort of compensated companionship. However, it turns out that the program actually isn\u2019t a cause for concern, and instead is something to smile about.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Rental High School Student Project<\/strong> is administered by <strong>Chikuma High School<\/strong> in the town of <strong>Ueda, Nagano Prefecture<\/strong>. It\u2019s not a ploy for the school or its students to make some quick cash, though, as it\u2019s a totally free service. Rather than economic gain, the goal of the program is to <strong>foster a sense of compassion and empathy in the community, and to help create connections between the town\u2019s teens and older generations<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u25bc Video of Rental High School Student Project participants<\/p>\n\n<p>The program was started two years ago as <strong>part of the social studies\/civics curriculum for third-year students<\/strong> (Japanese high school lasts for thee years), and operates in coordination with a local resident support center. <strong>Senior citizens living in the community who need help with tasks around their home put in requests for Rental High School Students, and the school then dispatches them in groups of two or three kids per household<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>On the most recent day of activity, which took place on May 14, six groups, comprised of a total of 16 students, participated. Some of them helped an 82-year-old woman clean her kitchen windows, which are too high for her to reach without climbing up on a ladder, something she\u2019s not in a position to safely do by herself. Others went to the home of 91-year-old man with limited flexibility in his back and knees to remove weeds from his garden and tulip patch. Other requests have included help installing replacements for damaged or worn-out screen and sliding doors.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the direct help provided by performing the requested tasks, <strong>the Rental High School Students Program helps form interpersonal bonds between members of the community who might otherwise never have occasion to meet each other<\/strong>, and to learn from one another. As part of their assistance, the above-mentioned garden work group helped remove weeds from between still-growing <strong>myoga<\/strong>, or ginger bulbs. When the 91-year-old man asked the teens if they like the taste of myoga, which is kind of an old-school ingredient, they replied that they\u2019ve never tried it. \u201cIt\u2019s a really tasty seasoning, so if you ever want to try it, come on back here,\u201d the man offered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want people to know about this program, and how it promotes senior citizens\u2019 physical and mental well-being,\u201d said Honoka Miyazawa, a 17-year-old Chikuma High student who participated in this month\u2019s activities. The school says it plans to continue with the program, and just like with <a href=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/2025\/03\/21\/japans-new-trading-card-game-hit-has-pictures-of-real-life-middle-aged-men-on-every-card%E3%80%90video%E3%80%91\/\">the Ojisan Trading Card game<\/a>, the Rental High School Student Project is helping to make its community a little more connected.<\/p>\n<p><em>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbs-tv.co.jp\/news\/articles\/?cid=23206\">NBS<\/a> via <a href=\"http:\/\/jin115.com\/archives\/52425136.html\">Jin<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shinmai.co.jp\/news\/article\/CNTS2025051400788\">Shinano Mainichi Shimbun<\/a><\/em><br \/>\n<em>Top image: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pakutaso.com\/20180818221post-17041.html\">Pakutaso<\/a><\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u25cf Want to hear about SoraNews24\u2019s latest articles as soon as they\u2019re published? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RocketNews24En\">Follow us on Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RocketNews24En\">Twitter<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Program creates connections and offers help for senior citizens. \u201cRental High School Student\u201d might sound like a dubious extension of Japan\u2019s rent-a-family-member services, or perhaps even some shadier sort of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}