Students to be Graded on Shyness

The Education Ministry has announced that from next year, students at high schools in Japan will be graded on their shyness.  Criteria will include reticence with strangers, blushing, and evasion of eye contact, and students considered insufficiently bashful will be held back a year, regardless of their academic performance.


"This measure is absolutely necessary in order to prepare students for life after graduation," explained Ministry spokesman Kazu Hashi. "In school, students can pick up bad habits such as sharing their feelings and opinions, which jar badly with the outside environment. Shyness is a fundamental life skill which students need to master so that they are able to assimilate into wider Japanese society."


Students are eagerly looking forward to the new challenge. "I used to enjoy meeting people and making friends," said Arisa Tanaka, a high school freshman in Chiba, "but now I see I'll have to stop. I'm determined to do my best to be the shyest in my class!"