the kids here in japanese high school, are not as you would call it "smart". to me someone that is smart is bright and is able to think outside the box and beyond their personal space. The kids here are not like that- many have very little in the way of personal views or opinions. The confusion with many asian cultures is their being INTELLIGENT when it actuality it's their strict conformist ideologies that make them WORK HARD in order to maintain social acceptance. There are basically three types of high school students in Japan- those who hit the books hard doing hours of homework every day (again it doesnt mean they are necessarily smarter than any other race but their culture dictates the notion "I can't stand being shit") in order to enter college, the student who participates in a school club activity and whose life is completely absorbed in that activity and nothing else matters, and the third type is a growing one, the uncaring slacker type whose character has been influenced by western culture into shunning their own. In Japan a growing number of people called NEET (No Education, Employment, Training) are making the Japanese economy become more and more weak as unemployment rates grow. In my opinion the gap between generations of younger and older Japanese and their unwillingness to communicate their opinions to each other due to stubborness is causing social disaster that will no doubt become more and more damaging in the next 10 years
IN SIMPLE TERMS: JAPAN IS A CONFORMIST SOCIETY THAT IS SLOWLY CRUMBLNG ON ITSELF DUE TO EXPOSURE TO WESTERN CULTURE.