APARC’s Japan Program recently hosted an advance screening of The Making of a Japanese, the latest documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Ema Ryan Yamazaki, in which she offers a nuanced, moving examination of Japanese elementary education, chronicling daily life at a suburban Tokyo school. "What you're going to see is a 10-year obsession," Yamazaki told the audience as she introduced the film.

Following the screening, Yamazaki joined in a fireside chat with Japan Program Fellow Katherine (Kemy) Monahan, a veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service and former Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, among other roles.

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Yamazaki revealed the deeply personal motivations behind her project. As someone of mixed British and Japanese heritage who left Japan at age 12, she sought to explore what makes modern Japan through the lens of childhood education. "I see myself in these kids," she said, describing how the film became a way to examine her own evolving identity.

The discussion challenged Western stereotypes of Japanese stoicism. "People said they didn't realize Japanese people could cry," Yamazaki noted, emphasizing her commitment to revealing the humanity of both students and teachers. After approaching 30 schools and receiving 29 rejections, she found one whose principal was willing to open a window into the human texture of its quotidian normalcy.

Over the course of 150 days, one full school year, Yamazaki captured 700 hours of footage, focusing primarily on first- and sixth-graders to document the students both entering and graduating from the elementary education system. The result, she explained, aims for "a condensed reality" that represents a collective school year rather than individual narratives.
 

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The film shows the ways "the Japanese system is practiced in how to live with people," said Yamazaki, which is a skill other societies may learn from. Yet, the drawback, she acknowledged, is the challenge of developing individual identity alongside group consciousness in a system where students find it difficult to be different. "How do you learn to be yourself, not only in relation to the group?" she asked, suggesting this is the reason why "so many people in Japan feel unsure about their sense of self; feel so much obligation to how things will be received, and how things will be seen that it can be suffocating."

Yamazaki said she sees The Making of a Japanese as a sequel to her 2019 documentary, Koshien: Japan's Field of Dreams, which focuses on the phenomenon of Japanese high school baseball. In February 2025, the Japan Program hosted a symposium on this topic, including a screening of the film and a discussion with Yamazaki. 

She revealed plans for a trilogy examining Japanese socialization, with the next installment studying adult workers entering and exiting the workforce. "The system continues to conform," she observed, "but self-identity comes clashing with group identity."

The discussion highlighted how educational practices reflect broader cultural values and social challenges. As Monahan noted, the film makes "a case for supporting teachers," a message that transcends national boundaries. "If teachers are overworked, that is a societal problem," Yamazaki concluded. "Education will shape our future."