Also like Nyororin said the uniforms are different for the seasons, and it is decided by the teachers or board when the students are allowed to switch from one to other. It is not decided by the students.

Take for example the track suit like jackets, there are times in the day when it is really hot but the students cannot shed their jacket without permission.

@ nyororin

500 dollars for each of the 6 uniforms, or 500 dollars for all six uniforms??

and thanks a lot for replying!:)

About 500 for each *set* of summer and winter. So if you have 3 sets - (a total of 6 uniforms) it would cost around $1500.

Gym uniform is usually separate, but they aren`t all that expensive... Something like $50 if I recall correctly.

I`ll try to answer these one by one.

Pretty much because it always has been. You can pretty much ask that about any school with a uniform.
The main reason is to eliminate visible differences between students, and it works pretty well. You wouldn`t know, just by looking at your classmates, who has money or who is poor, etc.

When you`re working and wearing a suit, you can`t just take it off if you feel hot. It works the same way with the uniform.
I`ve never seen a situation where it was too hot or too cold and the teacher wouldn`t allow proper measures. It`s just about getting *permission*. It`s not like the teachers are going to make you wear tons of layers on a hot summer day - summer uniforms are really cool to begin with.
A more realistic situation is in winter - if it`s cold outside, you`re going to wear your full uniform to school (jacket and sweater) - but the classroom is really warm from the heater. I have never seen a teacher who wouldn`t allow you to take your sweater and/or jacket off. But you can`t just start stripping down the layers out of nowhere.

Not when you can change your uniform - when the uniform changes from summer to winter and then back. Japan is pretty strict with this even outside of schools. You will not see anyone wearing short sleeves until after a certain date, regardless of how hot it is.
Basically, the school has it`s own rule on what day students switch over from one season`s uniform to the next.

I think you might have misunderstood. It`s based on the seasons. Summer and winter uniforms are drastically different - everyone is supposed to be wearing the same thing, so it would be a mess if someone didn`t set a date to change over from one to the other.

Yes, for the 6 months I was in a Japanese high school.

No problem at all. I like answering good questions. :D

Im attending university in japan and it is the same here. Although we dont wear a uniform, it is true that you will not see short sleeves until a certain date. For winter is even worse I think. It was freaking cold here and everybody was still in their autumn clothes. Personally, I could not take it and I was the only one wearing thick layers for a while.

As for school prices, university is very expensive. Public (national) ones cost more than 500,000 a year. I will not even say for the private ones, as they vary a lot, but I have seen it go as far as 4 million for medicine school. I do not know how is it elsewhere, but it is extremely expensive under mexican standards. Back there for the money of a national public university I could pay half a year in the most expensive private college; or 50 years in the mexican national university ;)

On the same topic, I have seen a quite disturbing sight. While I was attending a homestay program, I got to talk with some high school japanese boys and girls. They were divided into three classes per year. From A to C, apparently, C being the most advanced. I asked them how did they get to be in C class, and they replied they have been like that since junior high, or even before that. The problem is that depending on the class they were, they could only apply to some universities. So it seems that the whole education future of these children ewas pretty much decided as soon as they entered junior high. It is kind of frustrating.