Randoseru - school bags in Japan

[gfell]

Students around the world use different kinds of school bags. And in Japan, they generally carry randoseru, a box-shaped hard backpack.

Randoseru may look rather oversized for the first graders. In Japan, students must bring their school textbooks and stationery back home everyday, so they need fairly large and heavy-duty bags.

Formerly, a black randoseru was for boys and a red one for girls. Today, randoseru come in many different colours and are made of light and durable materials such as artificial leather. Also, there are a variety of shapes and extra features.

Except at schools where pupils are required to use randoseru, children often stop using it as they enter higher grades. They then switch to some kind of shoulder bags.