When her five-year-old son passed the rigorous entrance exams to one of Japan’s top private elementary schools, Makihara, a single mother, thought they were on their way. Taro would wear the historic dark blue uniform and learn alongside other little Einsteins while she basked in the glory of his high achievements with the other perfect moms. Together they would climb the rungs into the country’s … country’s successful elite. But it didn’t turn out that way. Taro had other things in mind.While set in Japan, their struggles in the school’s hyper-competitive environment mirror those faced by parents here in the US and raise the same questions about the best way to educate a child–especially one that doesn’t quite fit the mold. Public or private? Competitive or nurturing? Standardized or individualized. Helicopter parenting or free-range? Amid this frenzied debate, how does one find balance and maintain a healthy parent-child relationship? Dear Diary Boy is an intensely personal, heartwarming, and heartbreaking chronicle of one mother and child’s experience in a prestigious private Tokyo school. It’s a tale that will resonate with all parents as we try to answer the age-old questions of how best to educate our children and what, truly, is in their best interests versus what is in our own.
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Dear Diary Boy is a poignant story of the lengths a mother will go for her son. It’s also an insightful portrayal of the conformity of Japanese society. Anyone who has ever felt like an outsider will relate to Kumiko Makihara’s book.
I was very upset at how this mother treated her unique son. I wouldn’t read it again ever, or recommend it.
This is an sweet book and a very interesting story. The author is brutally honest about her journey as a single mom raising a boy in the Japanese school system. So very different from US. Heart wrenching at times. A must read for helicopter moms as it shows the detriment it can have on your youngsters.
An interesting story that is very informative of Japanese culture and schooling.
Frank, mildly interesting account (memoir) of a single mother accompanying her adopted son through traditional Japanese schooling
This book was a very informative look into the Japanese private school system. I have to say the mother – for being quite un-Japanese i.e. divorced with an adopted child – swallowed this grim and soul-crushing educational system hook, line and sinker in a very conformist manner. She made awful choices regarding her son to the point that I wonder what their relationship is like now and what his side of this memoir would be. I also find it so curious that a middle aged parent could accept a lifestyle where she is so dependent upon her father to finance her apartment, her child’s education, medical specialist visits etc. An interesting book but the mother was not likable or understandable.
I just finished reading this book. A good look into the Japanese culture and school system. I became very invested in the main characters and wish for them a happy ever after ending.
Dear Diary Boy is a heart-wrenching, revelatory and shocking memoir that opens a fascinating window into the world of traditional Japanese education. Kumiko Makihara tells a beautiful and universal story of the hard choices so many women face and the depth of a mother’s love.
To straddle two cultures is to feel always, to some extent, a stranger; add in the strange country of motherhood, and things become even more difficult. Kumiko Makihara’s memoir — anguished, defiant, joyful, and unflinchingly honest — is difficult to read but harder to put down. In our increasingly hybrid global culture, it is an important story.
I found myself reading this memoir of a Japanese “kyoiku mama” (education mama) with a mixture of bemusement and horror. Makihara, a single Japanese mom with an illustrious past as a foreign correspondent, writes of her success at getting her adopted son into a prestigious private Tokyo school and of the ensuing years overseeing his education. At times, she makes so-called “tiger mother” Amy Chua seem like a kitten! Her frank and insightful account is lightened by excerpts from her son’s school diary, which reveal him to be a creative, sweet boy. As the foreign mom of a Japanese-American son who attended private school, I found much to relate to. For others, this is a vivid insider’s look at contemporary education and mothering in Japan.