A bit of an odd question but in terms of seating within high schools in Japan, are seats assigned to students? Or is this something that may vary from school to school? I've found different answers so I figured I'd ask here if anyone had experience. Thank you in advance!
I taught in an elementary/middle school. I know students had numbers and assigned seating there, but that might change in upper grades. Wish I could help more!
I think it varies by teacher and school. What I've seen in anime/manga (take it for what it's worth) is that they draw numbers and are assigned seats that way; some schools change the seating arrangement at the beginning of the terms, too.
Not sure about high school, but university students don't seem surprised at either assigned or free-choice seating. I've used both in my classrooms.
I teach at a Japanese elementary school in Prague (it's set up by the Ministry of Education in Japan) and the kids there have numbers as well as assigned seats - their names are on each desk and the back of the chairs. However, every so often their seats change - not sure how it's decided as to who sits where. But yeah even the chairs are very specific - I've had kids tell me "that's not my chair" before and I'm like... it's a chair. But oh well, cultural differences eh? Kids go up to 9th grade (15 years old) at this school and then they go on to doing their really intense national exams in Japan in order to get into Japanese high schools.
