The original owner was gone, and with the body’s age reverted to 16, he was once again a minor. Trying to run back to China would be extremely troublesome—just thinking about it gave him a headache. Besides, Tottori Prefecture was known in Japan as a remote, impoverished, mountainous area. The original owner’s family must have been quite destitute, similar to those from the deep mountain valleys of China’s northwest—if not for the original owner’s natural intelligence, he probably would have dropped out long ago to work the land. Now that it was him in this situation, he wanted to run but didn’t even have money in hand—Tottori’s average annual income was about 700,000 yen. It sounded like a lot, but in Japan, it was miserable; in a big city, that amount would only last one person two or three months. The original owner hadn’t brought much money to Nagoya at all, which really did suggest his family was dirt poor.

Now, leaving Japan was harder than ever, but at the same time, he had the opportunity to attend a well-known Asian university—he’d read the offer letter from the private Daifuku Academy. If he got into places like the University of Tokyo, Waseda, Kyoto University, or Nagoya University and brought honor to the school, the academy would pay his tuition in the form of a scholarship. He was a bit tempted, planning to spend a few years furthering his studies—treat it as studying abroad—and then see about returning to China later. After all, he didn’t have any real attachments there.

In his previous life, he’d been dealt a terrible hand. This time around, though still poor, the cards actually looked pretty good. He was ready to give it his all!

Play? No, study!

Sports? No, study!

Dating? No, study!

At most, he’d take a part-time job to make ends meet, but all other time would go to studying. No one could stop him. This life, he’d live well—at the very least, he’d get himself a high starting point. Graduating from Harvard, Cambridge, Peking University, or the University of Tokyo sounded impressive, didn’t it? With a PhD, he’d be respected anywhere.

……

Henry Carter didn’t want to participate in club activities—that was his personal choice. Ryan Smith had only known him for just over a week and found it hard to persuade him, while James Walker was still marveling and asked if Henry Carter would be willing to pass him a cheat sheet during exams, offering two idol photo books in exchange.

Henry Carter ignored his nonsense and just looked at Ryan Smith’s hesitant expression, asking curiously, “What’s wrong, Mr. Smith? Will my not joining club activities have a bad effect? If you have something to say, just say it.”

“Ah, well… Actually, I have a personal favor to ask. I hope Mr. Carter can help me out…”

Chapter 5: Smelly and Dirty Sports

In the blink of an eye, it was already 3:40 p.m. The regular classes at school were over for the day. After that, students could do whatever they wanted—join club activities, go to part-time jobs, attend cram schools off campus, or even sneak home early. No one would care, since there was no evening self-study. Time was your own now; waste it and you’re responsible. School was a place for teaching and nurturing, not a babysitting service!

The classroom was already noisy. Henry Carter was still chewing on his pen, pondering a math problem. Japanese high schools also divide students into arts and sciences, mainly focusing on the depth of subjects studied. For example, in math, science students need to study Math 1, Math 1A, Math 2, Math 2A, Math 2B, and even Math 3 for advanced science students, while arts students only need to go up to Math 2.

Similarly, for Japanese literature and history, the situation is reversed for arts and science students.

Japanese university admissions basically use a system similar to China’s independent admissions. There’s also a national academic qualification exam, but that’s just a basic requirement. For the real entrance exams, you have to take each university’s test, and the papers are set by the professors at each school, so there’s no standardization. The focus and depth for certain subjects vary greatly, and some even require a professional foundation.

Starting in February each year, college entrance exam students begin taking university entrance exams, one after another, until they’ve finished all the schools they’re interested in. The university admission rate in Japan—excluding junior colleges and vocational schools—is about 50%.

A 2:1 ratio doesn’t sound too hard, but when it comes to world-ranked top universities, it suddenly becomes 500:1, 1700:1, and so on. You still have to fight hard.

“Hey, Mr. Carter, time to go.” Ryan Smith stood at the door, quietly calling out to Henry Carter, who reluctantly glanced at the unsolved problem before starting to pack his workbooks into his bag.

The Japanese college entrance exam has many variations, but in the end, it’s all about the scores. However, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (similar to China’s Ministry of Education) stuffed schools with a bunch of miscellaneous courses that aren’t tested in the entrance exams. Schools, in turn, have their own ways of dealing with this: while teaching the core academic subjects, they rush through things like folk arts, home economics, and moral education. By the end of the first year of high school, those who have mastered the basics, have excellent academic ability, and high deviation scores are selected into the advanced class, and from then on, they focus solely on sprinting toward prestigious universities.