“Rōnin life sucks.”
If you hear a Japanese person say this today, they’re doing two things. First, they’re using a Japanese word without a direct English equivalent: rōnin (浪人). Second, they’re giving an old word a modern meaning.
Rōnin historically means “masterless samurai.” But nobody today is a samurai, let alone a masterless one. So who are the modern-day rōnin? [1]
Ask Google and it will give you no answer for what rōnin means in modern Japanese society. Collins Dictionary is stuck in the feudal period too. So are the films Ronin (1998) starring Robert De Niro and 47 Ronin (2013) starring Keanu Reeves.
The following article discusses sensitive issues such as abuse and suicide. Please proceed to read with caution. If you or a loved one is in need of help, phone numbers for support are listed below the article.
The modern rōnin : fighting…to go to school
So here’s the updated definition.
Rōnin: a high school graduate who has failed university admissions and is consequently studying for another year to retake entrance exams.
There’s also shūshoku-rōnin (就職浪人) – “university graduates who have yet to find a job.” Judging by employment rates in the U.S., shūshoku-rōnin could soon be an alternative to “in debt and jobless.” [2]
But any way you describe it, for many, rōnin life sucks.
The unglamorous life of the modern rōnin
Why is rōnin hard to translate directly? Why doesn’t the English word “gap year” come even remotely close? A peak into the life of a rōnin will tell you why.
Schedule-wise, people expect rōnin to dedicate the majority of their day to studying – every day. Kawaijuku – one of Japan’s biggest tutoring schools and standardized test makers – shows what a day in the life of a rōnin should look like on their official website. There you see a former rōnin’s recommended schedule of logging 10 hours of study on both weekdays and weekends. [3]
A rōnin can spend their long study hours either at home or at tutoring schools – which cost a lot. It takes ¥100,000 ($718) just to join a tutoring school like Kawaijuku. Lesson fees exceed admissions costs. So being a rōnin isn’t just time-consuming. It consumes your money too.
And let’s not forget how emotionally consuming it can be to see your peers move on. Meanwhile, you’re left wandering in between your bygone high school days and future university life.
This idea of a lack of belonging lies at the heart of the word rōnin. The kanji character used for rō (浪) means wandering, while nin (人) means person. Even before rōnin referred to masterless samurai, it signified people who left their birthplace to wander about to evade taxes. [1]
Approximately 19% of all newly enrolled university students in 2022 were rōnin according to data released by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Anybody 19 or older can be considered as rōnin because the age of general university admissions is 18. So understandably, when we look at the data, the biggest age group of university admissions is 18. Rōnin numbers peak at 19 and then sharply decline after age 20. [4]
The data also shows there are more male rōnin than female rōnin. The Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research shares insight into the difference between the two genders’ rōnin numbers. They suggest that women do not perform as well under pressure and therefore don’t go back for another exam.
Another theory they propose is that the financial returns that a woman gets from graduating from a prestigious university is lower than that of a man’s. That creates less incentive for women to wager more time and money on the rōnin life. [5]
Spending years wandering
The most competitive schools in Tokyo have high rates for rōnin. Waseda University has a rōnin rate of 32%. For Keio University, it’s 38%. A partial reason as to why certain schools produce more rōnin is because some Japanese families are toxically insistent on their children getting into them. [6]
The hashtag “#慶應虐待” – which translates to “Keio abuse” – trended last year on Twitter. Lawyer Atsushi Takashima wrote an article on how parents pressure their children to pass the Keio entrance exams. That pressure starts as early as elementary school.
For those who can’t gain entrance to the Keio system through the elementary, junior, and high school exams, university admissions are their last chance. But since there is no limit to how many retakes you can get for university exams, people can spend years as a rōnin – desperate to succeed at their last chance. [7]
Take, for example, the widely publicized story of Dr. Maeshima Takako, who spent 7 years as a rōnin until she passed her university entrance exams to pursue a medical degree. She’s an extraordinary example of how dedicated rōnin can be. [8]
Connecting online with other rōnin
Modern examples of rōnin like Dr. Takako go unseen by Westerners, who only know rōnin in their hyper-Japanese samurai form. The difference between Japanese and Western understandings of rōnin today can be seen by searching up the hashtag for rōnin in Japanese and English.
Results for the Japanese hashtag “＃浪人生と繋がりたい – which translates to “# I want to connect with other rōnin” – display images of study notebooks filled with writing from one side to the other, signaling lives of intense studying. Results for “＃浪人生” – “#rōnin life” – shows posts from people struggling to enter Keio and Waseda.
On the other hand, the English hashtag for #ronin are tagged on photos of idealized samurai.
Having an incomplete understanding of the word “rōnin” could potentially mean that you are remaining unaware of your peers’ past or current struggles in school. Rōnin life can take a toll on one’s mental well-being, as suicide risks are high among rōnin students. [9]
The duality of the word rōnin tells an essential story about two different times of Japan: the distant past and now. However, the original “wandering” element of the word has persisted to the present. Understanding how a modern rōnin can feel as lost as a masterless samurai once was can be especially important to navigating relationships you might forge in Japan.
If you or a loved one are suicidal or in need of lifeline support, please call the following numbers:
TELL Lifeline (Japan – English) – 03-5774-0992
988 Lifeline (United States)
[1] van Swet, Floris. “Finding a Place: RōNin in the Tokugawa Period.” Harvard University, United States, Massachusetts, 2019. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/docview/2466350032.
[2] Tanzi, Alex. “Young U.S. College Graduates Face Tougher Job Market Than Average.” TIME, 30 July 2022, https://time.com/6202331/college-graduates-job-market/.
[3] https://www.kawai-juku.ac.jp/admission/cnt/lyear/
[4] https://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/toukei/chousa01/kihon/1267995.htm
[5] https://www.tkfd.or.jp/research/detail.php?id=4172
[6] https://www.takeda.tv/kabe/blog/post-250243/
[7] https://www.bengo4.com/c_18/n_12578/
