In Japanese schools, the small jobs students do are not usually seen as helping teachers with chores. Handing out worksheets, erasing the blackboard, feeding classroom animals, or watering plants are simply part of keeping the class running.
Some of the most common tasks are closely tied to lessons. Students may distribute papers, clean the board, or take care of simple classroom duties when it is their turn. The assumption is not that the teacher should do everything while students only sit and learn. Certain everyday tasks are shared among the students themselves.
Once a job has been assigned, however, forgetting it does not always get dismissed with “They’re only children.” A teacher may remind the student, or a classmate may say, “It’s your turn today.” These are not major responsibilities, but there is still an expectation that if something is your job, you should do it.
The same applies to animals and plants. Students are not necessarily thinking, “This is teaching me responsibility.” If the class keeps an animal, someone has to feed it. If they are growing plants, someone has to water them. Those jobs are divided among the students because they simply need to be done. The animal, after all, does not care that someone forgot whose turn it was.
To someone unfamiliar with Japanese schools, all of this can look like a carefully designed lesson in responsibility and cooperation. It may have that effect, but students themselves often experience it much more simply: “It’s my turn today,” or “This is my job.” Duties like these are woven so naturally into school life that they rarely feel like a deliberate lesson in responsibility.