In an attempt to prepare young people for citizenship, both Japan and the United States continue to struggle to achieve the proper balance between rights and responsibilities. But surprisingly, students have more freedom in this regard than their teachers.
A precedent was set when three students wore black armbands to express their opposition to the Vietnam War, and were suspended. But in 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District ruled that students do not shed their First Amendment rights to free speech at the schoolhouse gate.
Since then, the burden has been on public school officials to show that any policy to restrict free speech by students is necessary to avoid substantial interference with school discipline or the rights of others. The result has been a loosening of rules pertaining to student expression that was unthinkable in the decades before.