Blonde hair is becoming very popular

But today in Tokyo's trendy Shibuya district, blonde school students can be seen lounging away the school afternoon in video games parlours. High school girls in mini-skirts and baggy white socks have become national fashion leaders.

If it looks to some like a refreshing dose of freedom, to others it looks like the end of civilisation.

"The Japanese education system is breaking down," said Otohiko Endo of Komeito, a party in the governing coalition.

"More and more pupils are not going to school at all, violence and bullying are increasing. This is not a long-term problem for Japan, it's imminent."

Religious debate

A rash of spectacularly violent crimes by teenage boys last year prompted the government to take action. It set up an advisory committee to recommend an overhaul of the entire education system.

Religion should not be imposed on anyone from above

Buddhist priest Takeharu Nishirai

Among the proposals were compulsory community service for high school students and an infusion of traditional moral values into the curriculum. The government is hoping to pass the reforms into law in the current parliamentary session.

But some of the proposals have raised suspicions about true intentions.

Students know little about Shinto's past

The Shinto religion was once central to Japanese identity, but since World War II it has been off the curriculum.

Young Japanese go to shrines to pray for luck in their exams, but for them Shinto is just a folk superstition - they know little of its past association with extreme nationalism and emperor worship.

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has talked about the need for religious instruction in the classroom - but for some Japanese that brings back memories of a time when the state enforced Shinto and used it to inspire fanatical loyalty to the emperor.

Demands for freedom

"The prime minister talks about God and religion but he was only a child during the war," said Buddhist priest Takeharu Nishirai, a school principal in his 70s. "Religion should not be imposed on anyone from above."

Despite the controversy over religion, many Japanese agree there should be some moral and even spiritual element to education. There is widespread concern that the current education system has lost its sense of purpose.

Japanese school students hanging out in their video arcades and cafes reflect a rapidly changing society, but their demands for more freedom are seen by many as egotism and selfishness.

And that is feeding nostalgia for the past and leading to what some see as a conservative backlash.