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60% of 1st graders and 20% of 3rd graders change clothes together.

At a plenary session of the city council meeting on August 8, Councilor Sachiko Momoi (Komeito) asked the parents of a female child in the lower grades who complained that she did not like the fact that boys and girls had to change clothes together during PE class. The City Board of Education's answer revealed the situation.

　According to Councilor Momoi, not only female students but also male students have voiced their dissatisfaction, and there are cases where boys are forced to change in the hallway even though the boys and girls are separated. 　According to the municipal board of education, as of May, only 12 of the 28 elementary schools in the city had separate clothing for first graders, 14 for second graders, and 22 for third graders, and all schools for fourth graders and above were taking steps to do so.

　The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's guidelines for the development of elementary school facilities stipulate that "it is important to plan separate locker rooms for boys and girls in locations that are easily accessible to children. However, the city has financial difficulties in providing locker rooms, so they are using vacant classrooms to provide separate classrooms for boys and girls, switching boys and girls in the same classroom at different times, and partitioning the classrooms with curtains or partitions. 　

Mr. Shingo Oda, Director of the Education and General Affairs Department, introduced at the plenary session that there are two elementary schools that use curtains to partition off the inside of the classrooms for changing. He said that it costs 200,000-300,000 yen per classroom to maintain the curtains, and he recognized that the budget available at the discretion of each school could handle the problem. For schools that do not have gender-segregated curtains, he said he would inform them of precedents set by other schools. 　Tomohiro Kiriyama, Director of the Educational Guidance Department, also explained that teachers are needed to watch over younger students when they change clothes for safety reasons. He said, "We would like to carefully respond to each school's situation so that the children can engage in activities with peace of mind.

Source: https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/93c7c2cc23c1d4ccdcb593f90bb9c392b0041839