I don't know if all schools in my country where like mine, but we always had to stand up and keep silent when the teacher came in, and not until had he or she say we could sit did we do so. In primary school (mine wasn't the norm), we had to line up by class without uttering a word and if anybody dared to speak, the director would come, take him (it was a boy school) out of the rank and lift him by the cheek till the feet got off the ground, which is very painful. I don't even consider it was military style because there was no solitary confinement, latrine cleaning, press up or beatings. Another difference is that there was no hierarchy (nor is there in Japanese school, to the best of my knowledge).

Does this experience justify my feeling that Japanese school aren't that tough in comparison ?