(19 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tokyo, Japan – 19 January 2025
1. Various of children with their sorobans (abacuses) while a Shinto priest prays
2. Various of children standing in front of a long soroban
3. Children finding their spot
4. Pan from event organiser announcing the start of the event to various of children doing the sums using a long soroban, UPSOUND (Japanese) "We are going to start. Six yen plus three yen, minus eight yen"
5. Close of hands on soroban, pan to the right
6. Zoom out of 9-year-old Yukino Hirano holding her soroban, which she has been using for four years
7. Boy smiling as he is shown how to use an old version of a soroban
8. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Yukino Hirano, 9-year-old soroban learner:
"It feels good when it makes the sound when you move the beads."
9. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Naoki Ogiya, standing committee member of the League for Soroban Education of Japan:
"Soroban was originally used at homes as a calculator. When smartphones and electronic calculators were introduced, its role shifted but for children’s development of their brains and sharpening their concentration, I think it is still an effective tool."
10. Ogiya showing old sorobans to a girl
11. Various sorobans on display
12. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Kosei Sugimoto, 10-year-old who holds a soroban rank:
"I was first amused with the sound it makes and got addicted to it since then. I was practicing soroban until my nursery bus came to pick me up. By practicing in my spare time, my skills improved even more."
13. Close of an older version of soroban
14. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Kenji Tani, senior member of the League for Soroban Education of Japan:
"In the middle of Asia and Europe, when the Mesopotamian civilization flourished in the Middle East, people started to draw a line in the sand and placed small pebbles next to it in order to calculate. That is what is believed to be the origin of sorobans."
15. Close of childrens’ hands on a long soroban
STORYLINE:
Young children gathered at a Tokyo shrine, Sunday, to pray for their calculation skills to be improved.
More than a hundred children, aged from 5 to 10, knelt down in front of abacuses, known as sorobans, as a priest said prayers.
‘Sorobans’ are familiar to most of the older generations in Japan as it was used to count the gains and losses in business before computers were introduced.
Nowadays, while not often taught at schools it remains a popular extracurricular activity for children.
Many are first amused with the sound it makes when one flips a bead up or down when counting.
Ten year old Kosei Sugimoto said he found it amusing at first but now is "addicted" to it.
"I was practicing soroban until my nursery bus came to pick me up. By practicing in my spare time, my skills improved even more."
Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division – there is a lot you can do, but it is not only for sums, says Kenji Tani, a member of the League for Soroban Education of Japan.
"It is how you visualise numbers which helps with one’s development".
According to Tani, its history goes back to the days when Mesopotamian civilization was flourishing in the Middle East.
Once hitting the limit to count, people started drawing a line in the sand and placing pebbles – which is believed to be the origin.
Having their own ‘sorobans’ cleansed and prayed by a priest at Yushima Tenjin, a Shinto shrine, the children practiced their skills competing with each other at the event.
AP video Mayuko Ono
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