Dear Diary Boy

"A heart-wrenching, revelatory and shocking memoir that opens a fascinating window into the world of traditional Japanese education." —Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and Political Tribes

An intensely personal, heartwarming, and heartbreaking chronicle of one mother and child’s struggle to fit in at a prestigious private elementary school in Japan.

When her five-year-old son passed the rigorous entrance exams to one of Japan's top private elementary schools, Makihara, a single mother, thought they were on their way. Taro would wear the historic dark blue uniform and learn alongside other little Einsteins while she basked in the glory of his high achievements with the other perfect moms. Together they would climb the rungs into the country's successful elite.

But it didn't turn out that way. Taro had other things in mind. While set in Japan, their struggles in the school's hyper-competitive environment mirror those faced by parents here in the US and raise the same questions about the best way to educate a child—especially one that doesn’t quite fit the mold. Public or private? Competitive or nurturing? Standardized or individualized. Helicopter parenting or free-range? Amid this frenzied debate, how does one find balance and maintain a healthy parent-child relationship?

Dear Diary Boy is an intensely personal, heartwarming, and heartbreaking chronicle of one mother and child's experience in a prestigious private Tokyo school. It's a tale that will resonate with all parents as we try to answer the age-old questions of how best to educate our children and what, truly, is in their best interests versus what is in our own.

Kumiko Makihara’ s work has appeared in the International Herald Tribune, the New York Times Magazine, and Newsweek, as well as in the books Reimagining Japan: The Quest for a Future That Works and Tsunami: Japan’ s Post Fukushima Future. She previously was a reporter for Time Magazine and the Associated Press and a features editor at the Moscow Times. She resides in New York City and Tokyo.

Deborah Fallows is the author of several books, including Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, and Language, and most recently Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America.