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Unfortunately, these things get used for something besides harvesting rice from time to time. They are pretty ubiquitous. All of my junior high and high school students had one when I taught there. They were for maintaining the school grounds. I was a little worried I'd said something wrong the first time I walked in to teach a class and everyone had on on their desk.
http://newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/106166.php
Makes you wonder why the guy would attack a 73 year old woman though.
Can you imagine a school in the states requiring junior high and high school students to carry a sickle to help maintain the school grounds? :)
Paul --
Well, here's an article from 1942, when they were teaching knife fighting and grenade throwing in the high schools in the USA. http://content.time.com/time/magazin...886045,00.html
The following year, that sort of thing ended. Teachers, parents, and the police weren't too happy with the concurrent increase in what was then termed "juvenile delinquency." http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/pages/...delinquent.htm