30% experience it as in the past? The “second button” custom that even the Z and Alpha generations are getting into… a surprising reason why young people are re-evaluating.

80% of young people are aware of the “second button

We are in the midst of the graduation season. Many people may have an image of the “second button” when it comes to graduation ceremonies. This is a standard custom for those of a certain age, but do today’s teenagers know about this custom?

Kancho Students’ Uniform, a well-known major school uniform manufacturer, conducted a survey of 1,200 junior and senior high school students, entitled “[Latest in 2026] Graduation Ceremony Trend Survey: Is the Second Button Outdated? According to the survey, the second button is no longer worn.

According to this survey, 80.6% of the respondents answered “Do you know the custom of the second button?” 80.6% of the respondents answered “Yes” to the question “Do you know the custom of the second button? Furthermore, 27.2% of respondents have actually received or given a second button, or about one in four, and the figure rises to 30.8% if limited to junior high school students only.

Young People Re-editing Showa Culture

In this era of Reiwa, why does the custom of the second button still persist among junior high and high school students, who are digital natives and are known as Generation Z and Generation Alpha?　We interviewed Atsushi Kogoma, Professor at the School of Management, Sanno University of Business Administration and author of “The Alpha Generation: Creating New Consumption and ‘Metacognitive Power’ to Think with Answers” (Nikkei BP), who conducts research on Generation Z and Alpha.

He said, “Looking at the results of the survey, my impression is that awareness is higher than I realized. When I asked my seminar students at the university, about 90% of them knew about it, and about 10% had actually received or given it as a gift. The reason they knew about it was through manga and anime, and I suspect that the junior high and high school students in this survey also know about it through the same process,” said Kozuma.

It seems that the custom of the second button is passed down from generation to generation through entertainment content such as manga and anime, or dramas and movies.

And even though they are aware of the custom, why would Gen Z and Gen α, who are digital natives, actually give a physical gift of a uniform button when so many of their experiences are conducted through digital media such as social networking services?

For this generation, SNS is a “for now” tool, and they tend to value things that will remain as memories. For example, they often dare to develop their own photos or send letters to their loved ones.

Another characteristic of this generation is that they do not have a sense of “old = lame. They dig up content that is good even if it is old and enhance its value by adding a little more work to it. I see a lot of people re-editing and enjoying old customs and content.

It seems that Generations Z and α do not consider the second button itself to be old and tacky, but rather they incorporate it according to their own sense of value, add value to it, and enjoy it. Perhaps they are more updated than the older generation in terms of their awareness of things.

Neckties and nametags?　Graduation Ceremony in Reiwa

So, from the perspective of the teachers who instruct the students, have these customs changed?

A teacher at a public junior high school in Tokyo said, “I have never heard about the second button because our school uniform is a blazer. Instead, boys seem to give or receive neckties and girls ribbons.” In addition to the second button, other items are also exchanged as commemorative or memorable items.

Mr. Komaba added , “When I ask current seminar students, it seems that not only the second button, but also nameplates and jerseys are sometimes given or taken over,” indicating that the exchange of things is alive and well.

On the other hand, a teacher at another public junior high school said, “We instruct students not to take buttons and other items as much as possible because we sometimes use them as recycled uniforms. In some cases, the exchange of buttons is restricted, as some schools and PTAs are in charge of recycled uniforms, so I guess there are some schools where buttons cannot be exchanged.

When we asked “Sakuraya,” which handles such recycled uniforms, about the availability of a second button for the uniforms, they replied , “Our store is for reuse and to be worn by students at the school, so we have almost never had a missing button on a uniform we receive. Looking at it from the aspect of recycled uniforms, we can see a different “button situation” from the custom of the second button. This is also a theme we would like to explore at another time.

In fact, about 30% of the students had experienced this in the past and still do today?

Finally, when asked to look back on his junior high and high school years, the aforementioned Mr. Komoma gave some surprising (?) impressions. He gave us a surprising (?) impression.

I was born in 1960, graduated from junior high school in 1976, and from high school in 1979.

I remember that this custom started because of a movie in 1960. (*According to the website of Kanko Student Uniform, there is a theory that the movie “Preparatory Rally Story: Far Away in the Azure Sky” was released in 1960.) In other words, by the time I graduated from school, the “fashion had come full circle.

I also remember that even though most people in my generation were aware of the custom of wearing a second button, only about 30% of them actually received or gave it to others. In other words, the percentage of my generation and the current generation who have received or given a second button is probably the same.

The author of this article was born in 1980. Indeed, looking back on the graduation ceremonies of my junior high school days, I remember that the number of people who gave or received buttons was not all, but less than half, perhaps around 30%.

In other words, it may be that the custom has remained as a custom even though times have changed, and the percentage of people actually exchanging buttons has not actually changed.

The custom of wearing a second button started in the 1960s, and although it has become old-fashioned, it has been handed down through the influence of manga and anime, etc. This may be a transitional period in which a new generation, which enjoys re-editing old culture, is trying to create a new sense of values.

I, myself, once gave a button to a junior high school girl after she begged me to do so. I hope that the custom of the second button will continue for a long time to come, as I would like to cherish (and sometimes boast to the younger generation about) this most successful experience in my life for the rest of my life.