The southern islands of Japan resemble Florida in weather and lifestyle. Warmer and more casual than the big cities of Tokyo or Osaka, the city of Kumamoto was a time capsule when I moved there. One of the traditions is the children attend school barefoot. I was amused by this at first, and as a teacher I was required to take my shoes off too. I got use to it.

One of the local medical doctors explained to me that the shoe companies suggested the schools should modernize and force the kids should wear "inside shoes". It is custom to remove your shoes in all homes and some other buildings. Some gyms have you remove your shoes and put on a different pair that is only worn inside. Therefore the filth of the street is not transferred to the floor. One of the things Japanese mothers find disgusting is to watch the American actor kids lying on their bed wearing shoes in our movies. The mother's cringe when they see an American Kid jump on his bed with shoes on and wonder how an American mother can allow their children to pollute their bed with the filth of the outside streets, bathrooms and public places.

The idea of moving to wearing shoes in school led to a rebellion.They felt barefoot kids were healthier kids. A comparision study was done between schools that used inside shoes verse schools where the children attended school and played barefoot.

It should be noted that the playground in the schools had a soft sandy soil that was created to stimulate the soles of the children's feet. The idea was if the feet were strong the ankles were strong, then the knees were strong all the way up to the head. The school's playground toys (Jungle Gyms) had toe and finger holds to help strengthen the body. Schools have a hands free foot washing station for when they returned to classroom. Since the feet were open to air there was little to no occurrence of foot fungus. Something thought of as a foreign disease. To grow fungus you need a moist dark warm place such as a shoe. It should also be noted that in the bathrooms separate sandals used only in the bathroom were placed. Japanese are famous for being a clean people. The hand washing rate after restroom use is near 100% as compared to the US being less than fifty percent.

The result of the study was the barefoot kids had higher grades, much lower absenteeism, less frequency of colds, and enjoyed school more. Also vandalism was much lower. It seems barefoot kids don't break things. Japanese kids are required to clean their own schools. They learn team work, discipline, cleanliness, personal space responsibility and it reduces janitorial fees. Imagine all the money we could save in US schools if we did this. In US democratic schools, where students make the rules, they universally vote barefoot school attendance is permissible.

You may have been noticing many articles the benefits of not wearing shoes ir using barefoot technology shoes. One post surgical knee study found that those going shoeless verse wearing sports shoes found the barefoot patients did much better. It seems the shoes angled the ten percent forward causing the faulty healing.

Another study over seas took hundreds of British and had them half of them put their feet in ice water and the other half in an empty bucket. It seems a higher percentage of iced feet people caught colds. This seems to be true of people those wearing shoes and then having a chill but if ones normal state is barefoot they seem to be healthier.

Studies of cultures that never wear or have worn shoes have found no foot problems outside congenital and injuries. It seems there is less jarring of the back and less back problems with those raised barefoot. I often ask my older patients with good backs if they went barefoot as a youth and they often respond "Yes, we were poor" or "I never liked shoes".

More and more research is pointing that shoes that mimic walking barefoot are better for the body. Running shoes and barefoot friendly shoes are very popular. Changing shoes or shoe style often can cause some foot discomfort as the foot can not decide what to do. Changing to a "barefoot" style shoe without conditioning can lead to injury.

Although in an ideal world it is paved in grass, the reality is we were not made to walk on concrete all day long. However, allowing your children's feet and our own to breath and spread out more can not hurt. More and more studies are alluding that natural or bare is better. Obviously, there are social restrictions but more and more companies are coming out with barefoot technology shoes. In the future all shoes may tend to engineered this way.