Whether or not these criticisms are merited, others may decide.
Praiseworthy, however, is a practice maintained in at least some Japanese schools: daily physical exercise, usually at the beginning of the school day.
While many American high schools have extensive sports programs, they differ from physical fitness programs in at least two ways.
First, high school athletics do not involve all students. Percentages vary, but at many North American high schools, roughly half of the student body may participate in a school team. Because the sports are seasonal, at any one point during the school year, a smaller segment of the students is engaged in athletic activity.
Second, time spent at sports practice does not always equal time spent in physical exercise. There are long speeches from coaches about strategy and morale, and there is time spent waiting in line to do a certain drill or get to a certain exercise machine.
By contrast, a school-wide exercise program might involve twenty or thirty minutes of calisthenics before the first class of the day - pushups, sit-ups, running, pull-ups, chin-ups, etc.
Administrators can consult athletic trainers, physical therapists, kinesiologists and exercise physiologists to design such a program, and individual students with medical conditions may need alternative programs.
Such programs will be more balanced, in some cases, than team practices for specific sports: addressing more and varied muscle groups, alternating between sudden exertion and endurance, balancing concentric with eccentric and isometric muscle contractions, balancing muscle strengthening with cardiovascular concerns.
The benefits to students are many - increased circulation, steadier metabolism, more alertness early in the morning, less drowsiness later in the day, longer ability for sustained mental focus, etc., all of which lead to better academics.
