Last month, KOKUYO's official Instagram account announced, "We're hosting a survey for our followers and are looking for theme ideas!" We received a variety of ideas from nearly 50 people (we'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who cooperated! Thank you so much!).

With excited cries of joy, the "insiders" and the KOKUYO Magazine staff held a strategy meeting and decided to start by answering the concerns of many middle and high school students about how to use different notebooks. They immediately conducted the following four surveys regarding how to use different notebooks. (We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated in the surveys!)

This time, we asked our followers the following four questions:

1. How do you decide on the color of your notebooks for each subject?

2. What do you do about the lines in your notebooks for each subject?

3. What kind of notes do you use for each subject? (Notebook, loose-leaf paper, or other)

4. Do you have any special techniques for taking notes or loose-leaf paper for each subject?

I thought about combining the four surveys into one article titled "How to use notebooks," but we received so many passionate and inspiring comments from the respondents that we decided to present each survey separately as a "How to use notebooks series"!

This is the first time we'll be talking about "color-coding your notebooks by subject"!

Results announced! The overwhelming majority of people chose warm colors for humanities subjects and cool colors for science subjects.

We first asked what colors they use for the five main subjects, and 153 people responded.

The results showed that 91 % of respondents chose red/pink for Japanese, 96 % chose blue for math, 73 % chose yellow for social studies, and 80 % chose green for science. For English, 43 % chose purple, and about 20 % each chose red/pink and yellow.

In subjects other than English, the results showed that more than three​-quarters of students chose the same color. Incidentally, I entered junior high school about 30 years ago (!), and we still used the same color coding. Is this a common sensibility among Japanese people, regardless of generation?

Let's explore the reasons for this.

Does the color of the textbook determine the image of the subject?

Japanese is pink and math is blue, or rather, they match the colors of the textbooks.

When choosing notebooks for class, I try to choose designs and colors that I think suit the subject!

Use notebooks in colors similar to those in your textbook

The textbooks at the cram school I attended in junior high were divided into five subjects, so I decided on the color of my notebook based on that!

I color-code each subject based on my general idea of what I want to learn!

I'm pretty sure this was the color scheme for my elementary school textbooks, and I still use it even now that I'm a university student.

Many of the respondents said they chose the color based on their vague image of the subject, so it may be that the color of the textbook has a deep psychological influence.

What about color-coded questions for class and self-study?

Although this survey was divided by subject, some people responded that they color-code their notes for class and self-study, even for the same subject.

For problem exercises, I use books with black covers so that they don't overlap with other books!

I use books that mainly feature black for my workbooks and supplementary subjects!

I have a lot of notebooks that I use for one subject, such as workbooks and blackboard notes, so I separate them by the pattern of the cover.

I use a set of five notebooks of the same color for self-study!

When it comes to notebooks for practice questions, tests, and reviewing mock exams, I choose notebooks with cute designs and my favorite colors for subjects I don't feel motivated to study (or am not very good at), lol, to help motivate me even just a little!!

We all have subjects that make us unmotivated. A cute notebook to boost your motivation is a great idea!

Also, the way you approach studying changes between when you're in class and when you're studying on your own. By changing the color of your notebook, you can refresh your approach.

Unique ideas for high school students with an increasing number of subjects

When students reach high school, different subjects such as modern Japanese, classical Japanese, and Chinese literature appear within the Japanese language curriculum. We received some ideas on how to overcome the color coding issues that cannot be addressed with just five colors.

Science is divided into physics, chemistry, and biology, so the books are all the same color and marked on the spine.

They are separated by the color of the spine, not the cover!

If the spine of a book is a different color than the cover, I stick masking tape of the same color as the cover on top so that I can easily identify it even when it's on a bookshelf.

In high school, it's not possible to classify books by the color of the notebook itself, so I use masking tape on the spine to classify subjects like Japanese and English, and then classify subjects like modern Japanese, classics, and English expression by the color of the notebook cover (pink for modern Japanese, blue for classics, etc.)!!

Among the people who responded this time were school teachers.

I match the colors to the spines of textbooks and the notebooks my children use. As an elementary school teacher, my children use grid notebooks, but when it comes to notebooks I make in advance, the only color I choose is Campus ♡!!

Thank you ♡!!

Use your favorite or bright colors for subjects you are not good at

Although there are only a few, we would like to introduce some interesting opinions.

I like notebooks that are similar in color to kraft paper! I often use notebooks that have different colored binding tape based on that!

White and transparent papers are my thing these days, so I just write the name of the subject on the cover!

I loved lettering the subject names on the cover!

For subjects that I'm not very motivated to study, I paint them in bright colors or my favorite colors to raise my spirits!

One of the responses was, "I want to overcome my weak subjects by choosing a notebook in my favorite color, rather than following the color image of the textbook!" I understand that feeling!

I also did the original lettering on the cover. It's nice when you can do it well.

Looking at the numbers alone, the overwhelming majority of survey results were that humanities subjects preferred warm colors and science subjects preferred cool colors. However, the responses to the question, "Please tell us if you have any other preferences regarding notebook colors!" revealed a wide variety of ways for people to choose notebook colors.

Choosing the color of your notebook is surprisingly complex!

Stay tuned for the next post, where we'll show you how to use different notebook lines for different subjects!

★Real series on how to use notebooks for junior and senior high school students

Part 2: Should you use different types of notebook lines for different subjects?

Part 3: Do you use different types of notebooks depending on the subject?

Part 4: Is there a perfect way to take notes?

Click here for the official Kokuyo Instagram account.