ASKBOX

[harmonizemods]

Feel free to leave questions in the comments here. Comments are screened by default in order to allow questions involving character spoilers or other private information. Please mark "public" or "private" in the comment title, as the answers to public questions will be posted below.

• What are current fashions and hairstyles like? Is there any particular look that is frowned upon compared to present day?
  
  As you might expect, the fashions being pushed "from above", so to speak, tend to be fairly conservative, even old-fashioned. The sort of previously-fashionable pseudo-counterculture looks one might currently find in Shibuya or Harajuku are losing ground and generally looked down upon by older people, but there's still a certain streak of rebellion among certain members of the younger generation, meaning that such styles aren't entirely unheard of.
  
  (If you need more details, please let me know, and I'll try to hunt down some specifics.)
  
  
• If a student passes the entrance exam to Chitoku Academy, does the government require them to attend? Do they put any kind of pressure on the parent/guardian to encourage their child's attendance?
  
  Attendance is not mandatory, and it's not unheard of for a student to refuse. For most families, the opportunity for their child to participate in such an exclusive, prestigious project (with practically-guaranteed entrance to a good university and possible government employment at the end) is motivation enough for them to put pressure of their own on the potential student. Only candidates who have the Potential or are particularly gifted receive an additional push from the government, but even then, they still have the option to refuse.