Senior High School Required Attendance too much in Japan

One of my teenage children is currently studying abroad. He's in the equivalent of Senior High School in Japan. It is called "Secondary School" in the country where he is currently studying. It has been an eye opener. I have always thought Senior High School is far too intense here, but now it is evident just how much harder Japanese High School is than in Europe.

The school he is attending abroad uses an App to communicate with parents. In the App there is an area for "Attendance." Moreover, it has a counter which tracks the amount of days they have attended and missed. What I found particularly interesting is that it gives the total number of days they are required to be in school for the WHOLE YEAR and it is just 168 days. That is less than half the number of days in a year. Proper order, in my opinion.

Meanwhile in Japan, the school doesn't provide the total number of days, but we were able to work out a rough estimate. Because he goes to a private high school, he has school every Saturday. He only gets three weeks off in spring, roughly two weeks at the New Year, and five weeks in summer. So that's 42 weeks he goes to school, six days each week, minus the national holidays. That's roughly 236 school days a year.

That works out at 68 extra school days a year in Japan than in Europe. However, then there's afterschool club culture in Japan. Because he is in soccer club, when he's in Japan, he goes to school most Sundays and holidays! I remember in his first term of school in Japan he was literally at school every day from the entrance ceremony (April 8th) to the middle of July. It is way too much in my personal opinion. What do you think?