cliques?

i'm a 16 year old guy going to high school in canada, and i was wondering...
canadian teenagers aren't all the same, some are preppy, some are lazy, some are goth, emo, loners, posers, gangsta, popular, metal heads. everybody fits in with a certain crowd.
is it a lot or a little the same in japan?
what "cliques" do japanese teens have?
what are the most popular?

are there "good" and "bad" cliques?

Sorry, I don't know about specific cliques....but I know bullying is a major problem in Japanese schools.

In Japanese high schools its a bit harder to tell, because nearly all schools have a dress code.

So... the only way a guy can make himself stand out seems to be by his hair or accessories.

Not just a dress code but a uniform. Once in university though Japanese people often tend towards some kind of subculture and dress accordingly.

Whoops, my bad. Wrong wording. :)

im going to a highschool in kagoshima right now and...the clique thing here is just weird.there seems to only be one big clique .it kinda seems to me that you are either "in" or you are alone. everything in my school is based on the group which feels completely backwards to most westerners...


but i could be wrong :)

Actually, huh, your observation is probably correct. I have heard something of Japanese culture being a "groupist" culture. For example, instead of a Japanese person who grew up in Japan reffering to him/herself as "I", as westerners tend to do, he/she will most likely say "we" in reference to the whole group/country.

(Sorry if my explanation sounds somewhat confusing.)