"True freedom lies within the constructs of society."
—Shujin Academy, Persona 5
Shujin Academy, known in the Japanese version as Shujin High School (秀尽学園高校, Shūjin Gakuen Kōkō)?, is one of the main settings of Persona 5. It is an elite prep school located in Aoyama-Itchome neighborhood in Tokyo.
Shujin Academy is the school which the protagonist and most other members of the Phantom Thieves attend. It is a prestigious upper to middle class school, with higher-ups that only care for its public image instead of its students well-being, and the number of employees who actually care about the student's welfare are a handful few. The students attending Shujin can arrange from young people from middle class families to siblings of media and corporation moguls. It's also the only school which accepted the protagonist due to his criminal record.
The principal of Shujin is Kobayakawa. He is a greedy and lazy man with connections to Masayoshi Shido. The students do not hold him in a high regard due to his mistreatment against them, especially when Suguru Kamoshida was coaching the volleyball team, where he allowed him to do anything he wanted to. He was promptly assassinated when his investigation of the Phantom Thieves failed and his crimes were exposed. After Kobayakawa was assassinated, the vice principal took his place.
The three-floored building is split between the main campus and the practical building. A large gymnasium also serves as an assembly hall. The floors indicate years in reverse: first year classes are on the third floor, while third years on the first. Students are supposedly prohibited from entering the rooftop, although the entrance was left unlocke. The initial Phantom Thieves took advantage of this and used it as their initial hideout. However, it was later locked due to the school realizing students were breaching it.
The first floor has a co-op selling bread and three vending machines: one near the co-op and two at the practical building. The second floor houses the faculty room, the principal's office and meeting room. The third floor is where the student council room, the library and the stairway to the rooftop are located.
The school according to Kamoshida's cognition.
When the protagonist first entered Shujin, Kamoshida was allowed by the principal to do basically anything he wanted to do for the sole reason that he was an Olympic medalist, resulting in the mass disbanding of all sports teams but the volleyball team. He then uses his position to assault his athletes (Sometimes even outright visible to crowds of students,) train them in absolutely brutal ways comparable to torture, sexually harass (or occasionally, molest) his female athletes, and spread unfavorable fabricated rumors against students he doesn't like. His unbridled egotism and sense of untouchability and immunity had resulted in him thinking that the school was his castle, forming Kamoshida's Palace. This forces the protagonist, Ryuji Sakamoto and Ann Takamaki to use the Metaverse so Kamoshida can be exposed and discredited, as nobody else is willing, or dares doing so.
The protagonist cannot visit Shujin Academy past November 18 (The deadline for sending the calling card to Sae) due to having to cover himself up with a fake death, although he is given one last opportunity to visit it on December 22. He can still freely access Confidants that are found at the school during this time.
In Persona 5 Royal, After Kamoshida's defeat and exposure, the school does methods to amend for its mistake, starting by hiring Takuto Maruki for 7 months as a counselor. Ryuji distrusts him at first, but he opens up to him quickly since his kindness truly meant it, establishing his image in Shujin as one of the employees who actually do care for the student's welfare. Within these 7 months, all student members of the Phantom Thieves meet him to soothe their feelings, and the protagonist assists him in completing his psientific research. The school then organizes a cleaning trip on May 30th to further amend, although this trip was considered by its students to be boring. Rumors about the school planning to ditch any honorary students who do not live up to the school's expectations also began to spread, heavily implied to result in Kasumi Yoshizawa's scholarship revocation in October because she didn't perform like Kasumi.
The school now acts as Alice Hiiragi's trauma room in Shibuya's Jail, containing a Lock Keeper that must be destroyed to remove the barricade preventing the party from approaching Shadow Alice. The Lock Keeper in that area takes the form of one of Alice's school bullies who can be seen trampling her and taking pictures of the humiliation.
Shiho Suzui: Second year. Volleyball athlete, transferred schools after Kamoshida is exposed to cope with his abuse against her.
Eiko Takao: A student in Makoto's Confidant events.
Nakaoka: A student in Ryuji's Confidant events.
Takeishi: A student in Ryuji's Confidant events.
Nishiyama: Ann questioned him about his involvement with the mafia. Once her poor acting fails, the protagonist takes over and found that the victim is actually Iida.
Iida: A victim of Junya Kaneshiro's scams. He was told to deliver a drugged envelope for a hefty paycheck and Kaneshiro's henchmen threatened him for exposure afterwards.
Daisuke Takanashi: A target in Mementos. He is an infamous school bully that Mishima requested the Phantom Thieves to remove.
Yoshimori Sakoda: A target in Mementos. It turns out that Daisuke was merely a pawn of Yoshimori who blackmailed him for exposure of his bullying if he stopped it.
Yumeko Mogami: A target in Mementos. She is a crazy, love-obsessed girl that can be seen stalking her boyfriend and recording him with a phone in a hallway on the ground floor.
Ikesugi: Yumeko's obsession.
Newspaper Club student: She updates the protagonist with goings-on at school.
The school's name is a homophone of the Japanese word for prisoner, shūjin (囚人). However, the school's name is written with completely different characters, making it merely an oral pun. This was confirmed as a deliberate choice by Katsura Hashino in 2015.[1]
The logo also ties into the prison themes. It resembles a police badge, as if the students are forced to submit and abide by the law. It contains a section sign (§) which references legal code and judicial system. The same symbol is the necklace of Sae Niijima.
Unlike Gekkoukan High School and Yasogami High School where the protagonist can make social links with many students in their schools, the only non-party student Confidant that the protagonist can make in Shujin Academy is Yuuki Mishima, due to most students distancing from him because of his criminal record.
After school, the protagonist can draw the Phantom Thieves of Hearts logo on the blackboard of his class. If he does so, depending on the game's progress, the reception by the students will be different. The responses start out with doubts at early game, then positive at mid-game, and finally end with negative responses at the endgame.
The designs of some of the Picaro Personas are reminiscent of the Shujin Academy uniform.
Edit
