culture gap? or child abuse?

today in elementary school we were having a little "rock, paper, scissors" tournament. The teacher told me that the losers would come up to the front of the room at the end and I would have to "punish" them by giving them a slap on the arm in the 1st round and a flick on the forehead in the 2nd round. I just stared at him in shock, not believing what he was saying. He was asking me to HIT my students. Not hard, but STILL. Is it EVER appropriate for a teacher to hit a student? Not in America, that's for sure! The teacher was like, "It's a Japanese game. It won't hurt them that much. They're Japanese. Go on". I gave the kids a light tap to satisfy the teacher, but the whole thing made me feel REALLY uncomfortable and turned off by Japanese culture. What the hell is wrong with this country?! Get me out of here before they warp my mind!