Education in Japan

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In Japan,
education is compulsory at the elementary and lower secondary levels.
Virtually all students progress to the upper secondary level, which is
voluntary. Most students attend public schools through the lower secondary
level, but private education is
popular at the upper secondary and university levels. Japan's education system
played a central part in Japan's recovery and rapid
economic growth in the decades following the end of World War II.

After World War II, the Fundamental Law
of Education and the School
Education Law were enacted in 1947 under the direction of the occupation forces.
The latter law defined the school system that is still in effect today: six
years of elementary school,
three years of junior high school, three
years of high school, two or four years of university.

Education prior to elementary school is provided at kindergartens and day-care
centers. Public and private day-care centers take children from under age one on
up to five years old. The programmes for those children ages 3–5 resembles those
at kindergartens. The educational approach at kindergartens varies greatly from
unstructured environments that emphasize play to highly structured environments
that are focused on having the child pass the entrance exam at a private
elementary school.

Contents

1 History

2 Structure

2.1 Junior high
school

2.2 High
school

2.3 Universities and
colleges

3 See also

4 References

5 Further
reading

6 External
links

[edit]
History

Main article: History of
education in Japan

Terakoya for girls in Edo
period

Formal education in Japan began with the adoption of Chinese culture in the
6th century. Buddhist and Confucian teachings as well
as sciences, calligraphy, divination
and literature were taught at the courts of Asuka, Nara and
Heian. Scholar
officials were chosen through an Imperial
examination system. But contrary to China, the system never fully took hold
and titles and posts at the court remained hereditary family possessions. The
rise of the bushi,
the military class, during the Kamakura period ended
the influence of scholar officials, but Buddhist monasteries remained
influential centers of learning.

In the Edo period, the Yushima Seidō in Edo
was the chief educational institution of the state; and at its head was the
Daigaku-no-kami, a title which identified the leader of the Tokugawa
training school for shogunate bureaucrats.[1]

Under the Tokugawa shogunate,
the daimyō vied for power in the
largely pacified country. Since their influence could not be raised through war,
they competed on the economic field. Their warrior-turned-bureaucrat Samurai
elite had to be educated not only in military strategy and the martial arts, but
also agriculture and accounting. Likewise, the wealthy merchant class needed
education for their daily business, and their wealth allowed them to be patrons
of arts and science. But temple schools (terakoya) educated peasants
too, and it is estimated that at the end of the Edo period 50% of the male and
20% of the female population possessed some degree of literacy. Even though
contact with foreign countries was restricted, books from China and Europe were
eagerly imported and Rangaku ("Dutch studies") became
a popular area of scholarly interest.

After the Meiji Restoration of
1868, the methods and structures of Western learning were adopted as a means to
make Japan a strong, modern nation. Students and even high-ranking government
officials were sent abroad to study, such as the Iwakura mission. Foreign
scholars, the so-called o-yatoi gaikokujin,
were invited to teach at newly founded universities and military academies.
Compulsory education was introduced, mainly after the Prussian
model. By 1890, only 20 years after the resumption of full international
relations, Japan discontinued employment of the foreign consultants.

The rise of militarism led to
the use of the education system to prepare the nation for war. The military even
sent its own instructors to schools. After the defeat in World War II, the allied occupation
government set an education
reform as one of its primary goals, to eradicate militarist teachings and
"democratize" Japan. The education system was rebuilt after the American
model.

The end of the 1960s were a time of student protests around the world, and
also in Japan. The main subject of protest was the Japan-U.S.
security treaty. A number of reforms were carried out in the post-war period
until today. They aimed at easing the burden of entrance examinations, promoting
internationalization and information technologies, diversifying education and
supporting lifelong learning.

In successive international tests of mathematics, Japanese
children consistently rank at or near the top (see TIMSS)[2].
The Ministry
of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) is responsible
for educational administration.

[edit]
Structure

The school year in Japan begins in April and classes are held from Monday to
either Friday or Saturday, depending on the school. The school year consists of
three terms, which are separated by short holidays in spring and winter, and a
one month long summer break.[3]

The year structure is summarized in the table below.

Age

Grade

Educational establishments

3-4

Kindergarten
(幼稚園
Yōchien)

Special
school
(特別支援学校 Tokubetsu-shien gakkō)

4-5

5-6

6-7

1

Elementary
school
(小学校 Shōgakkō)
Compulsory Education

7-8

2

8-9

3

9-10

4

10-11

5

11-12

6

12-13

1

Junior high school /
Lower
secondary school
(中学校 chūgakkō)
Compulsory
Education

13-14

2

14-15

3

15-16

1

High school / Upper
secondary school
(高等学校 kōtōgakkō, abbr. 高校 kōkō)

College
of technology
(高専 kōsen)

16-17

2

17-18

3

18-19

University:
Undergraduate
(大学
daigaku; gakushi-katei)

National
Academy
(大学校 daigakkō)

Medical
School
(医学部Igaku-bu）
Veterinary
school
(獣医学部Juigaku-bu)
Dentistry
School
(歯学部Shigaku-bu)
Pharmaceutical
School
(薬学部Yakugaku-bu)
National
Defense Medical College
(防衛医科大学校, Bōei Ika Daigakkō)

Community
College
(短期大学Tanki-daigaku）
Vocational
School
(専門学校 Senmon-gakkō)

19-20

Associate

20-21

21-22

Bachelor

22-23

Graduate
School: Master
(大学院修士課程 daigaku-In；Shu-shi Katei)

National Academy: Master
(大学校修士課程daigakkō;
Shu-shi katei)

23-24

Master

24-25

Graduate
School: Ph.D
(大学院博士課程 daigaku-In；Hakushi Katei)

National
Defense Academy: Ph.D
(防衛大学校博士課程Bōei Daigakkō; Hakushi
katei)

Medical School: Ph.D
(医学博士Igaku
Hakushi)
Veterinary School: Ph.D
(獣医学博士Juigaku
Hakushi)
Dentistry School: Ph.D
(歯学博士Shigaku
Hakushi)
Pharmaceutical School: Ph.D
(薬学博士 Yakugaku
Hakushi)

25-26

26-27

Ph.D

27-28

Ph.D

[edit]
Junior high school

International educational scores (latest,
2007)
(8th graders average score, TIMSS
International Math
and Science Study, 2007)

Countries:
(sample)

Global
rank

Maths

Science

Rank

Score

Rank

Score

Singapore

1

3

593

1

567

Taiwan

2

1

598

2

561

South Korea

3

2

597

4

553

Japan

4

5

570

3

554

Hong Kong

5

4

572

9

530

Hungary

6

6

517

6

539

England

7

7

513

5

542

Czech Republic

8

11

504

7

539

Russia

9

8

512

10

530

Slovenia

10

12

501

8

538

United States

11

9

508

11

520

Lithuania

12

10

506

12

519

Australia

13

14

496

13

515

Sweden

14

15

491

14

511

Armenia

15

13

499

17

488

Italy

18

19

480

16

495

Maths
Highlights from TIMSS 2007
Science
Highlights from TIMSS 2007

A typical classroom in a Japanese junior high
school

Main article: Secondary
education in Japan

Lower secondary school covers grades seven, eight, and nine, children between
the ages of roughly 12 and 15, with increased focus on academic studies.
Although it is still possible to leave the formal education system after
completing junior high school and find employment, fewer than 4% did so by the
late 1980s.

Like elementary schools, most junior high schools in the 1980s were public,
but 5% were private. Private schools were costly, averaging 558,592 yen
(US$3,989) per student in 1988, about four times more than the 130,828 yen
(US$934) that the ministry estimated as the cost for students enrolled in public
junior high school. Teachers often majored in the subjects they taught, and more
than 80% graduated from a four-year college. Classes are large, with
thirty-eight students per class on average, and each class is assigned a
homeroom teacher who doubles as counselor. Unlike elementary students, junior
high school students have different teachers for different subjects. The
teacher, however, rather than the students, moves to a new room for each fifty
or forty-five minute period.

Instruction in junior high schools tends to rely on the lecture method.
Teachers also use other media, such as television and radio, and there is some
laboratory work. By 1989 about 45% of all public junior high schools had
computers, including schools that used them only for administrative purposes.
Classroom organization is still based on small work groups of four to six
students, although no longer for reasons of discipline.

All course contents are specified in the Course of Study for Lower-Secondary
Schools. Some subjects, such as Japanese language and mathematics, are
coordinated with the elementary curriculum. Others, such as foreign-language
study, begin at this level, though from April 2011 English will become a
compulsory part of the elementary school curriculum. The junior school
curriculum covers Japanese language, social studies, mathematics, science,
music, fine arts, health, and physical education. All students are also exposed
to industrial arts and homemaking. Moral education and special activities
continue to receive attention. Most students also participate in one of a range
of school clubs that occupy them until around 6pm most weekdays (including
weekends and often before school as well), as part of an effort to address
juvenile delinquency.

A growing number of junior high school students also attend juku, private extracurricular
study schools, in the evenings and on weekends. A focus by students upon these
other studies and the increasingly structured demands upon students' time have
been criticized by teachers and in the media for contributing to a decline in
classroom standards and student performance in recent years.

The ministry recognizes a need to improve the teaching of all foreign
languages, especially English. To improve instruction in spoken English, the
government invites many young native speakers of English to Japan to serve as
assistants to school boards and prefectures under its Japan Exchange and Teaching
Program. Beginning with 848 participants in 1987, the program grew to a high
of 6,273 participants in 2002.[4]
However, the program has been on the decline in recent years due to several
factors, including shrinking local school budgets funding the program, as well
as an increasing number of school boards hiring their foreign native speakers
directly or through lower-paying, private agencies.[5]

[edit]
High school

A high school class in 1963

Main article: Secondary
education in Japan

Even though upper-secondary
school is not compulsory in Japan, 94% of all junior high school graduates
entered high schools as of 2005[6].
Private upper-secondary schools account for about 55% of all upper-secondary
schools, and neither public nor private schools are free. The Ministry
of Education estimated that annual family expenses for the education of a
child in a public upper-secondary school were about 300,000 yen (US$2,142) in the
1980s and that private upper-secondary schools were about twice as
expensive.

The most common type of upper-secondary school has a full-time, general
program that offered academic courses for students preparing for higher
education as well as technical and vocational courses for students expecting to
find employment after graduation. More than 70% of upper-secondary school
students were enrolled in the general academic program in the late 1980s. A
small number of schools offer part-time programs, evening courses, or
correspondence education.

The first-year programs for students in both academic and commercial courses
are similar. They include basic academic courses, such as Japanese language, English, mathematics, and science. In
upper-secondary school, differences in ability are first publicly acknowledged,
and course content and course selection are far more individualized in the
second year. However, there is a core of academic material throughout all
programs.

Vocational-technical programs includes several hundred specialized courses,
such as information processing, navigation, fish farming, business English, and
ceramics. Business and industrial courses are the most popular, accounting for
72% of all students in full-time vocational programs in 1989.

Most upper-secondary teachers are university graduates. Upper-secondary
schools are organized into departments, and teachers specialize in their major
fields although they teach a variety of courses within their disciplines.
Teaching depends largely on the lecture system, with the main goal of covering
the very demanding curriculum in the time allotted. Approach and subject
coverage tends to be uniform, at least in the public schools.

Training of disabled students, particularly at the upper-secondary level,
emphasizes vocational education to enable students to be as independent as
possible within society. Vocational training varies considerably depending on
the student's disability, but the options are limited for some. It is clear that
the government is aware of the necessity of broadening the range of
possibilities for these students. Advancement to higher education is also a goal
of the government, and it struggles to have institutions of higher learning
accept more disabled students.

[edit]
Universities and
colleges

Main article: Higher education
in Japan

As of 2005, more than 2.8 million students were enrolled in 726 universities.
At the top of the higher education structure, these institutions provide
four-year training leading to a bachelor's degree,
and some offer six-year programs leading to a professional degree. There are two
types of public four-year colleges: the ninety-six national
universities (including the Open University of
Japan) and the thirty-nine local public universities,
founded by prefectures and municipalities. The 372
remaining four-year colleges in 1991 were private.

The overwhelming majority of college students attend full-time day programs.
In 1990 the most popular courses, enrolling almost 40 percent of all
undergraduate students, were in the social sciences,
including business, law, and accounting.
Other popular subjects were engineering (19 percent),
the humanities (15 percent), and
education
(7 percent).

The average costs (tuition, fees, and living expenses) for a year of higher
education in 1986 were 1.4 million yen (US$10,000). To help defray expenses,
students frequently work part-time or borrow money through the
government-supported Japan
Scholarship Association. Assistance is also offered by local governments,
nonprofit corporations, and other institutions.

According to The
Times Higher Education Supplement and École des Mines de Paris, the
top-ranking universities in Japan are the University of Tokyo,
Kyoto University, Keio
University and Waseda University.[7][8]

[edit]
See also

Yutori education

Japanese
history textbook controversies

Japanese
University Entrance Examinations

Japanese school
uniform

Japanese graduation
ceremony

Eikaiwa (English
conversation class)

Curriculum
guideline

Language
minority students in Japanese classrooms

[edit]
References

^
Kelly, Boyd. (1999). Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing, Vol. 1,
p. 522; De Bary, William et al. (2005). Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vol. 2, p. 69.

^ PISA scores for 15 year olds in Japan, 2005:

^ Japanese education system

^ http://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/jet/participants.pdf

^ http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20060328zg.html

^
STATISTICAL ABSTRACT 2006 edition(http://www.mext.go.jp/english/statist/index.htm)

^
"The Times Higher Education Supplement World University
Rankings" (PDF). TSL Education Ltd..
2005-10-28. http://www.alnaja7.org/success/Education/times_world_ranking_2005.pdf. Retrieved 2007-03-27.

^
"The World University Rankings". http://www.mines-paristech.fr/Actualites/PR/EMP-ranking.html.

[edit]
Further reading

De
Bary, William Theodore, Carol Gluck, Arthur E.
Tiedemann. (2005). Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vol. 2. New York: Columbia
University Press. 10-ISBN
0-231-12984-X/13-ISBN
978-0-231-12984-8; OCLC
255020415

David G. Hebert (2005). Music Competition, Cooperation, and Community:
An Ethnography of a Japanese School Band. Doctoral Dissertation,
University of Washington. Ann Arbor: Proquest/UMI.

Christopher P. Hood, Japanese Education Reform: Nakasone's Legacy,
2001, London: Routledge, ISBN
0-415-23283-X.

Kelly, Boyd. (1999). Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical
Writing, Vol. 1. London: Taylor &
Francis. 10-ISBN
1-884964-33-8/13-ISBN
978-1-884964-33-6

Kathleen S. Uno (1999). Passages to Modernity: Motherhood, Childhood,
and Social Reform in Early Twentieth Century Japan. Hawai'i: University of
Hawai'i Press. ISBN
978-0-8248-1619-3, ISBN
978-0-8248-2137-1.

[edit]
External links

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology

v • d • e

Education in Asia

Sovereign
states

Afghanistan ·
Armenia1 ·
Azerbaijan1 ·
Bahrain ·
Bangladesh ·
Bhutan ·
Brunei ·
Burma2 ·
Cambodia ·
People's
Republic of China · Cyprus1 ·
East
Timor3 · Egypt4 ·
Georgia4 ·
India ·
Indonesia ·
Iran ·
Iraq ·
Israel ·
Japan · Jordan ·
Kazakhstan4 ·
North
Korea · South
Korea · Kuwait ·
Kyrgyzstan ·
Laos ·
Lebanon ·
Malaysia ·
Maldives ·
Mongolia ·
Nepal ·
Oman ·
Pakistan ·
Philippines ·
Qatar ·
Russia4 ·
Saudi
Arabia · Singapore ·
Sri
Lanka · Syria ·
Tajikistan ·
Thailand ·
Turkey4 ·
Turkmenistan ·
United
Arab Emirates · Uzbekistan ·
Vietnam ·
Yemen

States
with limited
recognition

Abkhazia1 ·
Nagorno-Karabakh ·
Northern
Cyprus · Palestine ·
Republic
of China5 · South
Ossetia1

Dependencies,
autonomies,
other
territories

Aceh ·
Adjara1 ·
Akrotiri
and Dhekelia · Altai ·
British
Indian Ocean Territory · Buryatia ·
Christmas
Island · Cocos
(Keeling) Islands · Guangxi ·
Hong
Kong · Inner
Mongolia · Iraqi
Kurdistan · Khakassia ·
Macau ·
Nakhchivan ·
Ningxia ·
Papua ·
Sakha
Republic · Tibet ·
Tuva ·
West
Papua · Xinjiang

1 Sometimes
included in Europe, depending on
the border
definitions.  2
Officially known as Myanmar.
3 Sometimes
included in Oceania, and also
known as Timor-Leste.
4 Transcontinental
country.  5 Commonly
known as Taiwan.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Japan"

Categories: Education in
Japan

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