Part Three
Education in Japan

Contents

Opening Remarks
Japanese have until recently fiercely commented in a largely negative tone upon their own education system. This system has also been generally negleted by Western researchers, but has been gaining attention since the early nineteen-eighties and is at the center of a debate over why Japan has been able to make the great strides it has as a modern nation. Now the question often is, what can educators in other countries learn from the Japanese educational system.

I have tried here to present a useful overview of some of the historical influences on Japanese education and explain the current system as it exists from nursery schools to universities and technical colleges. My aim here is to focus the reader's attention on the education system as a manifestation of Japan's societal, cultural and philosophical views. Also, to help the foreign language teacher in Japan, I will try to give some indication of how culture and society are influenced by education in Japan. 1 said it best:

The first (cautionary point) is that one should not idealize any culture, either one's own or another's. Caught up in ardent praise for the Japanese educational system, which produces students with higher achievement scores in mathematics and science than American schools, we often ignore the toll this system exacts on its children; middle school violence, pain-thinner and glue sniffers, children who refuse to leavehome to go to school, and so forth. Japan does not have all the answers, obviously. Those it does have been achieved at some cost. Also, it is vital to remember that the arrangements allowing for these answers are embedded in a particular cultural and social setting. It is most unlikely they can be removed from that setting and transplanted wholesale to another culture .

Teruhisa Horio2 adds:

Even though Japanese schools may very well appear to be outstanding when seen from the outside, from within, it is clear, I believe, that the vitality of both students and teachers is being smothered by a thoroughly oppressive set of conditions This is testified to by the sharply rising number of incidents of bullying and the dramatically increasing number of children refusing to go to school at all. And as the level of pressure within the school system is constantly turned up, our children are being systematically denied the opportunity to develop their individuality.

Mr. Horio's criticism was focused on the problems of having such a strong central governing body in control of education. We will touch upon this point later and will also focus on language education more specifically, but first a look at the past.

I. Historical Setting
Japan's proximity to China has guaranteed that the biggest cultural influences have come from that country. The influence that China has had on Japanese learning cannot be overstressed. As Japan's second closest neighbor and center of culture from ancient times, China long provided Japan's only model and captured the minds of Japanese scholars from as early as the sixth and seventh centuries.

Most notable among early Japanese scholars was Prince Shotoku who is considered Japan's first true statesman and was venerated for his part in creating Japan's first constitution and his efforts to unite Japan under imperial rule so as to bring peace and harmony to Japan's people. He is also remembered for his adoption of many Chinese civilized practices. Shotoku was also a student of Confucianism and Buddhism and apparently saw the benifits that proper learning could bring to Japan.

My intention here is not to give a detailed step-by-step description of the progression of education in Japan. For our purposes here, a glimpse at the major historical influences and highlights should suffice3.

Earlier learning in Japan was primarily geared to buttressing traditional morality; later education became a matter of survival, and still later a politcal vehicle.
The author here simplifies the major stages of progression in education and we will look at each stage in a little more detail, but knowing the backdrop upon which these forces appeared may be useful in understanding how the later changes came about.

As the reader may already know, China was long the target of emulation for Japan in everything from architecture to religion and even the structure of imperial courts. This is an important starting place when discussing education in Japan since both Buddhism and Confucianismwere imported from China and were both to have a profound effect on structuring of Japanese society and thus education.

Most of the early learning was done at court or at the monastaries were monks and nuns ardiously studied both Chinese classics and Buddhist doctrine in the belief that this was the way to attain personal salvation4.

There was no tradition in the early days that allowed for commoners going to school. The agricultural basis of life in Japan required the consorted efforts of the whole family and children were expected to make sacrifices for the benefit of the group.

As Japan became more feudal, the country was split into many fiefs or han under different rulers. The samurai warriors were expected to be learned in the different martial arts, Chinese classics and other social graces and studied at institutions called fief schools or hanko. The extent to which the studies took root was largely dependent upon the individual ruler's attitude toward scholarly learning. These leaders, or daimyo, had ultimate power over the people residing within their boundaries and the differences among them were stricking. Merry White elucidates this point5.

The values that helped to shape the modern Japanese educational system also existed in different form in Japanese schools prior to modernization. Yet, because there were so many types of schools and modes of learning in the Tokugawa Period (1600-1868), children's experiences in school varied according to class and gender of the child and whether he lived in an urban or rural home.
(also) Parental interest in education was, compared to the same period in the West (1600-1868), very high, but represented another variable in the children's experience of learning.
One of the most common types of schooling mentioned by White was received in schools called terakoya for lower ranked samurai and commoners. These were originally opened by priests and were practical in application. Later, they were often run by individual scholars and usually closed up after the main teacher passed away. The variations were also great, but the influence of Confucianism and Buddhism, i.e. cooperation, thrift, filial piety, obedience, were common to most, as was a homely atmosphere.
Another type of school was the gogaku6

Although the feif schools for the samurai and the terakoya for the commoners were representative educational institutions of the Edo period, other types of schools did exist. One of particular interest was the country school called the gogaku or gookoo. -- Some of these country schools were for the samurai, some admitted commoners, and still others admitted both.

A. Issues in Pre-War Japanese Education
The structural pluralism that existed under the above mentioned fief system makes it difficult to make any sweeping generalizations about education in Japan in the late Tokugawa and Meiji periods. Certainly, there were individual daimyo who recognized the value of advanced learning and therefore encouraged young men, and sometimes women to a certain extent, to pursue scholary studies. And while the hanko and terakoya were responsible for educating the masses, it was technical schools, called juku , that pushed learning to new heights. The variety among these juku was great, but most focused on some specific branch of learning or the military arts.

One point that should be remarked upon is that Japan achieved a suprisingly high literacy rate very early in its history as compared with any other advanced nations7.

By 1872, when western models of universal schooling were introduced, Japanese literacy levels were already high: approximately 43 percent of boys and 15 percent of girls had been schooled and could read by the age of fifteen.
Even common children were expected to attend six years of primary school as early as the late Tokugawa period. The emphasis on military type exercises in the Tokugawa period seems to be a transition stage from the formal feudal times to the push for modernization. With the strong Confucian background, it was easy to administer such schools because of the regualation afforded by such hierachy.
It is not too much to say that the education system in Japan has been used as an instrument of state policy. The struggle that took place within Japan at the end of the nineteenth century is very much reflects the push toward modernization and a clinging to the past. The Japan Teacher's Union (JTU) was in a unique position8.

The Japan Teacher's Union has taken the fundamental view that, in the prewar period, "the teachers of Japan, under pressure of a half-feudalistic ultra nationalistic system, were forced into a logic of subservience."
For many years, America was looked up to for its value system and advances in technology, literature, etc. Many delegations and individuals were sent to America to study everything from naval engineering to the structure of the Constitution.

Later, in the early part of the twentieth century, there was a shift in thinking about America that was reflected in common literature in Japan and centered around the feeling that America had lost or corrupted what was good about it and Japan looked again to Europe for a role model.

As Japan's military gained control over the country, education turned into indoctrination9.
Education in the prewar era of the 1930s was closely tied to the national mobilization for war. Because of the need to harness nationalism sentiment and because of the fear that education and society at large had been too greatly influenced by western culture, a "re-Japanization" of the educational system was begun.
The main thrust of this "re-Japanization" was the elimination of most foreign language instruction and a newly restructured moral course. After the start of the war, this indoctination continued and the propaganda increased. The term kichiku beihei, roughly meaning American Soldier Devil Beast, was taught to even elementary school kids.

As mentioned earlier, English words, songs and anything to do with American culture was strongly forbidden.

B. Educational Reform after the War
I made the point that education has been used as an instrument of the state and many western observers would say that ended with America's occupation. This is not necessarily so. There was of course sweeping changes in that the American model was adopted and moral lessons were abolished, but as is often mentioned, the state's manipulation of schools in Japan is in many ways even stronger today than it was in the prewar era. The Ministry of Education decides everything from text selection to school holidays and there is an ongoing fight to include the teaching of Japan's war time atrocities. Monbusho has so far given up very little ground on this point and it is sometimes shoching to find that young Japanese have very little knowledge of what really happened in World War II.

The Ministry of Education has utmost authority in almost all areas of education and do not give this stronghold up very easily. The result is that very little emphasis has been placed on human intellectual or spiritual development.

The education system in Japan resembles that in America with six years of primary and three years of junior high school being compulsory and an additional three years of high school followed by two of four years of college or university being the norm. This is the extent of the similarities.

Most schools still require their students to wear uniforms and these uniforms are used to keep students in line after hours as well. It is not uncommon for teachers to be assigned to check around town to make sure none of their students are hanging around coffee shops or other establishments around town. Students are expected to go straight home or to after school lessons at cram schools, juku, or preparatory schools, yobiko. I will go into more detail on these uniforms in the next section on Mainstream Education.

II. Mainstream Education
Public education in Japan is not that different from other countries. Compulsory education consists of six years of primary school and three years of junior high school for a total of nine years. Most students go on to three years of senior high school and then go on to either two or four years of university or college. What is different is the fierce competion to get into a select few of the better schools at all levels, but especially into university.

The fact that major companies and the government do their only recruiting from top name universities is the main cause of this situation. A student's future is basically determined by the university they enter. One result is that there are entrance exams for children entering each level of compulsory education and beyond. This reaches down even to kindergarten and it is not uncommon for children of three or four to attend preperation courses for these early exams. Education is definitely a means of social promotion and is better explained by Honna and Hoffer10:

The Japanese emphasize the quality of schools attended from kindergarten on through the university level. The prestige of the university a person attends often determines the status he/she will ultimately achieve in life. Graduates of the prestigious universities are benefited both in their careers and in their social lives through the good reputation and the strong alumni connections of their universities.
The push to enter the highest quality schools possible begins at the kindergarten level. Beginning with the entrance tests for kindergarten, the Japanese are in a long educational race that takes them over a series of entrance examinations to each higher level. "Education mamas" or kyooiku mamas have been in the media in recent years for thier efforts to gurantee their sons and daughters every chance for the best possible education.
We have already mentioned some of the causes for this phenomena and will later look at the pressure this puts on school age children and some of the results that will concern the English language teacher.

Most students in elementary, junior high and high school are required to wear school uniforms. For boys, this ranges from dress slacks and sports jackets to military style uniforms. For girls, the uniforms usually are a variation of a sailor outfit. There are usually two versions, one for autumn and winter and one for spring and summer. Students usually have one or two of each and can easily be distinguished from students of other schools.

The main variation to regular public or private school are the technical schools or senmongakko These are mainly at the high school and university level and concentrate on specific trades such as electronics, the computer industry or design.

III. The Family and Education
For a number of reasons, including those mentioned in the last section, the family focuses much energy on education. During test season, families are nearly held hostage as they focus all energy on test preparation. Every attempt is made to maintain an atmosphere that is conducive to studying and families refrain from travel or other forms of enjoyment for up to one year in preperation for the exams. All of the above is especially true in the case of boys. No expense is spared and many students go to juku. The cost for such extra schooling is astronomical and it is not uncommon for families to go into debt to finance these extra studies.

The reason for all this attention is rooted in the parent's desire to get their children into good companies which promises the brightest of futures financially and security wise. The top companies in Japan almost all select new employees from among the ranks of top name universities with very little attention paid to how well these students did at university or what they majored in. This system has created fierce competition for the few openings at the select universities and the result is what is called juken jigoku, or entrance exam hell. The most important entrance exams are required to enter junior high school, high school and especially university, and subjects that are tested include mathematics, science, English, etc. The level of these exams are extremely high and it has been stated that the average high school graduate in Japan is as educated as the average university graduate in North America11.

Conclusion
A casual glance at the education system does not reveal any spectacular differences from other developed countries. The social institution by which top companies recruit from among graduates of top name universities has created a unique situation in Japan. Because the number of positions at top universties is so limited and the number of applicants so numerous there is tremendous pressure on students to study for entrance examinations at each step of their education. This has the effect of producing some of the most highly educated children in the world. Still, we have to be careful to look at the cost of such pressure and the actual value of the memorized (and often theoretical) knowledge that these children have.

Notes
[1] Harumi Befu made this statement in her essay titled "The Social and Cultural Background of Child Development in Japan and the United States." which appeared in Educational Policies in Crisis that was published in 1986 by Praeger and edited by William K. Cummings.

[2] This is a excerpt of Horio's preface in Educational Thought and Ideology in Modern Japan: State Authority and Intellectual Freedom which was edited and translated by Steven Platzer and published by University of Tokyo Press in 1988.

[3] Mery White (1987) made this succinct observation on page 50.

[4] Mason and Caiger (1972) made this observation in their book A History of Japan.

[5] Both of these excerpts were included in Merry White (1987) on page 53.

[6] Noted in Japan's Modern Educational System: A History of the First Hundred Years published by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (1980; 9).

[7] Merry White (1987) gave this account on page 50.

[8] Noted on page 12 of [6].

[9] Noted by Merry White (1987) on page 61.

[10] This excerpt is from the section on education in An English Dictionary of Japanese Ways of Thinking (1989).

[11] Rohlen (1983) made this point in his introduction.

Part Four - Positions for Language Teachers in Japan