MyVision

No.10 2015.6

Scientific and Technical
Education in Japan’s Juniorand Senior High Schools
13 years have passed since the launch of “Super Science High Schools,” or SSHs,
which provide students with advanced education in science and mathematics. To
date, more than 200 schools have been designated as SSHs by the Ministry ofEducation, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. In this issue of My Vision,
we examine the outcomes produced by the SSHs system, and consider the ideal
direction for scientific and technical education in Japan’s high schools.

C O NT E NT S
Expert Opinions

How should Japan’s Junior and Senior HighSchools Best Approach the Fostering of
Scientiﬁc and Technical Human Resources?
New mechanisms for the cultivation ofPlacing the focus on education
scientiﬁc and technological human resources in monodzukuri
Michiharu Nakamura

Kazuo Kadota

President, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education,
Miyagi University of Education

The major problem is the polarization ofProgramming will become
science educationa basic life skill
Shinya Morimoto
Professor, Faculty of Education and Human Sciences,
Yokohama National University

Broad-ranging knowledge produces
the ability to reasonHiroshi Matsumoto

President, RIKEN

About this Issue

Reiko Kanda

Ryo Shimizu

President and CEO, Ubiquitous Entertainment, Inc.

Expert Opinions

How should Japan’s Junior and Senior HighSchools Best Approach the Fostering of
Scientiﬁc and Technical Human Resources?

13 years after the inauguration of the Super Science High Schools (SSHs) system, how should we evaluate
its outcomes? How should we approach junior and senior high school education in order to foster humanresources who will drive progress in science and technology? In this issue of My Vision, we discuss thesequestions with the President of the Japan Science and Technology Agency, a researcher focusing on methods of instruction for science education, a former university president who worked to reform the university
entrance system, a high school teacher responsible for technical education (*), and the CEO of a games
company who has been certiﬁed as a “genius Programmer.”(*) At the time of the interview

Interviewer: Mari Kawamoto, NIRA Research Coordinator & Assistant
Editor: Kazuyoshi Harada
Period of interviews: January - February 2015

New mechanisms for the fostering ofscientiﬁc and technological human resourcesMichiharu Nakamura
President, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)The important thing in scientific and technological education is thatit encourages children to have dreams for the future. At the age when
we first become aware of the world around us, we are all scientists inthe making. No matter what the subject, we are filled with curiosity,
asking “Why is that?” This changes around high school age because
students begin to doubt the usefulness of science and mathematics fortheir future. This makes it all the more vital to communicate to children
the importance of the study of science and mathematics to themselves
and their society, and to stimulate their dreams for the future.
Today, Super Science High Schools (SSHs) are essential to scienceeducation at high school level in Japan. Schools designated as SSH
design their own curricula, and their students set problems and conduct
research for themselves. The outcomes are presented at a nationwide
convention held once a year, and some are of extremely high quality.
This provides an entrance to future research activities. The rate ofgraduates of SSHs proceeding to science and mathematics faculties
and from there to graduate school is high by comparison with
non-SSHs.
Projects and research efforts in scientific and technological fields
often proceed on the basis of teamwork. Non-Japanese wonder why,
given this fact, Japan does not provide education that cultivates theability to work in a team. The “Science Koshien” competition, in
which groups of students from high schools throughout Japan compete
against each other in solving scientific and mathematical problems,
provides an excellent example of the honing of teamwork, because
students divide parts of problems between them in order to produce theanswer together. From the year before last, we also commenced
holding the “Science Koshien Junior” for junior high school students.
At present, we are continuing in efforts to promote joint activities
between SSHs schools and surrounding schools, in order to spread thebenefits of SSHs activities to other schools. At the same time, we havealso commenced the Global Science Campus initiative, in which
universities provide education to outstanding high school students.
Against the background of the rise of China, India and other emerging
nations, we seek to comprehensively move ahead with the fostering ofthe next generation of global human resources who will drive Japanesescience and technology. ■Dr. Nakamura is the President of the JST, a key government organization charged withcreating infrastructure for the stimulation of innovation. Seeking to continuously andsystematically foster young people who will lead the next generation of science andtechnology, the JST provides essential support for the activities of schools designated as SSH.

The major problem is the polarization ofscience education
Shinya Morimoto
Professor, Faculty of Education and Human Sciences,
Yokohama National University
From the perspective of cultivating children who have strong ability
in science and encouraging young people who will lead Japan in thefuture to enter university courses, the existence of SSHs is highlysignificant. Schools designated as SSHs conduct the type of educationthat all junior and senior high schools should be conducting –experiential, problem-solving learning through observation andexperiment. Experiential, problem-solving learning in which they
formulate their own hypotheses enables children to discover thefascination of science and develop an ongoing interest in it.
However, what is actually provided at the overwhelming majority ofjunior and senior high schools are classes that focus on collections ofproblems designed to prepare students for university entrance
examinations. This polarization of education between SSHs and otherschools is the major problem. Children who are only offered aone-way flow of information and hence do not develop a sense of
self-efficacy in learning will come to dislike science, and will not thinkMy Vision No.10

or express themselves scientifically. Japan’s high literacy rate, and thefact that almost all of its citizens had a grasp of science, mathematics
and the Japanese language up to at least junior high school level, weremajor factors in its becoming a science and technology-focused nation.
At the same time as cultivating a small number of superior scientists
able to win the Nobel Prize, we must also cultivate a public that seeksscientific and technical knowledge and is able to share in thesesuccesses.
In order to do so, it will be important to spread SSHs initiatives toother schools and boost their outcomes. If we simply allow schools
designated as SSHs to excel, without sharing the benefits, we will notraise the level of science education overall. There is also the concernthat the schools will be criticized as elitist and become isolated fromtheir communities, despite the excellence of their outcomes. It will benecessary to actively create opportunities to share the benefits of SSHs
education, for example by making some SSHs classes public andencouraging communication between SSHs teachers and teachers atother high schools. It will also be important to build up a body ofteaching methods at SSHs that can be applied at other schools. ■In seeking to transform children’s experientially-based thinking regarding natural
phenomena into scientiﬁc thinking, professor Morimoto emphasizes the importance of themutual relation between accurate evaluation of the ways of thinking that children aredeveloping and the application of the optimal methods of instruction to promote learning.

Broad-ranging knowledge produces
the ability to reason
Hiroshi Matsumoto
President, RIKEN
I think that asking what type of education we should offer at juniorand senior high school levels in order to produce superior scientificand technological researchers is a foolish question. It is important forstudents to study a full quota of subjects, including music, art andphysical education, and absorb a wide range of knowledge in theirjunior and senior high school years. We often hear the criticism that
this is “Cramming education” (tsumekomi kyoiku), but it is only naturalfor junior and senior high school students to study fundamentals, andthis does not necessarily imply cramming.
Historically speaking, fields of study were integrated, and during theMeiji period, people would interpret “science”as having acomprehensive and all-embracing meaning. It is said that when Hideki
Yukawa was studying physics at Kyoto University, he would often
visit the faculty of literature in order to discuss literature with theprofessors there. It was this wide-ranging knowledge based on a broadconcept of personal cultivation rather than a single-minded focus on
scientific knowledge that enabled Yukawa to conduct highly creativeand original research and to make new discoveries that would
ultimately lead to his winning of the Nobel Prize.
I feel that the SSH system, which seeks to cultivate human resourcesin scientific and technological fields, came into existence as anantithesis to the system that promotes study to pass entrance
examinations. If students devote themselves to memorizing textbooks
and reference books in order to pass entrance tests, even if they do get
into university, their ability to think for themselves will beundeveloped. We should therefore begin from the idea that it is alsoessential to provide education that makes students think. In this sense,
the SSH system has its place, but this is not to say that we would not
produce scientists without it. The demerit of the system, that itsstudents do not study subjects other than science and mathematics, isfar greater.

We must change the university entrance examinations in order toensure that junior and senior high school students are able to study all
subjects at a fundamental level. Rather than entrance examinations thathave students competing over one or two points, it will be essential to
make the change to examinations that test whether students havestudied the full range of subjects without bias and developed the ability
to think independently. ■From 2008 to 2014, Professor Matsumoto was the 25th President of Kyoto University.
During his tenure, he supervised a number of reforms, including the introduction of aspecial Kyoto University entrance examination, the establishment of Institute for Liberal Artsand Sciences, and the creation of the Graduate School of Advanced Leadership Studies.

Placing the focus on educationin monodzukuri
Kazuo Kadota
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education,
Miyagi University of Education
Within Japan there are calls for the promotion of innovation towards
making the country a leading technological nation, but one would
hesitate to say that scientific and technical education in our schools ismeeting the challenge. Scientific and technical education is not only
science and mathematics – it is essential to also set aside time foreducation in ‘monodzukuri’ (the ability to create functioning machinesfrom mechanical elements in order to solve specific problems).
Overseas, students are able to study technical subjects even in
normal high schools. In Japan, by contrast, many students proceed to
study engineering at university without having studied any technicalsubjects at senior high school level. In junior high school,
technical-vocational work and domestic science are offered together
for only two hours a week. Few countries devote such little time toeducation in technical matters during the years of compulsory
education.
Unlike the problems presented in science and mathematics classes,
technical problems do not have absolute answers; the ability to find theoptimal solution by using the right materials in the right way isdemanded. This ability to find an optimal solution and embody it insomething that works effectively is one that is important to a student’s
future life in the real world. Despite the fact that Japanese schools offer
their students access to computers, these are used only for word
processing and Internet access, rather than for education related toscience and technology.
3D printers and programming have recently attracted a considerable
amount of attention. U.S. President Barack Obama stated in an addressthat his government would allocate 3D printers to 1,000 primaryschools throughout the U.S., underlining the importance of educationin making things and education in programming. By contrast, in Japan,
we are not responding to the changes in the times, and only thechildren of well-off families with a strong concern for education
participate in activities such as technical-vocational workshops orrobot-making classes, because their parents pay for them. The growthof disparities in this area is a concern. It will be essential for us tocompare Japan and other countries, and to seek to respond to theproblem through teacher training, in addition to adding new subjects toour curricula. ■Dr. Kadota is involved in a variety of educational activities focusing on
machines and robots, with practice and research in the area of mechanicalengineering education as the central axis. He is focusing attention on
education in the area of 3D printers and other digital-based tools.Programming will become a basic life skill
Ryo Shimizu
President and CEO, Ubiquitous Entertainment, Inc.
If the Roomba and Pepper robots evolve, and in addition tocleaning and serving tea, robots become able to perform all types ofdaily tasks as required by their owners, everybody will have to beable to program their own robots. For example, to instruct the robot
via a program to go to the correct part of the house and get someparticular thing. Experience of using computers from childhood will
be an important factor in making this possible.
The main reason why junior and senior high school students are
drifting away from science subjects is that they do not understand
why they should be studying them. Unlike other subjects, mostpeople do not have any direct experience of their study ofmathematics or physics having been useful to them in their work or
their lives, and they do not feel that they received any benefit fromtheir study. The fact that the subjects are being taught to students who
do not understand their value to them is the biggest problem forscience education at present.
Programming education is extremely effective in increasing

students’ interest in science and mathematics. Experience ofprogramming enables students to discover the meaning in aspects ofscience and mathematics that at first seem meaningless. For example,
if one tries to program a robot to move or to create a game, one sees
the meaning in studying trigonometric functions and equations ofmotion.
When you understand what something can be used for, study
becomes a pleasure, and you make the knowledge your own. Whenthe social paradigm shifts to one in which we use robots to create
what we need when we need it, programming will be an everyday
skill and an essential part of life. Unless we revise our ideas about
what should be taught in schools, we will lag behind the progress of
21st century civilization. ■Mr. Shimizu is the founder and representative of Ubiquitous Entertainment, Inc. His
company produces games and other entertainment content based aroundadvanced Internet and network technologies. In 2005, Mr. Shimizu was certiﬁed as aGenius Programmer by the Information-Technology Promotion Agency, Japan (IPA).
This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Translated by Michael Faul.

About this Issue

Scientiﬁc and Technical Education in Japan’s Junior and Senior High Schools

There can be no disagreement concerning the fact that thecultivation of human resources is essential to the welfare ofa nation, whether it is large or small. Advanced andemerging nations all give passionate attention to educational
initiatives, but it does seem that nations with smaller populations have an advantage in this area.
Comparatively small nations and regions, including HongKong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Estonia, andFinland, cluster in the upper ranks of results in the OECD’sProgramme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
test, which evaluates academic achievement among 15year-olds around the world (most recently, Shanghai took
the overall top position; Japan’s results were also good, with
the nation in 4th to 7th position in different fields of thecompetition). Details of measures employed in each of thesenations may differ (the introduction of advanced ICT
education, teaching methods that emphasize autonomy andreasoning ability, measures to improve the quality ofteachers, etc.), but they share a strategic focus on thefostering of human resources.
Given the fact that scientific and technological capability
drives economic innovation and acts as an engine ofnational growth, numerous nations place an emphasis on
scientific and technical education as part of this strategic
focus. If it is able to produce human resources who cancontribute globally through science and education, even asmall nation can bolster its soft power and have a significant
influence politically and culturally.

In addition, many commentators predict that increasing
mechanization and the evolution of artificial intelligence
will eliminate up to half of all existing jobs in 20 years’
time, putting large numbers of people out of work. It isuncertain whether or not this scenario will actually manifest,
but what is certain is that we are entering an era which will
be favorable to individuals possessing scientific andtechnical knowledge, whether their natural inclination is
towards the humanities or towards science. Scientific andtechnical education is also a fundamental condition for therealization of a fair society, in that it enables individuals totranscend the particular environments in which they are
born, increasing their possibilities and presenting them withchallenging opportunities.
In Japan, Super Science High Schools were introduced
more than 10 years ago as a new measure to boost scientificand technical education. How do experts who have studied
education for many years see the outcomes of this venture?
In this issue of My Vision, we focus on scientific andtechnical education in Japan’s junior and senior highschools, and offer a broad range of opinions regarding how
we should attempt to foster scientific human resources whowill lead us into a new era, and how junior and senior highschool education should be approached in order to make thispossible.

Reiko Kanda, NIRA Executive Vice President

National Institute for Research Advancement (NIRA)
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