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##  Japanese Education in Grades K-12. ERIC Digest.                              

Japan's educational system, in particular its K-12 schools, remains             one of the very best in the world.  This Digest provides an overview            of 1) Japanese educational achievements, 2) the structure of K-12               education in Japan, 3) the K-12 curriculum, with an emphasis on                 social studies education, 4) educational reform in Japan, and 5)                World Wide Web sites on Japanese education. JAPANESE EDUCATIONAL              ACHIEVEMENTS.Japan's greatest educational achievement is the                high-quality basic education most young people receive by the time              they complete high school. In international mathematics tests,                  Japanese students rank either at or near the top year after year.               Recent statistics indicate that well over 95 percent of Japanese are            literate, which is particularly impressive since the Japanese                   language is one of the world's most difficult languages to read and             write.  Over 95 percent of Japanese also graduate from high school              compared to 88 percent of American students.  Some Japanese                     education specialists estimate that the average Japanese high school            graduate has attained about the same level of education as the                  average American after two years of college.  Japanese employees of             large companies and government ministries rank among the most                   well-educated workers on earth. 
STRUCTURE OF K-12                             EDUCATION. 
Even though the Japanese adopted the American 6-3-3                model during the U.S. occupation of Japan after World War II,                   elementary and secondary education is much more centralized than in             the United States.  Control over curriculum rests largely with the              national Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and                   Technology (Monbukagakusho) and education is compulsory through the             ninth grade.  Municipalities and private sources fund kindergartens,            but national, prefectural, and local governments pay almost equal               shares of educational costs for students in grades one through                  nine.  Well over 90 percent of students attend public schools                   through the ninth grade, but over 25 percent of students go to                  private high schools. The percentage of national funding for high               schools is quite low, with prefectures and municipalities assuming              most of the costs for public high schools.  There are important                 differences between Japanese and American teachers and                          administrators.  High salaries, considerable prestige, and very low             birth rates make teaching jobs difficult to obtain in Japan while in            the United States there are increasing teacher shortages.  While                more Japanese schools are acquiring specialists such as special                 education teachers and counselors, American schools have many more              special subjects and support personnel than schools in Japan.  The              typical Japanese school has only two administrators: a principal and            a head teacher. 
Many American public high schools are                         comprehensive.  While there are a few comprehensive high schools in             Japan, they are not popular.  Between 75 and 80 percent of all                  Japanese students enroll in university preparation tracks.  Most                university-bound students attend separate academic high schools                 while students who definitely do not plan on higher education attend            separate commercial or industrial high schools.  In the United                  States, students enter secondary schools based on either school                 district assignment or personal choice.  For the overwhelming                   majority of students in Japan, high school and university admissions            primarily are contingent upon entrance examination performance.  The            best Japanese high schools and universities require high entrance               examination scores.  Since many Japanese employers continue to base             hiring decisions on the prestige level of the educational                       institution an applicant attended, ambitious students attend private            cram schools, or juku, and study long hours for both high school and            university entrance examinations.  The futures of most Japanese high            school students depend largely on the high school they attended and             their college entrance examination scores. 
Japanese students spend            at least six weeks longer in school each year than their American               counterparts, since summer vacations in Japan last only half the                time of most summer breaks in the U.S.  Until the mid-1990s Japanese            students attended school half days on Saturday, but weekend                     attendance is being gradually phased out and all Saturday school                will end by the beginning of the 2002 school year in April. 
THE               K-12 CURRICULUM. 
While the Japan K-12 curriculum is quite similar             to the curriculum of U.S. schools, there are important differences.             Because Japanese teachers at all levels are better prepared in                  mathematics than their American counterparts, instruction in that               subject is more sophisticated in Japan. Japanese language                       instruction receives more attention in Japanese schools than English            instruction in the United States because of the difficulty of                   learning written Japanese.  Virtually every Japanese student takes              English language courses from the seventh grade through the final               year of high school. 
Japanese elementary students study social                studies in an integrated science/social studies course.  Beginning              in third grade and continuing through high school, there are                    separate courses in civics, geography, Japanese history and world               history, sociology, and politics-economics. University-bound                    students may elect to take more or fewer social studies electives               depending upon their career interests.  A goal of the new                       educational reforms that are being implemented during the 2002                  school year is to increase use of task-oriented research approaches             in secondary social studies and to decrease emphasis upon retention             of large amounts of factual content. 
One recurring problem in                 history instruction in Japan is the way textbooks often depict                  Japanese actions during World War II.  Japanese atrocities tend to              be minimized or ignored in school history textbooks. All Japanese               texts are written and produced in the private sector; however, the              texts must be approved by the Ministry of Education.  The latest                controversy occurred in 2001 when the Ministry of Education approved            a new junior high school textbook written and edited by a group of              nationalist academics.  The book omitted topics such as the Japanese            Army's mistreatment of women in battle zones and areas under                    Japanese rule and the Japanese Army's actions in China.  After                  strong protests from the South Korean and Chinese governments, the              Japanese government had the book reviewed and revised.  The book was            then published in summer 2001. Although less than 10 percent of all             junior high schools in Japan is expected to actually use the book,              the Chinese and South Korean governments were still not satisfied               with the published version. 
Many Japanese believe schools should              teach not only academic skills but good character traits as well.               While a small number of hours every year are devoted to moral                   education in the national curriculum, there is substantial anecdotal            evidence that teachers do not take the instructional time too                   seriously and often use it for other purposes.  Still, Japanese                 teachers endeavor to inculcate good character traits in students                through the hidden curriculum.  For example, all Japanese students              and teachers clean school buildings every week.  Japanese students              are constantly exhorted by teachers to practice widely admired                  societal traits such as putting forth intense effort on any task and            responding to greetings from teachers in a lively                               manner. EDUCATIONAL REFORM.Despite Japanese students'                     impressive performance when compared to their peers in other                    developed nations, there is widespread dissatisfaction on the part              of many Japanese about the nation's educational system.  Many                   Japanese believe that the examination system is too stressful, that             the schools are too rigid and don't meet the needs of individual                students, that contemporary students show little interest in                    studying, and that the educational system needs to produce more                 creative and flexible citizens for the twenty-first century.  Also,             large numbers of Japanese blame the schools for a perceived increase            in child misbehavior, particularly in junior highs. 
Beginning with            the 2002 school year, major curricular reform will occur in an                  attempt to make schools more flexible and responsive to individual              student needs.  Nearly one-third of the elementary and junior high              curricula will be eliminated with deep cuts in all major subjects.              The replacement classroom activity will be a new endeavor entitled              Integrated Studies that will have few guidelines and no accompanying            textbooks.  The goal of Integrated Studies is to provide students               and teachers the freedom to study whatever interests them whether               the topic is religion, the environment, or foreign affairs.  Some               elementary schools that were selected as pilot sites for Integrated             Studies in 2001 experimented with teaching English during this time             block. 
There are also new controversial recommendations emanating             from an educational advisory body appointed by the late Prime                   Minister Obuchi that call for mandatory community service for junior            high school and high school students.  The same advisory body, in an            effort to make higher education more flexible, has called for                   allowing students in special cases to enter university at age 15                instead of 18.  It also recommends that university entrance                     examinations be made less central to the educational system than                they are now.  At present, there are few signs that entrance                    examinations at any level in Japan are diminishing in importance.               Unless entrance examination reform occurs, Japan's educational                  system will continue to emphasize the acquisition of large amounts              of fact-based content. WORLD WIDE WEB SITES.The following Web             sites include information on various aspects of education in                    Japan. 
* National Clearinghouse for U.S. - Japan Studies and                  Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for U.S. - Japan Studies at the Social               Studies Development Center of Indiana University:                               http://www.indiana.edu/~japan/iguides/edu.html. This Internet guide             to Education and Student Life in Japan provides numerous links to               other Web sites on various aspects of Japanese education. 
*                   Monbukagakusho:   http://www.mext.go.jp/english/.  This is the Web              site of Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and             Technology. REFERENCES AND ERIC RESOURCES.The following list              of resources includes references used to prepare this Digest.  The              items followed by an ED number are available in microfiche and/or               paper copies from the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). For            information about prices, contact EDRS, 7420 Fullerton Road, Suite              110, Springfield, Virginia 22153-2852; telephone numbers are (703)              440-1400 and (800) 443-3742.  Entries followed by an EJ number,                 annotated monthly in CURRENT INDEX TO JOURNALS IN EDUCATION (CIJE),             are not available through EDRS.  However, they can be located in the            journal section of most larger libraries by using the bibliographic             information provided, requested through Interlibrary Loan, or                   ordered from commercial reprint services. 
Benjamin, Gail.                     JAPANESE LESSONS: A YEAR IN A JAPANESE SCHOOL THROUGH THE EYES OF AN            AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST AND HER CHILDREN.  New York: New York                   University Press, 1998.  ED 415 153. 
Cummings, William K., and                Philip G. Altbach, eds.  THE CHALLENGE OF EAST ASIAN EDUCATION:                 IMPLICATIONS FOR AMERICA.  Albany: State University of New York                 Press, 1997.  ED 408 402. 
Ellington, Lucien.  EDUCATION IN THE                JAPANESE LIFE CYCLE: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE UNITED STATES.  Lewiston,             NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992. 
Fukuzawa, Rebecca Erwin, and Gerald             K. Letendre. INTENSE YEARS: HOW JAPANESE ADOLESCENTS BALANCE SCHOOL,            FAMILY, AND FRIENDS.  New York: Routledge Falmer, 2000. 
Goya,                 Susan.  "The Secret of Japanese Education."  PHI DELTA KAPPAN                   75 (October 1993):  126-129.  EJ 470 582. 
Khan, Yoshimitsu.                   JAPANESE MORAL EDUCATION PAST AND PRESENT. Cranbury, NJ:  Associated            University Press, 1997.  ED 435 569. 
Lewis, Catherine C.  "The                Roots of Japanese Educational Achievement: Helping Children Develop             Bonds to School."  EDUCATIONAL POLICY 9 (June 1995): 129-151.  EJ               506 494. 
Wray, Harry.  JAPANESE AND AMERICAN EDUCATION: ATTITUDES             AND PRACTICES.  Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey, 1999.  ED 450                  446. 
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This project has been funded at least in part with               Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Education under contract              number ED-99-CO-0016.  The content of this publication does not                 necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of             Education nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or              organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.  ERIC                   Digests are in the public domain and may be freely reproduced and               disseminated. 
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Lucien Ellington is UC Foundation Professor             of Education, co-director of the Asia Program, and editor                       of "Education About Asia" at the University of Tennessee at                     Chattanooga.                                                                 **Title:** Japanese Education in Grades K-12. ERIC Digest.                              **Document Type:** Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); **Available From:** ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education, 2805            East Tenth Street, Suite 120, Bloomington, IN 47408-2698. Tel:                  800-266-3815 (Toll Free); Fax: 812-855-0455; e-mail:                            [email protected]. For full text: http://ericso.indiana.edu.                **Descriptors:** Area Studies,  Cross Cultural Studies, Curriculum Design,                       Educational Change, Elementary Secondary Education, Foreign                     Countries,  Government School Relationship,  Japanese Culture,                   National Curriculum,  National Standards, Social Studies                    **Identifiers:** ERIC Digests,  Japan, Ministry of Education (Japan)                          
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