In part, this is for social reasons, so that he may more readily blend into the group he will join as worker, manager or teacher, and partly it is to give him a general background from which he can study, say, special projects, whether at home or overseas. Besides formal education, there are long apprenticeships, originating perhaps in the guilds of feudal times, in any number of trades. To become even a cook, for example, takes a minimum of two years required training, but it is usually ten years before a man can become a chief cook or set up on his own. And lifelong education is practiced on a scale found in no other country, by workers and housewives, teachers and executives, indeed by most of the country. In Japan, more than in most countries, education counts.
Good jobs depend upon good schools and knowledgeability remains a mark of culture.