$Unique_ID{bob00330} $Pretitle{} $Title{Japan Chapter 3B. Elementary, Secondary and Higher Education} $Subtitle{} $Author{Jane T. Griffin} $Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army} $Subject{schools students universities school education student university private system secondary see pictures see figures } $Date{1981} $Log{} Title: Japan Book: Japan, A Country Study Author: Jane T. Griffin Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army Date: 1981 Chapter 3B. Elementary, Secondary and Higher Education As more and more women reentered the work force following the birth of children, the number of children in kindergarten has steadily risen. The promotion of kindergarten education that began in 1971 was one of the major innovations in the 1970s and provided that all four and five year olds be enrolled in kindergartens by the beginning of the 1982 school year. Six years of elementary and three years of lower secondary schooling were compulsory and free for all children between the ages of six and fifteen. Enrollment at the compulsory education level has long been virtually 100 percent of this age group. The total number of students in Japanese schools increased from 19.4 million in 1950 to 27.4 million in 1980. Nine subjects were offered in both the elementary and secondary curricula, according to standards laid down by the Ministry of Education. These included emphasis on studying the Japanese language, followed by mathematics, social studies, science, music, arts, homemaking, and physical education, plus morals training and special activities. In curriculum revisions that took effect in 1980, it was decided to lay increased emphasis on moral education. Private schools could teach religion rather than the ministry-prescribed course in morals. Physical education was also encouraged, especially traditional Japanese sports such as judo, kendo, and sumo. Another change mandated by the ministry was to select more carefully teaching materials that would foster the creative abilities of the children; critics had claimed that children were expected to concentrate on factual memorization. It was further decided to reduce the standard school hours for most subjects so that local areas could adjust to their needs by giving more time to certain subjects. The new curriculum was implemented after private book publishers had compiled new textbooks to carry out these aims. Most of these reforms were made in response to specific problems that developed in the upper secondary school years in the 1970s, especially the unprecedented rise in juvenile violence among the fourteen to eighteen year olds. In general under public school promotion policies, a child who had attended school faithfully could expect to be passed on to the next grade regardless of achievement. Nevertheless a growing number of children spent their after-school hours attending tutoring schools if they were behind or wanted more intense training, or else they went to special classes for skills not offered in school. As of 1981 the revised rating system for school records noted children's school performance, not only indicating their relative position in the class but also for the extent of their attainment of a set target in each subject. In 1979, as a result of a plan begun in 1972, all handicapped children between the ages of six and fifteen, whether physically or mentally affected, received compulsory free education. In 1980 a record 92,000 attended special schools. The school year begins April 1, corresponding to the start of the fiscal year, and is divided into three terms for a total of thirty-five weeks; April to July, September to December, and January to March. The summer vacation may vary locally because some rural schools grant spring and autumn vacations to accommodate agricultural needs. All public schools are in session for five and one-half days, Saturday afternoon and Sunday being free. The private sector at the elementary and secondary level in 1981 included a few prestigious schools that were part of an integrated complex of institutions, which in some cases extended through the university level. Accredited private schools played a minor role at the compulsory education level, where they accounted for about 2 percent of the institutions and an equal proportion of the enrollment. In keeping with policy begun in 1975, government subsidies and loans were made to private schools, including the elementary and lower secondary levels. There were also private schools attended by children of foreign communities taught in languages other than Japanese. The part of the Korean community that supported the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) maintained the largest number of these ethnic schools, including one on the college level in Tokyo. In 1981 the level of general education had risen to the point where 60 percent of the entire working force had at least a high school education. By the late 1970s a high school diploma had become for many students simply a step toward higher education. High school students could take either the general education course or the vocational course and study part-time or by correspondence. Many students entered the general course for its prestige, although they did not in fact plan to go on to college. Both general and vocational students took certain prescribed courses in common such as Japanese language, one foreign language, social studies, mathematics, science, and health and physical education. In the 1970s students in the vocational courses felt neglected and lacking in prestige, and student violence began to increase. Consequently in 1976 special schools were established for elite technical training, attracting some 430,000 students in 1980. Funding for these schools and other special schools, which were almost entirely private, has greatly increased since 1975. Furthermore since 1962 technical colleges had provided a five-year course of training to lower secondary school graduates. These schools produced a body of highly qualified personnel who were quickly absorbed by industry. Some of these technicians have risen to the apex of Japanese society, as for example the president of the Honda Motor Company. In the late 1970s private institutions accounted for about 30 percent of upper secondary enrollment, and their distinctive features and academic traditions greatly enriched Japanese education. Since 1975 private upper secondary schools have been receiving government subsidies, which reached 70 billion Yen in 1980. All high school students paid tuition, ranging in 1978 from about 36,000 Yen a year at national schools to more than five times that figure for private schools. When one elite private school (Nada High in the Kobe area) compiled an enviable record in the 1970s for the large number of graduates it sent to the top universities, prefectural officials began to upgrade public high schools in a variety of ways. The Ministry of Education established the basic curriculum framework for all schools and prescribed the objectives and content of instruction. Local governments and school boards had certain areas of discretion within the broad framework to accommodate local needs. Revised courses for schools at all levels were put into effect in the early 1980s. In 1981 upper secondary schools were urged by the Ministry of Education to make wider allowance for individuality and initiative among students and to diminish academic pressure. Schools were being criticized for producing fact-filled robots totally lacking in creativity. Since the strong desire for education led to an incessant grind of classes and cram schools, schools were urged to reduce requirements without lowering standards so that students might "lead a freer and more enjoyable school life." Such a policy, however, would probably only encourage the growth of cram schools for students determined to enter the elite academic track. Early in the postwar period the Ministry of Education reestablished strong control over textbooks used in private as well as public schools. Since 1956 all schools had been required to select texts from a list of books authorized by the ministry. This system had been continuously challenged, sometimes in court, by Nikkyoso and various liberal authors, with mixed results. In the 1970s audiovisual presentations, especially through videotape recorders, came into general use as a teaching method and were especially effective among the young. Japan has been said to have the best educational television in the world. It is very highly developed as a major method used to vitalize certain specific areas such as English literature-performing dramatizations of the works being studied-and science-showing actual experiments for which the equipment might be lacking in the schools. One of the more successful programs produced by Japan Broadcasting Corporation (Nippon Hoso Kyokai-NHK) was about moral values for third to sixth graders in which presentations of a "what would you have done and why" character brought instantaneous response and identification from the students. Public school admission procedures were established by prefectural boards of education. With one exception all boards relied on a scholastic achievement test together with the student's school record, the principal's recommendation, and a physical examination. Nearly all lower secondary school students continued into the upper secondary level, though not necessarily in the school or area of training of their choice. Although local authorities have made efforts to deal with the problems occurring when too many students apply to certain prestigious schools, such difficulties are endemic to the system. Of those who failed their tests, a few committed suicide, others enrolled in part-time public high schools open to all, and some went to expensive private schools. Those determined not to settle for less than their chosen school engaged private tutors or took the cram school (juku) route to prepare for the next year's examinations. The cram schools flourished at the seventh, eighth, and ninth grade levels, but especially at the upper secondary school level, for entry was a crucial goal for all students. Ranking of such schools in each area was clearly understood by students and their parents, and the necessity of being accepted by one that would serve the student's future goals was compelling; some parents resorted to bribery in an effort to place an average child. The juku phenomenon stemmed from the importance parents placed on educational achievement as public schools seemed unable to prepare students sufficiently for the intensified competition. The juku had roots in the Chinese Confucian examination system and had been in existence in prewar Japan, but their extraordinary expansion occurred in the 1970s. They offered something to almost all children: the obvious slow learners enrolled to catch up with their classes, the average students to gain some kind of an edge, and the talented children to prepare for the elite upper school entrance exams. Almost everyone went in order to enter upper secondary school, whether or not it led to top colleges and universities. For urban children it had become a way of life to go directly from school to a juku. Children attended starting from the third grade, their numbers increasing until the sixth grade, when they were confronted with the first exam hurdles for entrance into the upper private elite system. Because the capacity of the juku was limited, parental anxieties grew as more and more children entered the juku race. This situation promoted the development of the "kyoiku mama" syndrome-education-oriented mothers who pushed their children into cram schools. The juku were completely exam-oriented. Ideologically they stood in direct opposition to the liberal and progressive learning patterns educators wanted to promote. They stressed rote learning-a kind of mechanical pragmatism within concentrated areas-and standardization of answers that did not allow for individual expression or creativity; they fostered a narrow elitism mistaken for intellectual ability. The juku were criticized particularly at the primary school level, where Nikkyoso reported that children were not retaining facts absorbed by cramming. For example 50 percent of sixth graders could not remember the addition and subtraction they had learned in the fifth grade. Nonetheless the juku had widespread support among ambitious families, and as a major force within Japan's new "Confucian capitalism" they brought energetic efficiency to bear on a tradition of rigorous training. Incidents of juvenile violence both in the school and at home increased steadily through the 1970s, involving a surprising number of students in the twelve-to-fifteen age group, 90 percent of whom were boys. Many were doing very badly in their schoolwork and, resentful and angry at their poor career prospects, reacted to teacher criticisms with violence. One out of four junior high school teachers have said they could not control their students. The blame has been variously placed on permissive parents, uncaring teachers, an affluent society stressing material possessions, television viewing instead of reading, and uprooting from rural to urban settings. Although the rate of juvenile crime in Japan remained below that of most Western countries, police authorities in 1981 decided to take preventive measures to contain school violence and to attempt to sever student connections with organized crime. Other officials and citizens groups, voicing alarm, also proposed remedies, ranging from more intensive moral education to programs that would enhance job prospects of youths unable to compete academically. Higher Education Higher education as a goal in postwar Japan has been vigorously pursued by ambitious Japanese youth, resulting in mass higher education. In the 1970-79 period, college attendance figures nearly doubled, reaching 2.2 million. About 38 percent of secondary school graduates went on to college, the majority of which were private. Some 90 percent of junior college enrollment and 75 percent of university enrollment was in private institutions. In 1980 Japan was second only to the United States in numbers of institutions of higher learning, having more than 500 junior colleges, 450 colleges and universities, and some 250 graduate schools. Women generally attended junior colleges, and only 22 percent entered the still predominantly male preserves of the universities. Junior colleges were first established in 1948 to give introductory training in the liberal arts and were called short-course universities. Some derived from the former higher vocational schools that could not qualify as universities. They tended to specialize in home economics, teacher training, and the humanities. Most offered two-year courses, and their credits could be transferred toward a bachelor of arts degree. The competition for admission was not as keen as for the universities. The universities have remained at the pinnacle of the education pyramid, particularly the old, prestigious institutions, dating from the pre-World War II period-the national universities such as Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hitotsubashi, and the ranking elite private ones such as Keio and Waseda. The two top Christian institutions were Doshisha in Kyoto and International Christian University outside Tokyo, and there were Buddhist universities such as Ryukoku in Kyoto. About one-third of the universities, including the most prominent ones, were concentrated in the Tokyo area, while another one-third were in Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, or Kobe. For the bachelor of arts degree programs, the first two years were spent on general subjects and the last two on specialization in a major. In 1979 undergraduates were most attracted to the social sciences, followed by engineering, the humanities, teacher training, and health. Under the law, universities had considerable autonomy in personnel matters and general management of their affairs. Most were governed by a president and senior professors. The universities comprised several faculties-each under a dean elected by its professors-which were the principal operating organs of the university administration. Faculty and staff in public universities were civil servants; those in national universities were appointed by the Ministry of Education on the basis of university nominations, which in practice have always been accepted. Individual universities have organized their own curricula, although the Ministry of Education has specified standards for the general framework in regard to the subjects offered, methods of presentation, unit system, number of class days per year, and length of courses. Reforms in the 1970s permitted a more elastic application of these standards together with a number of innovations. Inter-university mobility of students and staff, for example, began to remedy problems of isolation and provincialism. The creation of the new-concept universities such as Tsukuba followed, which made use of new educational and research units as clusters of related studies and research institutes. There was a marked emphasis on qualitative improvements within the existing systems to correct various imbalances within the faculties and to decentralize locations. Efforts continued to establish medical colleges in all prefectures. Sixteen national medical universities or departments were set up between 1973 and 1979. Such new facilities and funding programs were part of an effort to expand prefectural and municipal universities in hopes of alleviating the extreme student congestion in the capital area. The prestigious schools of the Tokyo-Kyoto urban belt, however, still lured the majority of top students. Technical colleges had five-year programs that extended through the junior college level. These schools concentrated on engineering studies from chemical to aeronautical and also served the merchant marine with marine engineering and navigation courses. In 1978, there were 46,000 students attending sixty-two technical colleges, fifty-four of which were national institutions. Special training schools also existed on the college level, and some 5,000 other schools providing miscellaneous advanced courses enrolled more than 200,000 high school graduates in 1979. Other options in higher education included correspondence study and night courses. The newest educational innovation for 1982 was the "University of the Air," using television and radio to furnish the general public with the opportunity for higher education. No aspect of Japan's system of higher education has been more critical and more criticized than the university entrance examination. The so-called examination hell (nyushi jigoku) begins for the ambitious student-or for the student with ambitious parents-in kindergarten and dominates the school years until college entry. Apart from its distorting effect on the education system, the often devastating impact of the examination system on the student is pointed out by critics who believe that this is related to the rising suicide rate among Japanese youths-the world's highest. Both the strong upward mobility created by greatly expanded educational opportunity in postwar Japan and the established hold of the few top universities over many avenues to government and business success contributed to the fierce pressures for admission to the "right" universities. The rapid and often hasty creation of new universities after World War II had, if anything, intensified the competition for entry into those considered better. The student forced by money or competitive circumstances to go to the lesser institutions, which are frequently the objects of derision, knew that his prospects would be hurt regardless of his talents. A product of the examination system was the class of unsuccessful candidates termed "ronin," after the lordless samurai of feudal times; the ronin were a major source of income to a large number of special preparatory schools, cram schools, and tutors as they studied to retake the examinations, sometimes for several years. About 250,000 students failed their entrance examinations annually. One effort to deal with this problem was the inauguration in 1979 of a standardized, first-stage university entrance examination, the results of which national, public, and private universities used as a screening device, while administering second-stage examinations of their own. The system had certain advantages but increased the burden of the students because the first-stage test covered a wide range of subjects. Also it meant that some students-those choosing to take a second-stage examination administered by both a private and a public university in order to have a fall-back position-had to take three examinations. The pressure to succeed has inevitably resulted in attempts to circumvent the examination system. At several outstanding private universities there have been "leaks" of exam questions (as at Chuo University in 1977 and Waseda in 1980), which created major scandals that resulted in jail sentences, disgrace, and suicides. At one top university in 1980, ten parents paid 46 million Yen for copies of the examination questions and answers. Scandals involving money payments in lieu of examination success have also been widespread, notably in the case of medical schools. Revelations of massive hidden "contributions" in 1977 stirred the Ministry of Education to admonish the private universities that "payment of contributions and purchase of university bonds (redeemable upon graduation) should not exceed 10 million Yen per student." Nevertheless in 1980, of the 3,244 students entering the faculties of medicine at private universities, 29.3 percent paid contributions averaging 11.57 million Yen. Private and nonprivate universities differed sharply in their fee structures. A student entering a top national institution, Kyoto University, in 1978-79 would pay entrance and matriculation fees of 70,000 Yen and yearly tuition of 144,000 Yen. At one of the leading private universities, Keio in Tokyo, there was an admission fee of 160,000 Yen and a basic tuition fee for the Faculty of Letters of 280,000 Yen annually, which, combined with other fees, came to a total of 501,350 Yen per year. Private schools depended on students to supply about two-thirds of their general income, while the rest came from donations, subsidies and loans. Tuition at private medical and dental colleges was the highest, at eleven times the entrance fees for national medical schools, while the entrance fees were enormous-some reaching the equivalent of US$100,000 in 1977. For this reason the government was promoting the building of prefectural medical schools. Students also had to pay for their living expenses, which doubled between 1972 and 1976 to about 450,000 Yen yearly. Most students worked part-time to help their parents defray expenses. About 20 percent had student loans, and a lucky few had scholarships that came chiefly from the Japan Scholarship Foundation, although increasingly they were provided by large companies, newspapers, and industry. The old university-centered world in which fields of specialization were subordinated to overriding loyalty to the school itself (gakubatsu) has begun to give way to a broader outlook. In the past, top universities, with few exceptions, hired only their own graduates for life and so perpetuated an inbred atmosphere. Among the elements characterizing the university-centered syndrome that still remained an integral part of university life were individual university entrance examinations, special criteria for recruiting faculty and placing students, student veneration of professors, seniority-based salaries and retirement schedules, and in-house publications. The formal structure within which the teacher worked was still that of a faculty and a department centered on the powerful chairholder, although the chair system has been criticized. In major universities, faculties usually consisted of several chairs each held by a professor, aided by an assistant professor and assistants subordinate to him. Deference to one's chairman has often served to hinder the development of fresh talent in the past, but on the whole, gerontocratic rule is waning. The guarantee of academic freedom was instituted so that universities might be nearly autonomous in policymaking and staff appointments. Professors were free to form unions and often became active politically. Since the late 1950s many teachers have run for office and won, providing a mayor for Nagoya, a governor for Kanazawa, and even the governor of Tokyo. The presence of politics in university life has had the unfortunate effect of polarizing university decisionmaking; however, political activism on campus declined in the economic boom of the 1970s. The trend among young faculty members has been to emphasize the importance of research, to the point where nearly half of them felt that this was their most important function. Many teachers regularly supplemented their incomes by writing popular articles for the media, and some went on to become regulars on television and the lecture circuit. Because salaries were raised in the 1970s, university teachers no longer suffered from the penurious conditions of the 1960s and did not need to moonlight or indulge in the various forms of academic rebates from students, their parents, or from publishers for recommending their texts. In many large universities a new breed of teachers has been described as sararimen, willing to work only from nine-to-five without any after-hour faculty meetings, student counseling, or additional teaching hours. This contrasts with the professor who felt that it was his social duty to devote all his energies to his students and his university and who was in fact tied there by the seniority system. One of the fundamental aspects of the Japanese university system has been the veneration in which the professor is held by his students and his paternalistic attitude towards them. Most professors accepted the heavy obligation of aiding their senior seminar students in finding employment. The student returned this attention with lifelong devotion, continuing to visit and ask advice from his former teachers until death, when he often published a memorial volume in their honor. Once admitted to the university, the student found the competitive pressure greatly relaxed. Most of the classes were lectures, and on becoming a senior he need not attend any classes except the final examination. A graduation thesis might be the only other formal requirement. Because there was little competition, most institutions did not offer special awards for scholarship. The school became a "diploma factory" providing the desired degree for a minimal amount of effort and the entree into the job market, which has become the primary motivation for entering the university for many students. Criticism has understandably been raised concerning the real goals of education and the loss of intellectual stimulation and growth occurring under such a system. The tendency to recruit college students in their third year has downplayed any criterion of ability or of excellent performance for hiring. Students have been deprived of a need to excel in their studies and have turned to the by-products of university life, such as clubs or the student movements, to engage their energies. The slowing down of the economy and shrinking job opportunities, however, may prove to be just the prod needed to stimulate student competitiveness during university studies so that in fact the majority finally do become intellectually motivated. The small percentage going on to graduate schools and research institutes were, of course, the constant intellectual component of any university. Participation in the student government association, which promotes student causes on most campuses, has been a popular activity. In the past many such groups were taken over by student activists and turned towards political purposes. Student activism has been a well-established tradition in Japanese universities since Meiji times. The great imperial universities had historically been centers of resistance to official ideology. Marxism took its strongest roots there in the postwar period and in the early 1980s still retained an influence, particularly in the economics faculties of many universities. Ministry of Education mechanisms to lead and guide the thoughts of students, backed by police power, were applied with varying severity from the Meiji Restoration until the end of World War II. The major universities never ceased to be pockets of iconoclastic thought. Despite its often revolutionary posturing, modern student activism has not been necessarily or even predominantly motivated by ideology. The public and press have customarily regarded student strikes and demonstrations as predictable student behavior, compounded more of romantic exuberance and thoughtful opposition to authority than as an expression of political commitment. Under the regulations of most universities, striking students could be expelled, placed on probation, or admonished, but these measures had seldom been employed except against leaders in flagrant cases. The tolerance of school authorities had typically been matched by the indifference of the public to periodic student uproars. The transformation from student radical into the conservative employee of the establishment upon emergence from the campus chrysalis had been a virtual canon of Japanese popular sociology. That this traditional view of student life was overly romantic was brought home to the Japanese public as well as to the authorities by the crescendo of strikes and violence that befell the universities in 1968 and 1969. It revealed the depth of student frustration and genuine discontent with the university system. The All Japan Federation of Student Self-Government Associations (Zengakuren) was the largest student organization in Japan. Zengakuren was formed in 1948 on the initiative of Japan Communist Party (JCP) members within the student bodies of several universities in the Tokyo area. The new federation grew rapidly, and until the mid-1950s its control by the JCP remained unchallenged. Since 1958 it has split several times, mirroring schisms in the party between pro-Soviet and pro-Chinese factions. By 1968 membership neared 450,000 at slightly over 300 institutions. Zengakuren played a central role in the campus disorders of the late 1960s. Zengakuren affiliates have existed in some urban high schools since the 1950s. A new type of voluntary body, ignoring the Zengakuren, was formed on campuses as the Joint Struggle Committee (Zenkyoto)-a nonsectarian radical movement patterned on ideals of participatory democracy. All students supporting the struggle for anti-war aims could join, and all participated in conjunction with the Zengakuren in the mobilization of students in 1968-69. Following the containment of these all-out struggles against the power structures in street and campus battles with police, the movement finally collapsed in 1971. The hard-core radicals reappeared in such groups as the Red Army Faction, engaging in guerrilla strikes and other militant action; while the general nonsectarian radicals turned to regional struggles concerning environmental pollution or nuclear reactors. As of late 1981 the student movement per se had not recovered from its factional disintegration of the early 1970s, perhaps because its struggles against the hierarchy resulted in many positive reforms demanded by the students and partly because of the strong disapproval of student violence voiced by the growing affluent society with its education-oriented goals. Some students have turned instead to religious activism with the student arm of the Soka Gakkai, a Buddhist activist organization that has been steadily growing in strength since the 1970s (see Interest Groups, ch. 6).