Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0033/00330.txt

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$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).