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5 Education Lecture Notes ?001 by Mineharu Nakayama

Key Words: literacy during Edo Period, compulsory education system, Advancement rate to higher education, longer school days, discipline, learning how to operate in a group, Daigaku, entrance examination, foreign students in Japanese universities

Reichauer (1977) - about 45% of male and 15% of female in the 19th c were literate

-thousands of "terakoya" 'temple school' - reading and writing and arithmetic (abacus)

But according to Sakaya Taichi, 1860's - 40% of male, 25% of female - could read and write and arithmetcs - learn in terakoya (England - 20% of male, zero - female, no schools accepted female in Europe)

1871 - Education Ministry was founded

1872 - compulsory education

Tokyo university in 1877, Tokyo Imperial University in 1886 - subject to a uniform examination system, entrance into the high civil bureaucracy

(Kyoto U in 1897, Tohoku U in 1907, Kyuushuu U in 1910, Hokkaido U in 1918, Keio and Waseda U in 1882)

1900 - 4 yr compulsory - 90%

1906 - 6 yr compulsory - 99% - 5 yr (middle) 3 yr (high) or 4 yr (univ/college)

1935 - middle school - 18.5%; higher school - 3%

1947 - 9 yr compulsory education

Article 26 of the constitution - parents are obligated to send their children to school for 9 year compulsory education

6-3 - 3 (high) or 4 (vocational)

-2 (AA)

- 4 (BA/BS) - 2 (MA/MS) - 3 (Ph.D)

- 6 - 4 (medical school)

No law schools like in the US

1970 survey - 15-64 yr olds - compulsory - 56.7%; high school - 34.1%; junior college or university - 8.9%; no education .3%

1980 kindergarten 64.4%

primary and junior high - 100%

senior high - 94.2%

univ. - 37.4%

graduate school - 3.9%

1980 93 national universities; 34 state or public u; 319 private u; 257 graduate schools - 77 national, 21 public, 159 private; about 520 junior colleges

students -2.2 million

1991 507 universities (313 grad schools) - 96 national universities (95 grad school); 39 local (23 grad); 372 private (195 grad); 593 junior colleges

Advancement rate to higher education JPN 38.2% in 1991 vs. US 44.1% in 1989 (see 11-24 in Japan 1994)

ratio of tudents to teaching staff in 1996

Japan primary 19.7 secondary 15.9 university-level 13.5

US 16.9 16.1 14.1

longer school days - US 180 days - 230 or so in Japan - primary and secondary education

rote memory

discipline is firm

learning how to operate in a group

university - apathy

president of the univ - chosen by the peers

2-3 % of GNP spent on R &D

Juku (cram school)

roonin

kyooiku mama (education mother)

board of Education - appointed by the governor

textbooks are free

uniform nationwide educational system

traditional emphasis on formal learning

centralized and uniform schools - French system

chief emphasis on elementary education

Christian schools - women's education

Daigaku

5 yr vocational school - 1962

Why is it so difficult for American students to study in Japan?

Modernization =/= westernization -Japan still maintains its fundamental codes of life (e.g., in business - life time employment and the seniority system vs. the merit system)

Daigaku vs. university/college/school

joshu, kooshi, jokyooju, kyooju - no certainty of the quality

leadership vs. forming a consensus - president's primary concern

entrance examination - prerequisite - language, history, knowledge of society

primary concern of the universities - learning from abroad

main role of university education is to provide human resources for business

50,000 foreign students in Japanese universities or 1.5% vs. 400,000 or 5.4% in the US (before 1994)

Law schools, Medical schools

Awards and scholarships

Entrance exams

Tuitions

Drugs