Education in Japan

A Source Book

Edward R. Beauchamp, Richard Rubinger

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351387149
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This book, first published in 1989, includes essays on a number of the most important topics in Japanese education as well as the highly selected, and annotated, bibliographies. It is the editors' belief that understanding educational matters requires insight into the historical context, and have therefore placed contemporary Japanese educational matters in historical perspective.

Part I

History of Japanese
Education to 1952

CHAPTER I
GENERAL HISTORIES AND SURVEYS

The Japanese owe much of their early educational tradition to China. Formal education was made possible by the introduction of writing from China in the early fifth century, and in the eighth century T’ang China provided the model for Japan’s first school system. As described in the Taiho Codes of 701, a Confucian College (Daigakuryo) provided training in the Chinese classics to the court nobility in Kyoto and branch schools (kokugaku) provided training for the provincial aristocracy. The meritocratic principles of the Chinese examination system were never fully implemented in this early system because they conflicted with a Japanese preference for inherited privilege. During the ninth century aristocratic families set up private schools for their members; and at least one school, that of the Shingon monk Kukai (also known as Kobo Daishi, 774–835) was open to commoners. By the tenth century Confucian scholarship was in decline and court culture centered on a more Japanese form of aesthetic refinement. The development of a phonetic syllabary (kana) made possible a vernacular literature and the spread of literacy in the native language.

During the medieval age (twelfth to sixteenth centuries) Zen Buddhism became part of the training of the samurai along with the practical techniques of warfare. Scholarship was sheltered in Buddhist monasteries and priests taught acolytes and other children in their temples, but there were few schools. Not until the prolonged era of stability and peace of the Tokugawa period (1600–1868), did the systematic education of the samurai and extension of popular literacy become possible.

By 1853 when Commodore Perry intruded on Japan’s 250 years of isolation from the West, the samurai were not only fully literate but many had been transformed into urban bureaucrats, wielders of the pen rather than the sword. The Neo-Confucian curriculum at official schools trained leaders in the ethical responsibilities of good government through the Chinese classics. The Neo-Confucian insistence on “the investigation of things” stimulated an intellectual flowering. Private academies sprang up by the hundreds to satisfy interests of students in Western science, military technology, foreign language, national studies, and the traditional arts—adding considerably to the complexity and diversity of Tokugawa schooling patterns.

Another important aspect of the Tokugawa legacy was the spread of learning beyond elites to the non-samurai classes. Tens of thousands of local parish schools (terakoya) were established without official support by public-spirited citizens to train commoners in the rudiments of reading, writing, and calculation. It is estimated that 40% of the boys and 15% of the girls were receiving formal training outside their homes by the middle of the nineteenth century. This meant that before the modern period Japan had a highly skilled group of leaders, and wide segments of the population were prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that modern education offered.

Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868 education became the foundation for a strong unified state during the Meiji period (1868–1912). Borrowing freely from European and American models, the Meiji leaders planned a national system that would train the population in basic skills and create a citizenry responsive to state goals. In 1872 the Fundamental Code of Education called for a nationally organized system of schools administered by a central Ministry of Education. By 1886 a comprehensive system was implemented by Mori Arinori, the first minister of education, that provided the framework for Japanese education until 1945. Elementary schools were redesigned to inculcate patriotic loyalty, a new Imperial University provided free access to Western higher learning, and middle schools were established to act as elite sorting mechanisms for the narrow channel to higher education. The central mission of the schools to provide service to the state was set forth in the Imperial Rescript on Education of 1890.

Although liberalism and innovation in education gained currency in the 1920s, by the 1930s, with the outbreak of war on the Asian mainland, an extreme form of nationalism and patriotism was inculcated in children through the morals courses (shushin) in Japanese schools. The appointment of General Araki Sadao as minister of education in 1938 signalled the complete military takeover of the school system. Elementary schools were reorganized as “people’s schools” (kokumin gakko); military drill and evacuations to the countryside became ordinary parts of student life.

Following defeat in World War II, Japan was placed under Occupation by the Allied Powers and the educational system was singled out for special attention by Occupation reformers. Under American guidance the goals of postwar education became the development of individual personality and the nurturing of an independent spirit. The School Education Law of 1947 codified an extensive reorganization. The elitist multitrack system of the prewar period was replaced with a single track in a 6-3-3-4 structure. Technical colleges, normal schools, and higher schools were upgraded and absorbed into new four-year colleges on the American model; and a single comprehensive high school replaced the specialized schools of the old system. Compulsory education was extended from six to nine years and the principle of coeducation was established for all schools.

While the expansion of opportunity provided by the Occupation reforms has been welcomed, not all its effects have been positive. Competition for university entrance has, in fact, been exacerbated by greater numbers and the Japanese preference for ranking schools in a hierarchy by prestige. Because the graduate of a highly rated school has a far better chance of securing a desirable job than the graduate of a lesser school, the pressure to enter one of the very few prestigious national universities has become an “examination hell.”

Statistics show Japanese education to be among the most successful systems in the world in providing broad access to higher levels of schooling. In 1984 virtually 100% of the age group completed the nine years of compulsory schooling. 93.9% went on to high schools which are non-compulsory (and all but 2.2% graduated); 35.5% of the age group went on to universities or junior colleges (a figure that is second only to the United States but represents a slight falling off from previous years).

Despite these impressive numbers, many Japanese are concerned that the social cost may be too high. Among the many ills blamed on school entrance pressures are a rise in school violence and a profusion of costly “cram” schools (juku) which give wealthy families advantages and undermine the egalitarian thrust of the entire educational system. Against a backdrop of complaints from business leaders, education authorities, the media, and the public, a Provisional Council on Educational Reform was established by Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro in September 1984 to make recommendations that will guide Japanese education into the twenty-first century. To what extent the Japanese will be able to ease pressures and provide greater flexibility in the school system, without undermining quality, remains to be seen.

A. Histories of Japan

It is generally agreed, among those who teach survey histories of Japan, that there is no entirely satisfactory single-volume text that provides balanced treatment of both ancient and modern times and comprehensive, yet succinct, coverage of major issues in political, social, economic, cultural, and intellectual history. Nevertheless, while dissatisfaction remains, there are a number of standard works and an ever-increasing number of excellent one-volume survey histories that the student unfamiliar with Japan’s educational past may turn to with profit. Included here are works that cover the entire sweep of Japan’s history, as well as those that survey Japan’s modern development from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Included also are the best available reference works to which readers may refer for background material.

While there are now numerous works of high quality on specific aspects of Japanese educational history, there is not a single general survey of the subject. To get some sense of the broad sweep of Japanese educational history the reader is referred to the general histories listed below.

8.Encyclopedia of Asian History. 4 vols. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1988.

Comprehensive coverage of histories of all Asian countries by area specialists. Educational topics included.

9.Encyclopedia of Japan. 15 vols. Tokyo and New York: Kodansha International, 1983.

The most comprehensive and authoritative source on all aspects of Japanese civilization. An extraordinary feat of collaboration among outstanding scholars in Japan, Europe, and North America. Excellent general interpretive essays as well as shorter, more detailed entries on specific topics. Fine essay on Japanese educational history by Ronald Dore. Informative pieces on a wide range of specific issues and problems in Japanese education.

10.Hall, John Whitney. Japan: From Pre-History to Modern Times. New York: Dell, 1971.

Excellent one-volume history that combines good narrative history with a broad interpretive framework. Especially strong on development of political structures; contemporary period given much less stress than earlier periods.

11.Hane, Mikiso. Modern Japan: A Historical Survey. Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1986.

A revised edition of a 1972 publication. Intended for the general reader, it provides balance between pre-modern and modern periods, although thin on periods before Tokugawa. It is distinguishable from other one-volume histories in its emphasis on economic, social, and cultur...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Series Editor’s Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• PART I. HISTORY OF JAPANESE EDUCATION TO 1952
• PART II. CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE EDUCATION: PROBLEMS AND ISSUES
• Author Index
• Subject Index