Now
Japan is a country where higher education is popularized to almost all classes of the people. Six years of elementary school and three years of middle school are the period of compulsory education. 95 per cent of middle school students go on to high school. And fifty per cent of high school students begin to study at universities or colleges. It was believed that good education was a qualification to obtain a good occupation and a good salary. Therefore there was once a severe competition to enter good universities. To pass the entrance examination of a high ranked university was one of the purposes for young people, and they studied hard in order to become winners of the competition.
But with the recent collapse of lifetime employment and decreasing number of young people by small birth rate, it has become easier to enter universities. If a high school student doesn’t adhere to rank or name of the university, he or she can enter the university without competition. The worth of universities is reduced. Why do people still go to universities? The reason is founded on the fact that educated persons have been respected for a long time in Japan. Despite the numerous educational changes that have occurred in the country, and especially after the Second World War, the education system still reflects long-standing cultural and philosophical ideas. Learning and education are esteemed and to be pursued seriously. Moral and character development is integral to education. This kind of mentality of the Japanese people has been seen since the medieval period. But the trend to esteem education seems to be based on Confucianism in the Edo period.
The Edo period
The Edo period was a unique era in Japanese history. At the Battle of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated his rival lords, and established Tokugawa regime in 1603. He lived in Edo (now Tokyo) and settled the political institutions there. Hence the era is called Edo period, which continued till the Meiji Restoration in 1868. The most important issue of the newly established Tokugawa government was to pacify the country. The political system was consisted of two schemes, the national authority of shogun and the regional authorities of feudal lords. Centralized and decentralized authorities were combined in Japanese feudalism. But Tokugawa shogunate had kept the dominant political and military power throughout the Edo period. Beside Tokugawa government in Edo, emperor and the imperial court survived in Kyoto. After accomplishment of Tokugawa regime and completion of seclusion, no wars or no rebellions took place. People enjoyed “Pax Tokugawa” for 200 years.
During the period, the role of warrior class changed to administrator and the class was built into the bureaucracy of central and regional government. Consequently the warrior class was needed to acquire both military and literary studies. Confucianism, which taught people to respect their loads and their elders, morality and loyalty, was introduced to formal education. Confucian classics were read, recited and memorised. Arithmetic and calligraphy were also studied. Most warriors attended the schools founded by the regional feudal loads. By the time of Meiji Restoration, about 280 regional schools had been established. In the late Edo period, some schools began to teach Japanese subjects and Western medicine and military science. For the bureaucrats of the central government of Tokugawa regime, a special institute taught the Neo-Confucianism of the Zhi Xi school. Zhi Xi was an eminent scholar in China, who interpreted the world dualistic and more theological with the Spirit and the Matter.
Education for common people was generally practically oriented, providing basic training in reading, writing, and arithmetic, emphasizing calligraphy and use of the abacus. Much of this education was conducted in so-called “Terakoya” schools, which admitted men and women, managed by Buddhist and Shinto priests, masterless warriors and educated townspeople. By the end of the Tokugawa period, there were more than 11,000 such schools, attended by 750,000 students. Teaching techniques included reading from various textbooks, memorizing, abacus, and repeatedly copying Chinese characters and Japanese script. It is estimated that 80 per cent of the male and 60 per cent of the female population acquired literacy at the end of the Edo period. These facts helped Japan to grow up to become a modern nation soon after the Meiji Restoration.
The Meiji Restoration
1868 is the year of the Meiji Restoration. Shogun lost the political power and the emperor and his followers acquired the power. After the restoration the new leadership set Japan on a rapid course of modernization. The new leaders established a public education system to help Japan catch up with the West and form a modern nation. After some trial and error, a new national education system emerged. As an indication of its success, elementary school enrollments rose from about 40 or 50 per cent of the school-age population in the 1870s to more than 90 per cent by 1900.
In the early twentieth century, education at the primary level was egalitarian and virtually universal, but at higher levels it was multi-tracked, highly selective and elitist. Higher education was largely limited to a few imperial universities where German influences were strong. Three of the imperial universities admitted women, and there were a number of women’s colleges, some quite prestigious, but women had relatively few opportunities to enter higher education. After 1919 several of the private universities received official status and were granted government recognition for programmes they had conducted.
After the Second World War
By 1945 the Japanese education system had been devastated, and with the defeat the education had to be changed. A new wave of foreign ideas led by American educational system was introduced during the post-war period of military occupation. Occupation policy makers and the United States Education Mission, set up in 1946, made a number of changes at Japanese education. Institution of the six-three-three-four grade structure (six years of elementary school, three of middle school, three of high school and four of university)
was set up. Compulsory education was extended to nine years. Thus the contemporary educational system of Japan was accomplished.