Education system in Japan

Japanese education system before and after 1947

Japan has a highly developed school system . It is mostly referred to as the 6-3-3-4 system according to the number of years that one spends in the respective school.

Upstream of the actual school system are the crèche ( Japanese 保育 , hoikuen ) and the kindergarten ( 幼稚園 , yōchien ). Children are usually admitted to the day nursery from the age of 2 months and to the kindergarten from the age of 3 to 5 years. There are private and public day nurseries and kindergartens, some of which require uniforms.

In the 2015 PISA ranking , Japanese students ranked 5th out of 72 countries in math, 3rd in science and 8th in reading comprehension. Japanese students were among the best among all participating countries.

history

During the Taika reform in the 7th century, the Japanese empire Yamato was transformed into a Confucian official state based on the Chinese model. In order to train the officials, the Daigaku-ryō ( 大学寮 ) was founded at the court . There the Chinese language and writing and the Confucian classics were taught, but also practical administrative knowledge such as land surveying , bookkeeping and astrology . Astrology was important in predicting whether certain actions of the emperor would have good or bad consequences. It was also at this time that the first Buddhist monasteries were founded in Japan, which have always been important centers of knowledge over the centuries. At the court of the Heian period , the culture and education of court officials flourished.

With the takeover of power by the warrior nobility over the imperial court, around the 12th century, more practical skills were required, knowledge of warfare and the skills necessary for efficient administration. Only with the peace in the Edo period did the rough samurai become an educated class of officials who not only developed reading and writing, not only fighting into an art ( 武術 , bujutsu ), but was also educated in art. Calligraphy , painting , poetry and literature were promoted.

The temples established elementary schools ( terakoya ) during this period so that ordinary citizens, including women, had access to education. A publishing company emerged which, for example, printed entertainment novels for the people.

Western education also reached Japan during this time. The Dutch maintained a small colony on the island of Deshima and supplied interested samurai with books from Europe. In addition to books about weapons, the art of war and current political events, knowledge about Western natural sciences and medicine came to Japan in this way. The study of these sources was called Rangaku ("Hollandkunde").

Interest in the West, which showed only a small minority in the Edo period, grew much greater after the opening of Japan . Japan was to be modernized to compete with the western industrialized nations, but that was only possible by adopting as much knowledge as possible. Young Japanese were sent to universities in the United States and Europe as students. The Iwakura mission was to research the form of government in various western countries. There were Imperial universities along the lines of the Berlin Humboldt University , founded and private universities on the American model. Foreign experts (so-called O-yatoi gaikokujin ) were brought into the country to build up the state, the military and universities. Compulsory schooling was introduced, the former temple schools became public and a tripartite school system was established.

The militarism that soon developed then harnessed this system for its own purposes. The military sent teachers to schools to ensure patriotic education. After the surrender in 1945 , these teachers were fired by the US occupation forces, but destroyed Japan urgently needed teachers, and so these teachers were soon brought back. This is one of the reasons why there is a solid voter base on the far right in Japan today.

In the economic development of the post-war period, the universities became engines of progress.Japan had initially limited itself to only copying Western products and conquering market shares, so the companies soon set up their own development departments that cooperated with the universities in research and also whose graduates took over.

school-system

General

The compulsory education of nine years, but does not extend to children without Japanese citizenship.
The school year in Japan starts on April 1st.
The school holidays are uniform throughout the country (New Year: 2 weeks, March / April: 2 weeks, July / August: 6 weeks).
Public schools have a five-day week, private schools often have a six-day week.
During compulsory schooling there is no sitting down such as B. in Germany , practically every student is automatically transferred.

primary school

The primary school ( 小学校 , shōgakkō ) lasts six years; Children start school after they have reached the age of 6. You go to the school in whose district you live. Almost all primary schools are open to the public and are funded by the respective communities. School uniforms do not exist in all elementary schools.

The average class size is 25 students, albeit with strong fluctuations, with an average of only 18 students in Kōchi Prefecture, but 32 in Tokyo Prefecture.About 2% of the classes are mixed, with as many as 12 in Kagoshima Prefecture by a large margin % of classes included students from different levels (2010 each).

In 2010 there were 22,000 primary schools, 213 of which were private, with around 420,000 full-time teachers and almost 7 million students.

Middle school

After elementary school, you attend the three-year middle school ( 中学校 , chūgakkō ), also usually a public school near your home. However, there are also some private middle schools for which you have to take an entrance exam. Uniforms are usually compulsory in middle school, but not in all schools. In the last year of middle school, the students study very intensively for the high school entrance examination, which can have a decisive influence on the further course of life.

The middle school classes are comparatively large with an average of 29 students (in the 1980s there were still 37), with the average size being 44 students / class by far, especially in Tokyo Prefecture.

Although compulsory schooling ends with middle school, 98% of students attend secondary schools.

In 2010 there were 10,815 middle schools, of which 758 were private, with around 250,000 full-time teachers and 3.5 million students. Most primary and secondary schools are run by the respective municipalities, but are financially supported by the state in order to enable uniform basic education (during compulsory schooling) throughout the country.

High school

After middle school, almost all students attend three-year high school ( 高等学校 , kōtō gakkō or 高校 kōkō for short ). Access to a secondary school is generally regulated by an entrance examination , with the reputation and level of education of the secondary school being reflected in the degree of difficulty of the entrance examination. The completion of the secondary school formally qualifies for entry into a university and is therefore equated with the German Abitur . However, there is no final exam in the true sense of the word, but the qualification is acquired through regular participation in classes and by passing class work. In order to enter the university, however, a separate entrance examination must be taken for each university and each department.

The Ministry of Education prescribes the following subjects and subjects for high schools:

Japanese (Language Expression I and II, General Japanese, Contemporary Literature, Classical Literature including Classical Literature Reading)
Geography and History (World History A and B, Japanese History A and B, Geography A and B)
Citizenship ( social studies , ethics , politics / economics )
Mathematics (Fundamentals of Mathematics, Mathematics I, II and III, Mathematics A, B and C)
Natural Sciences (Fundamentals of Science, General Science A and B)
Physics I and II
Chemistry I and II
Biology I and II
Health education and sports
Art ( music I, II and III, ( visual ) arts I, II and III, handicrafts, calligraphy I, II and III)
Foreign languages (Oral communication [in English] I and II, English I and II, reading [in English], writing [in English])
Housekeeping (Basics of Housekeeping, General Housekeeping, Living Techniques)
Computer science (computer science A, B and C).

Each subject area has to be taken, but with the exception of citizenship, some of these are designed as compulsory elective lessons. For example, you can choose between language expression and general for Japanese, or between music, visual arts, handicrafts and calligraphy for art.

There are also secondary schools which, like the German vocational high schools, offer specialized curricula that are attended by around a quarter of the students (one third in public schools and one tenth in private schools). These contain a large selection of profile subjects in the fields of agriculture, technology, economics, fishing, home economics, nursing, IT, welfare, mathematics, sports, music, art or English.

In addition to public high schools (mostly supported by the prefectures ) there are numerous private schools. A fee had to be paid for all high schools up to the beginning of the fiscal and school year 2010 (April 1st), but this was lower for the public schools than for the private ones. Since then, the state has been paying grants for the tuition fees of private secondary schools, and depending on the prefecture, these are actually completely free of charge for households.

In 2010 there were 5,116 high schools, 1,321 of which were private, with around 240,000 full-time teachers and 3.4 million students. 613 schools also offer distance learning , which is used by nearly 190,000. 116,000 of the high school students do not attend regular all-day classes, but part-time or evening classes ( 定時制の課程 , teijisei no katei ).

Immediately after high school, as of 2010, around 54% (around 580,000) of pupils attend secondary schools, mainly universities, and 16% (around 167,000) go into working life.

Technical college

In 1962 the technical colleges ( 高等専門学校 , kōtō semmon gakkō or 高専 for short , kōsen , English Technical College ), also called technical college , were introduced to meet the needs of skilled workers in the industry. These schools can be attended after middle school and have a duration of 5 years.

In 2010 there were 58 technical colleges, 3 of them private, with around 4,300 full-time teachers and almost 60,000 students.

University

A large proportion of all high school leavers then go to college ( 大学 , daigaku ), which lasts four years and concludes with a bachelor's degree ( 学士 , gakushi ), the first academic degree that students at universities can obtain as a completion of a scientific education.

As with secondary schools, admission to study at all universities is linked to passing an entrance examination, which is very difficult and demands everything from the young people. After graduating from high school, some students spend a year just studying for the entrance exam (so-called rōnin ). Japanese universities are primarily rated in public opinion according to how demanding their entrance exams are.

In 2010, around 620,000 students were enrolled, of which around 520,000 were from the 2010 high school year, about 1.1 million graduated, 63,000 from the previous high school year and just under 10,000 from the 2008 high school year. Since most students apply to several universities , one counts a total of 3.7 million applications.

Only a few (2010: 82,000) students follow a master’s course ( 大学院 , daigakuin , two years) and receive the master’s degree ( 修士 , shūshi ), even fewer (2010: 16,000) a doctoral course (mostly three years) for a doctorate ( 博士 , hakase / hakushi ).

In addition to the regular universities with their four years of age, there are also short colleges ( tanki daigaku , English Junior College ) with two years of study, which mainly offer courses in the humanities and social sciences and are attended to 60% by women.

If the entrance exam is passed, the requirements for studying are relatively low, at least at the more average universities. The students have the opportunity to devote themselves entirely to their favorite topic without feeling too much pressure to perform. The final exams are also very easy; Accordingly, the study time is often used to make up for the parts of youth life that were previously difficult to achieve due to the stress of learning and the mostly cramped living conditions with the parents, such as parties, informal get-togethers with friends and partnerships.

All universities levy fees, which are the equivalent of around 4,000 euros per year at public universities and around 6,000 euros per year at private universities. In addition, there are around 2500 euros enrollment fees.

In 2010 there were 778 universities, 597 of them private, with around 170,000 full-time teachers and 2.9 million students. (This corresponds approximately to a ratio of 16.5: 1; for orientation: German universities had 1.4 million students and around 95,000 scientific and artistic employees in 2006.) There are also 395 short-term universities, 369 of which are private, with almost 10,000 full-time teachers and 150,000 Students. Of these, 44 universities and 11 short universities offer correspondence courses, in which 147,000 and 20,000 study respectively.

The type of university degree is not necessarily important, as Japanese companies start recruiting about nine quarters of a year before the end of university and most students know where they will be before they graduate. Many companies primarily recruit on the basis of a university's reputation. Of course, the field of study also plays a role, but Japanese companies believe that a new employee has to show his loyalty and willingness to learn, even if he is employed in an unrelated field. Compared to Germany, it is therefore more common for companies to hire employees for areas of activity that have absolutely nothing to do with the subject.

Lessons in individual subjects

Japanese writing

Learning the Japanese writing system is very time-consuming, as it consists of the syllabary scripts Hiragana and Katakana as well as word characters ( Kanji ), and the Latin script ( Rōmaji ) is also used in Japan. Hiragana are usually learned in kindergarten: since a character always corresponds to a syllable, the assignment of sounds and characters is considerably easier than with the Latin script and can be learned through play. Katakana and the first 100 kanji follow in the first year of elementary school. Rōmaji are also learned in elementary school.

The Kanji are very time-consuming to learn. During the nine years of compulsory schooling, the 2136 so-called Jōyō Kanji are learned. It is specified across the country which characters are to be learned in which school year. For each character, the stroke sequence and the various (usually at least two) pronunciation variants must be memorized in their respective contexts .

foreign languages

The first foreign language taught in Japanese middle school is English , but mostly only three hours a week. These lessons are continued in the secondary school. Until recently, literary education was the main focus, and everyday oral English was rarely used; however, this is gradually changing today. Almost all primary schools now offer English lessons, but some only once a month; There are no curricula for teaching English in primary schools.

Since only very few high schools offer a second foreign language, there is usually only an opportunity to learn a second foreign language (mostly German , French , Chinese or Korean ) at university .

Web links

The Japanese and US education systems in comparison (English, Japanese)

Individual evidence

^ PISA study - Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Accessed April 14, 2018 .

↑ 外国人の子どもの公立義務教育諸学校への受入について (jp)

↑ "Implementing provisions of the Schools and Education Act", Ministerial Ordinance No. 14 of the Ministry of Education of March 30, 2012 ( 学校教育法施行規則平成二四年三月三〇日文部科学省令第一四号 ), Article 59 (for elementary schools ), 104 (for high schools) 113 (for middle schools).

↑ Japan Statistical Yearbook 2012 , Table 22-3 Elementary Schools by Prefecture , Online ( Memento of the original dated December 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( MS Excel ; 39 kB), class size calculated from pupils ( Children enroled (1,000) ) / class ( Classes ) @1@ 2

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Japan Statistical Yearbook 2012 , Table 22-1 Schools by Founder , Online ( Memento of the original dated December 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( MS Excel ; 29 kB) @1@ 2

↑ ^a ^b Japan Statistical Yearbook 2012 , Table 22-4, Lower Secondary Schools by Prefecture , Online ( Memento of the original dated December 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( MS Excel ; 42 kB) @1@ 2

↑ ^a ^b Japan Statistical Yearbook 2012 , Table 22-21, Post-School Status of Graduates , Online ( Memento of the original dated December 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( MS Excel ; 33 kB) @1@ 2

↑ ^a ^b 高等学校学習指導要領 (平成 11 年 3 月告示, 14 年 5 月, 15 年 4 月, 15 年 12 月一部改正) 第 1 章総則 (“High school curriculum (announced in March 1999, revisions in May 2002, April 2003 and December 2003), Section 1: General Regulations “). (No longer available online.) MEXT , December 2003, archived from the original on May 20, 2011 ; Retrieved January 21, 2012 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2

↑ ^a ^b Japan Statistical Yearbook 2012 , Table 22-6, Students of Upper Secondary Schools by Course (Regular Course) , Online ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked . Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( MS Excel ; 31 kB) @1@ 2

↑ Japan Statistical Yearbook 2012 , Table 22-7, Correspondence Education of Upper Secondary Schools , Online ( Memento of the original dated December 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( MS Excel ; 24 kB) @1@ 2

↑ ^a ^b ^c The Japanese higher education system. Japanese editing at Saarland University, accessed on September 22, 2015 .

↑ Technical University of Applied Sciences Kisarazu. Goethe-Institut, accessed on September 22, 2015 .

↑ Japan Statistical Yearbook 2012 , Table 22-17, Applicants for Admission to Universities and New Students Enroled by Faculty and Year of Graduation from Upper Secondary School , Online ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( MS Excel ; 31 kB) @1@ 2

↑ ^a ^b Japan Statistical Yearbook 2012 , Table 22-13, Universities , Online ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( MS Excel ; 32 kB) @1@ 2

↑ Basic data for universities, Science Council (PDF; 73 kB)

↑ Japan Statistical Yearbook 2012 , Table 22-14, Correspondence Education of Junior Colleges and Universities , Online ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( MS Excel ; 24 kB) @1@ 2

↑ Unesco : Educators .

[1] PISA study - Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Accessed April 14, 2018 .

[2] 外国人の子どもの公立義務教育諸学校への受入について (jp)

[3] "Implementing provisions of the Schools and Education Act", Ministerial Ordinance No. 14 of the Ministry of Education of March 30, 2012 ( 学校教育法施行規則平成二四年三月三〇日文部科学省令第一四号 ), Article 59 (for elementary schools ), 104 (for high schools) 113 (for middle schools).