Japan’s Educational Marathon
By “Awake!” correspondent in Japan
“NOTHING, in fact, is more central in Japanese society or more basic to Japan’s success,” says Harvard Professor Edwin O. Reischauer, “than is its educational system.”
Lately, though, Japan’s schools have been coming under attack. Reporter Yoshiko Sakurai says: “Japan’s system of education has been reduced to a contest to pass examinations rather than a means by which students are intellectually nourished.” Sasuke Kabe, a Japanese principal, likewise reportedly confessed: “We have traditionally emphasized the acquiring of knowledge as opposed to developing well-rounded persons.”
Many educators therefore protest that Japan’s schools have become an educational marathon—a grueling, competitive gauntlet. Why did such a situation come about? Basically because of the high value the Japanese people place on the respect of others and on success. Employment in a prestigious company or firm is thus highly prized. Usually, to get such employment, though, you must have graduated from a prestigious university.
However, unless you have attended certain high schools, your chances of entering one of these choice universities are pretty slim. But you most likely will not be in the right high school if you did not make it into the appropriate junior high school, which will not occur if the elementary school you attended did not have a reasonable number of its students pass junior high school entrance exams. Even the kindergarten you attended could one day determine how far you advance in a company!
“Examination Hell”
No wonder, then, that columnist Kimpei Shiba writes that “education-bent mothers . . . [begin] bringing [their] infants only 2 years old to be trained for kindergarten entrance examinations to enable them to enter the better elementary schools.” Competition is so intense that only one student in nine gains entrance.
After starting elementary school, the next 12 years are spent preparing for the successive examinations needed to gain entrance into the higher levels of schooling. Says columnist Shiba: “So violent [is] the competition that the expression ‘examination hell’ was coined. When children entered the sixth grade of a primary school, they rushed home with work [homework] that required about 2 hours of study. They then gulped down their dinners before rushing to private schools called ‘juku,’ which specialize in preparing students for entrance examinations into junior high, where the students were put through 3 hours of high-pressure indoctrination 7 days a week.”
You would naturally assume that, having survived such a formidable gauntlet, university entrants would all be eager-to-learn, top-notch students. Not so, says writer Kimpei Shiba. He describes the average university student as one who “can take things easy, often playing mah-jongg for half a day during school hours because he knows that it’s certain he will receive his diploma. All he needs is to obtain the required number of credits.” It seems that most employers are little concerned with how much graduates have actually learned. Jobs are for those merely graduating from the right universities.
The Fruits of Competition
Not surprisingly, all sorts of corruption and problems have arisen in this competitive environment. Every year anxious parents bribe their children’s way into universities, high schools, and junior high schools. Some parents even arrange fake divorces so that one parent and a child can register their address in the jurisdiction of a prestigious school. But when thousands of students compete for only a few hundred vacancies in a school, the majority are going to be disappointed. This has led to suicide for some. Others have vented their frustration by acts of violence.
Perhaps most distressing of all are the effects of this dog-eat-dog environment on the students. Interestingly, the Prime Minister’s Office commissioned a panel to compare the attitudes of young people, aged 18 to 24, in 11 countries. One question asked was, ‘Do you desire to be financially well off?’ Japan led the countries saying yes. On the other hand, the youths were also asked whether they would like to help people by doing social work. The Japanese youths were at the bottom of the list. So while Japan’s schools may excel academically, some would give them a failing grade when it comes to producing balanced, caring, well-rounded personalities.
Does a success-at-any-cost educational philosophy have yet other harmful effects on students? Consider a problem that has developed in German schools.
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“Japan’s system of education has been reduced to a contest to pass examinations rather than a means by which students are intellectually nourished”
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The competition starts early
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