Introduction

The Japanese school system

Education is a valued part of Japanese culture. Teachers are well-paid in Japan and are
viewed with great respect. The Japanese government is intensely supportive of
education spending, and Japanese parents do their best to ensure that their children
have access to the best education opportunities
The Japanese school system is modelled after the system in the United States. Its basic structure
is outlined below:
6 years primary school (shogakkou)
3 years junior secondary school (chugakkou)
3 years senior secondary school (koutougakkou)
4 years university
The importance of education is established at an early age in Japan. Almost all Japanese children
attend some form of pre-school, either kindergarten (yochien) or education-based daycare
centres (hoikuen). These schools help prepare children for entry into the larger school system.
Public education is the norm in Japan. There are only a small number of private schools and most
of these are international schools.
Though the majority of schools are public, the Japanese government does not fund all education
expenses. Students must purchase their own books, uniforms, and lunches (the cost of lunches is
subsidized, however). Once students reach the senior secondary level of education they must
even pay tuition, though that too is heavily subsidized.
Even still, almost all Japanese students go on to university or vocational schools. Japan has a
combination of over 500 national, public, and private universities, and it is almost every student
s aspiration to attend a top university
Japanese education culture
Japan was once known for brutally rigid curricula that pushed students beyond their limits. In
recent decades, the Japanese government has begun to move away from this system, placing
increased emphasis on creativity, internationalism, and critical thinking in schools. The
government still regulates all curricula at every level of the system, however. Even preschool has
an official curriculum.
Education is synonymous with competition in Japan, especially at the upper levels. Students feel
intense pressure to attend top universities. To have a chance at admission they must excel in
school from an early age. As students get older, most attend juku (cram schools) that help them
prepare for university entrance exams. These are private schools that teach extra lessons after
normal school hours. In Japan, being a student is a full-time job
Going to school in Japan
The typical Japanese school year lasts around 240 days. The actual number of regular school
days is significantly lower, however, as students routinely miss over 20 days due to festivals,
holidays, and other activities.
The school day itself is centred around the core unit of the homeroom. Each homeroom
consists of around 40 students (less at the primary level). Teachers announce schedules to their
homerooms each day of the year. Classes usually last around an hour (or a little shorter) and will
often be cancelled for part of the day due to special speakers and other activities.
School days begin around 8:00, with lunch served in the classroom at midday. Lunch is nothing
special, it usually consists of milk, a meat dish and a rice side. These lunches are not free,
though the government subsidizes much of their price. Parents pay the remainder of their
childrens lunch costs.
Children in first grade usually finish their school days in the early afternoon, while older students
remain in class for two or three hours longer. Students preparing for university entrance exams
may still have several more hours of classes ahead of them if they are attending cram schools.
Critcisms
In spite of its move away from rigid structure and curricula, Japanese educators still struggle to
break with the rote memorization that students have used for years to prepare for exams.
English, for instance, is a skill tested on university entrance exams. Instead of learning to
converse in the language, however, most students memorize reams of vocabulary words and
grammar rules. While this helps them to pass the exams, it does not necessarily give them a
working knowledge of the language.
This same criticism has been applied to many subjects in the Japanese school system
Hiragana -
The first step to learning the Japanese language is to learn the alphabet. Or, at least, to learn the
sounds that exist in the language. There are absolutely no "tones" in Japanese like in many other
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asian languages and there are only 2 exceptions within the alphabet which will be explained
later. The Japanese alphabet does not contain letters but, instead, contains characters and,
technically, they are not alphabets but character sets. The characters in the chart below are
called Hiragana. Hiragana is the main alphabet or character set for Japanese. Japanese also
consists of two other character sets - Kanji (Chinese characters), which we will get into later, and
another alphabet/character set, Katakana, which is mainly used for foreign words. Katakana will
be covered in Lesson 2. Don't wait to move on until you have all Hiragana characters
memorized - learn them as you continue to go through the other lessons.
There are 5 vowels in Japanese. (a), pronounced "ahh", (i), pronounced like "e" in "eat", (u),
pronounced like "oo" in "soon", (e), pronounced like "e" in "elk", and (o), pronounced "oh". All
Hiragana characters end with one of these vowels, with the exception of (n). The only
"consonant" that does not resemble that of English is the Japanese "r". It is slightly "rolled" as if it
were a combination of a "d", "r", and "l".
What is the Japanese writing system called?
Japanese consists of two scripts (referred to as kana) called Hiragana and Katakana, which are
two versions of the same set of sounds in the language. Hiragana and Katakana consist of a little
less than 50 "letters", which are actually simplifiedChinese characters adopted to form a
phonetic script.

Is Japanese read right to left?

Your Wikipedia knowledge is correct - vertical Japanese is top-to-bottom, right-to-left; and
historically (i.e. pre-WWII), horizontal text was treated as a single row of vertical text. This meant
that since you start on the right when reading vertically, you started on the right here as well.
Smart Japanese Kids
In 1995, Sho Yano, a 9-year-old third generation Japanese-American won admission to Loyala
University after scoring 1,500 on his SATs. A year later he graduated from university at the age of
10, a record.
At eight months Yano could read the television lists. At one he could order food from a menu at a
restaurant. His mother told him not to speak in public because she was tired of people staring.
Some referred to him as "natto brain" because of his habit of eating natto at an early age. At the
age 4 he was told he had photographic memory and an IQ of 200. He was raised in a Chicago
suburb. He likes mathematics and music.
Toshiki Kataoka, a 12-year-old six th grader from Matsuzaka in Mie Prefecture, made the shortlist
to represent Japan in a prestigious international math competition. While in elementary school he
studied middle school and high school math with his father, a doctor.
Sho Yano entered the University o Chicago when he was nine. He graduated with top honors at
12 and entered the University of Chicago's School of Medicine, becoming the youngest person to
obtain a PhD from the university which he achieved in 2009. He said he plans to stay in the
university and get a degrees in medicine.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, Hioryuki Goto of Tokyo recited pi to 42,195 places in
Tokyo in February 1995.
How long do you go to school in Japan?
School finishes around 3:15 pm, so they have to be in school for about six and a half hours
every day from Monday to Friday. However, most kids also attend after-school clubs, and many
also go to juku (cram school) in the evening to do extra studying. Learn more about school life
in Japan in our Meet the Kids section.
The basic school system in Japan is composed of elementary school (lasting six years), middle
school (three years), high school (three years), and university (four years). Education is
compulsory only for the nine years of elementary and middle school, but 98% of students go on
to high school. Students usually have to take exams in order to enter high schools and
universities. Recently some middle and high schools have joined together to form single, six-year
schools.

Among cultural clubs, meanwhile, one that has lately gained popularity is the goclub. Go is a
strategic board game played with black and white stones. After a manga (comic book) about the
game was published, more and more schoolchildren started enjoying go. Other options for
students include choir and art clubs. Brass band, tea ceremony, and flower arrangement clubs
are also popular.

10 distinctive features of the Japanese education system that made this nation
the envy of the world
Manners before knowledge.
In Japanese schools, the students dont take any exams until they reach grade four (the age
of 10). They just take small tests. It is believed that the goal for the first 3 years of school is not
to judge the childs knowledge or learning, but to establish good manners and to develop their
character. Children are taught to respect other people and to be gentle to animals and
nature. They also learn how to be generous, compassionate, and empathetic. Besides
this, the kids are taught qualities like grit, self-control, and justice
The academic year starts on April 1st.
While most schools and universities in the world begin their academic year in September
or October, in Japan it is April that marks the start of the academic and business calendar.The
first day of school often coincides with one of the most beautiful natural
phenomena the time of cherry blossom. The academic year is divided into 3 trimesters:
April 1 July 20, September 1 December 26, and January 7 March 25. Japanese students
get 6 weeks of holidays during the summer. They also have two-week breaks in winter and
spring.
Most Japanese schools do not employ janitors or custodians. The students clean their
school themselves.
In Japanese schools, students have to clean the classrooms, cafeterias, and even toilets all
by themselves. When cleaning, students are divided into small groups and assigned tasks that
rotate throughout the year. The Japanese education system believes that requiring students
to clean up after themselves teaches them to work in a team and help each other.Besides,
spending their own time and effort sweeping, mopping, and wiping makes kids
respect their own work and the work of others.
In Japanese schools, school lunch is provided on a standardized menu and is eaten
in the classroom.
The Japanese education system does its best to ensure that the students eat healthy and
balanced meals. In public elementary and junior high schools, the lunch for students is cooked
according to a standardized menu developed not only by qualified chefs but also by health care
professionals. All classmates eat in their classroom together with the teacher. This helps build
positive teacher-student relationships
After-school workshops are very popular in Japan.
In order to get into a good junior high school, most Japanese students enter
a preparatory school or attend private after-school workshops. The classes in these
schools are held in the evenings. Seeing groups of small kids returning from their extracurricular
courses late in the evening is common in Japan. Japanese students have an 8-hour school day,
but apart from that they study even during the holidays and on weekends. Its no wonder that
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the students in this country almost never repeat grades in primary, lower secondary,
or secondary school
Apart from traditional subjects, Japanese students also learn Japanese calligraphy and
poetry
Japanese calligraphy, or Shodo, involves dipping a bamboo brush in ink and using it to write
hieroglyphs on rice paper. For Japanese people, Shodo is an art that is no less popular than
traditional painting. Haiku, on the other hand, is a form of poetry that uses simple expressions
to convey deep emotions to readers. Both classes teach children to respect their own
culture and centuries-old traditions.
Nearly all students have to wear a school uniform.
Almost all junior high schools require their students to wear school uniforms. While some schools
have their own attire, traditional Japanese school uniform consists of a military style for boys and
a sailor outfit for girls. The uniform policy is intended to remove social barriers among
students and get them into a working mood. Besides, wearing school uniform helps
to promote a sense of community among the children.
The school attendance rate in Japan is about 99.99%.
Probably all of us have played truant at least once in our life. However, Japanese students dont
skip classes, nor do they arrive late for school. Moreover, around 91% of pupils in Japan
reported that they never, or only in some classes, ignored what the teacher
lectured. How many other countries can boast such statistics?
A single test decides the students futures
At the end of high school, Japanese students have to take a very important exam that
decides their future. A student can choose one college they would like to go to, and that
college has a certain score requirement. If a student doesnt reach that score they probably dont
go to college. The competition is very high only 76% of school graduates continue their
education after high school. Its no wonder that the period of preparation for entrance to higher
education institutions is nicknamed examination hell.
College years are the best holidays in a persons life.
Having gone through examination hell, Japanese students usually take a little break.In this
country, college is often considered the best years of a persons life.Sometimes,
Japanese people call this period a vacation before work.