Education Law, Practices,

Trends and Issues of Japan

Report of Ipilian: EFA Group
Educational Law of Japan

• Legal Basis
• The Fundamental Law of Education
• The Constitution of Japan
• Source: General Headquarters, SCAP, CIE, Education in
the New Japan, vol. 2 (Tokyo, 1948), pp. 109-111..
(From Japanese Education Since 1945)
Educational Law of Japan

• Article 1. Aim of Education

• Education shall aim at the full development of
personality, striving for the rearing of the people, sound
in mind and body, who shall love truth and justice,
esteem individual value, respect labor and have a deep
sense of responsibility, and be imbued with the
independent spirit, as builders of peaceful state and
society
Educational Law of Japan

• Article 2. Educational principle

• The aim of education shall realized on all occasions and
in all places. In order to achieve the aim, we shall
endeavor to contribute to the creation and development
of culture by mutual esteem and cooperation, respecting
academic freedom, having a regard to actual life and
cultivating a spontaneous spirit.
Educational Law of Japan

• Article 3. Equal Opportunity of Education.

• The people shall all be given equal opportunities of
receiving education according to their ability, and they
shall not be subject to educational discrimination on
account of race, creed, sex, social status, economic
position, or family origin.
• The state and local public corporations shall take
measures to give financial assistance to those who have,
in spite of their ability, difficulty in receiving education
for economic reasons.
Educational Law of Japan

• Article 4. Compulsory Education

• The people shall be obligated to have boys and
girls under their protection receive nine years'
general education.
• No tuition fee shall be charged for general
education in schools established by the state and
local bodies.
Educational Law of Japan

• Article 5. Coeducation
• Men and women shall esteem and cooperate with
each other.
• Coeducation, therefore, shall be recognized in
education.
Educational Law of Japan
• Article 6. School education
• The schools prescribed by law shall be of public nature
and, besides the state and local bodies, only the
juridical persons prescribed by shall be entitled to
establish such schools.
• Teachers of the schools prescribed by law shall be
servants of the whole community.
• They shall be conscious of their mission and endeavor to
discharge their duties. For this purpose, the status of
teachers shall be respected and their fair and
appropriate treatment shall be secured.
Educational Law of Japan
• Article 7. Social Education
• The state and local bodies shall encourage home
education and education carried out in places of
work or elsewhere in society.
• The state and local bodies shall endeavor to
attain the aim of education by the establishment
of such institutions and as libraries, museums,
citizens' public halls, et cetera, by the utilization
of school institutions, and by other appropriate
methods.
Educational Law of Japan

• Article 8. Political Education

• The political knowledge necessary for intelligent
citizenship shall be valued in education.
• The schools prescribed by law shall refrain from
political education or other political activities for
against any political party.
Educational Law of Japan

• Article 9. Religious Education

• The attitude of religious tolerance and the position of
religion in the social life shall be valued in education.
• The schools established by the state and local public
bodies shall refrain from religious education or the
activities for specified religion
Educational Law of Japan

• Article 10. School Administration

• Education shall not be subject to improper
control, but shall be directly responsible to the
whole people.
• School administration shall, on the basics of this
realization, aim at the adjustment and
establishment of the various conditions required
for the pursuit of the aim of education.
Educational Practices in Japan
• Manners before knowledge.
• In Japanese schools, the students don’t 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
child’s 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.
Educational Practices in Japan
• The academic year starts on April 1st.
• 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.
Educational Practices in Japan
• 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.
• Students are divided into small groups and assigned tasks
that rotate throughout the year.
• It is believed 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.
Educational Practices in Japan
• 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.
Educational Practices in Japan
• 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.
• It’s no wonder that the students in this country almost
never repeat grades in primary, lower secondary,
or secondary school
Educational Practices in Japan
• 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.
Educational Practices in Japan
• 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.
• Wearing school uniform helps to promote a sense
of community among the children.
Educational Practices in Japan
• 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 don’t 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.
Educational Practices in Japan
• 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 doesn’t reach that score they
probably don’t go to college.
• The competition is very high — only 76% of school
graduates continue their education after high school.
Educational Practices in Japan
• College years are the best ’holidays’ in a person’s life.
• Having gone through ’examination, Japanese students
usually take a little break. In this country, college
is often considered the best years of a person’s life.
Sometimes, Japanese people call this period a ’vacation’
before work.
Issues and Trends in Japan
• 1.The accomplishments and issues of the First Basic
Plan
• In the First Basic Plan for the Promotion of Education
(Cabinet decision on July 1, 2008), the educational vision
to be pursued from FY2008 to FY2017 was divided into
two stages, one before the completion of compulsory
education and one after, as described below. When the
Second Basic Plan is put into practice, the verification
results of the measures described in the First Basic Plan
should be fully considered.
Issues and Trends in Japan
• 1.The accomplishments and issues of the First Basic
Plan
• In the First Basic Plan for the Promotion of Education
(Cabinet decision on July 1, 2008), the educational vision
to be pursued from FY2008 to FY2017 was divided into
two stages, one before the completion of compulsory
education and one after, as described below. When the
Second Basic Plan is put into practice, the verification
results of the measures described in the First Basic Plan
should be fully considered.
Issues and Trends in Japan
• 1.1 Status and issues of the stages until the
completion of compulsory education
• Preschool education
• Preschool education has implications for lifelong
personality development and serves as the
foundation of learning for compulsory education.
• Compulsory education (elementary and lower
secondary school)
• The goals of compulsory education are to enhance
students’ individual abilities and develop a basis for
their social independence and basic abilities as
citizens of the nation.
•
Issues and Trends in Japan
• 1.2. Status and issues of the stage after entering upper secondary
school
• Upper secondary school education
• In upper secondary education, unlike in compulsory education, students
can decide what kind of school they attend, according to their
motivation and ability.
• There are several types of upper secondary school education, such as a
credit system and integrated courses, and students can choose a track
based on their own learning needs.
• Higher education
• Due to the changes in social and economic structures caused by
Japan’s transition to a sophisticated, mature society, the roles
required of higher education institutions have become further
diversified.
Issues and Trends in Japan
1.3. Status and issues of lifelong learning
• Partly due to the process of globalization, Japanese society is
becoming increasingly diversified. In this diverse society, the
development of individual potential abilities needs to be fully
pursued over a lifetime.
• In this situation, universities and specialized training colleges
have promoted the acceptance of these people in the
working world and created the learning credit system.
• In spite of these actions, the re-enrollment rate of
universities and colleges remains low.
• Employees’ turnover rate within 3 years of graduation has
been approximately 30% for university and college graduates
and 40% for high school graduates. This demonstrates a
definite problem in the continuity from education to
employment.
Issues and Trends in Japan
2.General overview of the First Basic Plan and future
direction
• Past educational reforms
• Through various efforts at reform, the conditions of
education have improved; however, some issues remain
unresolved.
• Decreased study time outside of school has hit bottom and
turned to an upward tendency in the compulsory education
stage but to a downward tendency in upper secondary
education.
• Some reports point out that Japanese students in the higher
levels of education spend an insufficient amount of time
studying.
Thank you!