5 - Diversity and Unity in Education

Summary

Demography and Stratification

The postwar Japanese education system is patterned on the American model. At the age of six, children enter primary school, which has six grades. They then proceed to middle school, which comprises three years; completing it is mandatory. Some 97 percent of those who complete compulsory education then progress to three-year high school. Thus, more than nine out of ten students complete twelve years of schooling, making high school education virtually semi-mandatory. All government schools are coeducational, but some private schools are single-sex.

Beyond this level, four-year universities and two-year junior colleges operate as institutions of higher education. Nationally, about 35 percent of the relevant age group proceed to four-year universities and 10 percent to junior colleges. While the proportion of students enrolling in tertiary institutions has steadily increased, those who possess university degrees amount to some 15 percent of the entire population. Japanese who are university-educated are a tiny minority; the vast majority of Japanese have had little to do with university life.

Outside the sphere of universities and colleges, a large number of unregulated, private commercial schools called senmon gakkō (special vocational schools) run vocation-orientated courses for those who have completed high school but who are unable or unwilling to gain admission to universities and colleges.

The average formal educational level of the Japanese is among the highest in the world. Parents and students in Japan are conscious both of the prestige associated with higher educational credentials and of the long-term pecuniary rewards that they bring.