The Japanese education system with special emphasis on higher education

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide a brief analysis of the Japanese educational system and to give a somewhat detailed discussion of Japanese higher education. Its main conclusions are: although the bulk of higher education is catered for privately, the prestige institutions tend to be public ones; the character of the system as a whole seems to reflect Japanese society very clearly indeed since it supports high growth industries, reinforces the traditionally accepted distinction between the sexes, and determines both the structure of wages and salaries in general and its sex variance in particular; and that there are very serious problems currently confronting Japanese educationalists - these relate to the official inspection of textbooks, the emergence of anti-teacher violence within schools and the reduction in the size of the public subsidy to private education.

The authors are extremely grateful for helpful comments and suggestions from Margaret B. Sutherland, Professor of Education, University of Leeds and Dr. Penny Francks, specialist on modern Japanese history at the Department of Chinese Studies, University of Leeds. However, the usual disclaimer applies.