The document provides an overview of Japan's education system from early childhood through university level. It notes that the Ministry of Education oversees education and outlines the main phases: kindergarten/nursery school, elementary school, junior high school, high school, and university. Elementary and junior high education are predominantly public, while high school has both public and private options. The education system places strong emphasis on academics, and parents are highly involved in early childhood learning. English education in particular has grown in importance for career opportunities.

3. Welcome …….
 The following presentation Education
in Japan will give you a general idea
about the education development in
Japan and its current situation.

4. Education in Japan is well-known:
well-maintained educational system
and excellent achievement.
 Japanese children consistently rank at
or near the top in successive
international tests of most
mathematics.

5. Who is in charge of education?
 Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology (MEXT) is
responsible for comprehensive
educational administration of Japan.
MEXT is led by a minister, who is a
member of the Cabinet and is chosen
by the Prime Minister.
 Take a look at MEXT!

6. Diagram of Education Phases
 Kindergarten and Nursery school
 Elementary school
 Junior high school
 High school
 Universities and colleges

7. Education involves in family,
society and the world!
 Early childhood education begins at
home
 Numerous books and TV shows help
mothers to preschool children to
educate their children, and to
"parenting" more effectively.

8. Who are children’s first and forever
teachers?
 Much of the home training is devoted
to teaching manners, proper social
behavior, and structured game, verbal
and number skills are also popular
themes.
 Parents are strongly committed to
early education and frequently enroll
their children in preschools.

9. Who teaches and runs preschools?
 Preschools (yochien 幼稚園),
predominantly staffed by young
female junior college graduates,
 are supervised by the Ministry of
Education, but are not part of the
official education system.
 The majority of preschools are private.

10. Elementary school
 More than 99% of children are
enrolled in elementary school.
 All children enter first grade at age
six, and starting school is considered
a very important event in a child's
life.
 6-year education for elementary
school.

11. Where to go for elementary?
 Virtually all elementary education
takes place in public schools;
 About 1% of the schools are private,
which are costly.

12. Do they just think about
elementary in the period?
 Some private elementary schools are
prestigious,
 they serve as a first step to higher-
level private schools with which they
are affiliated, and thence to a
university.

13. Junior high school
 A typical classroom
in Japanese junior
high school

14. General information
 Three-year education from grade
seven, eight, to ninth grede.
 ages of roughly 12 and 15
 focus on academic studies
 it would not be easy to find jobs, so
most of the students will continue
after this phase even though the
compulsory education is ended.

15. Go to public or private?
 Majority of Junior High School are
public school,
 but there are still very few
private schools, which can be
very expensive, maybe 4 or 5
times more than public.

16. Exam for High School entrance
for 2008-09 in a city, Japan.
 Planned to Recruit: 280(Boy: 180;
Girl: 100)
 Actual Examinee: 3509(Boy: 2341;
Girl: 1168)
 Qualified People: 1345(Boy: 951;
Girl: 394)

17. Teachers and students:
 Junior High School teachers
usually teach the subjects based
on their major;
 Most of them are four-year
college graduates;
 35 students per class on average;
 A homeroom teacher is assigned
to each class, and he will serve as
a counselor as well.

18. Do you like to move or stay?
 The teacher, rather than the
students, moves to a new room
for each fifty-minute period.
 Different teachers for different
subjects, which means students
would have a different teacher
each class by staying in the same
classroom.

19. About classes:
 Computers become common
teaching facilities;
 Classroom organization is usually
based on small work groups.
 Some new courses, like foreign
languages, will start officially at
7th grade.

20. What to learn:
 The curriculum covers Japanese
language, social studies, mathematics,
science, music, fine arts, health, and
physical education.
 Moral education and special activities
continue to receive attention.
 After-school sport clubs or classes are
popular among many of students.

21. High school:
 It is not compulsory in Japan;
 Most of students will go to high school
anyway;
 High schools are not free, family may spend
3000 USD for a child each year;
 The number of private high schools is much
bigger than private Junior High Schools, it
usually costs twice as high as a public high
school.

22. High School classroom:

23. Courses Offered:
 academic courses for students preparing for
higher education
 technical and vocational courses for
students expecting to find employment
after graduation.
 Vocational-technical programs includes
several hundred specialized courses,
 information processing, navigation, fish
farming, business English, and ceramics.

24. What would you do in Japan?
 Business and industrial courses are
very popular, and accounting is one of
top courses as well.
 Some basic academic courses are
strictly required:
 Japanese language, English,
mathematics, and science.

25. What is the way you like best to
learn?
 Teachers are university graduates;
 Teach in major fields they specialized;
 Teaching depends largely on the
lecture system, with the main goal of
covering the very demanding
curriculum in the time allotted.
 Approach and subject coverage tends
to be uniform, especially in the public
schools.

26. Special education is always an
important part:
 Training of handicapped students,
 Emphasizing vocational education
to enable students to be as
independent as possible in the
society.

27. Universities and colleges:
 There are about 600 popular
universities and colleges;
 Four-year learning to earn bachelor’s
degree;
 Pubilc universities are comprised of
national universities and local
universities;
 Half of the universities are private.

28. What would you do for your
university life?
 business, law, accounting, engineering,
humanities, and education are popular fields
in universities;
 The average costs (tuition, fees, and living
expenses) for a year of higher education in
Japan is very high.
 Part-time jobs, loans, schalorship, nonprofit
corporation and other institutions could be
some choices for students.
 University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Waseda
University are among the very popular ones.

29. English Education in Japan:
 It reflects the development of Japan
just like a mirror.
 A Strategic Consideration on English
Education in Japan in the 21st
Century expects to boost its
development furthermore.

30. An English Classroom in Japan

31. Situation of English Education:
 English is very popular among the
people;
 Both school and society take it
seriously;
 Ability of communication is still not
ideal;
 Reading and writing are much better
than spoken English.

32. How would you like to learn a
foreign language?
 Individual tutoring, school study and
training class after school are popular ways
of learning English since preschool.
 English as one of the major courses starts
since Junior High School, up to High school,
6 years in total as a required core course.
 English is still a popular and important
course in universities, some of the
universities require 3 more years to
continue studying English.

33. Thanks!