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The Roots of Education in Japan

© Maria Christensen

A comparison between the Meiji Restoration and the American Occupation.

Japan holds a pre-eminent place in the world in the area of education. The price of excellence is high, however, and the toll is seen in dramatic ways during the months of February and March, commonly known as “examination hell.” During this time, students all over Japan take entrance examinations to senior high schools and universities, which in large part will determine the course of the rest of their lives. Admission to the “best” schools, such as Tokyo University, will lead to the best jobs, and the pressure is immense. Suicide rates among students rise during and after examination hell and many call for reforms. To understand why an entire educational system seems to be devoted to preparing students for a very few, very important tests, a look must be taken at the roots of the system.

Two periods in Japanese history have had profound social, economic and political effects that focused largely on the educational system. During both of the time periods, “the struggle over a national educational policy closely paralleled the broader search for a new political ideology” (Hall,1965,p.396). The Meiji Restoration drastically changed the way the youth of Japan were educated. After an initial period of rampant Westernization, more traditional views were blended with the new thinking to create an educational system that would survive until World War II. The influence of the American Occupation after World War II, from 1945 to 1952, had many similarities with the early Meiji era, as the occupation forces restructured the Japanese government, society and the educational system into a more Western model, just as the Meiji oligarchs had done. The Japanese then modified and limited somewhat the reforms made by SCAP (Supreme Commander of Allied Powers) to better adapt to their society’s needs.

The pendulum in both time periods swung first toward Western values, then later toward traditional Japanese values, but came to a rest in the middle, combining in a way to produce the best educated people on the face of the earth.

It would be incorrect to assume that education was non-existent prior to the Meiji Restoration. During the Tokugawa period, from 1603 to 1868, the samurai were required to obtain at least a minimal education to support their roles as bureaucrats. This was achieved through a system of government schools, which emphasized Confucian philosophies, reading, writing, and military training.

Though the Tokugawa government did not sponsor schools for commoners, known as terakoya, they approved of the basic elementary education such schools provided. Most of these schools were located in local temples and proved a simple Confucian education with some emphasis on “certain practical subjects, such as calligraphy, oral reading, arithmetic on the soroban (abacus), and etiquette” (Hall,1965,p.392). By the time of the Meiji Restoration, there were around fifteen thousand of these schools which the oligarchs would use as a basis for their new system.

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