in Japan is compulsory. All children begin first grade in the April after they turn six--

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

is growing increasingly popular, but is not mandatory—and starting school is considered a very important event in a child's life.

History

In the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

, some children attended terakoya or temple schools where they learned practical methods of reading, writing, and calculation. In 1886, the modern elementary school system started as

compulsory education Compulsory education refers to a period of education that is required of all people and is imposed by the government. This education may take place at a registered school or at other places. Compulsory school attendance or compulsory schooling ...

. Until 1947, only elementary schools were compulsory. Immediately before and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, state education was used as a

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

tool by the Japanese fascist government. Today, virtually all elementary education takes place in public schools. Tuition to these schools is free, although families have to pay for school lunches, supplies, and non-school expenses, such as extra books or lessons. Less than 1% of the schools are private, partly because of the latter's expense. Some private elementary schools are prestigious, and they serve as a first step to higher-level private schools with which they are affiliated and thence to a

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

. Competition to enter some of these "ladder schools" is quite intense. Elementary school classes are large, typically between thirty and forty students each. Students are usually organized into small work groups, which have both academic and disciplinary functions.

Courses of Study

The ministry's Course of Study for Elementary Schools is composed of a wide variety of subjects both academic and nonacademic. Academic subjects include Japanese language, social studies,

arithmetic Arithmetic () is an elementary part of mathematics that consists of the study of the properties of the traditional operations on numbers— addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and extraction of roots. In the 19th ...

, and

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...

. Japanese language is an emphasized subject due to the complexity of the

written language A written language is the representation of a spoken or gestural language by means of a writing system. Written language is an invention in that it must be taught to children, who will pick up spoken language or sign language by exposure eve ...

and the diversity of its spoken forms in formal speech to seniors (

keigo The Japanese language has a system of honorific speech, referred to as , parts of speech that show respect. Their use is mandatory in many social situations. Honorifics in Japanese may be used to emphasize social distance or disparity in rank, ...

). The English Language is taught at some schools especially in the higher grades; it is now mandatory at 5th and 6th grade from 2011, as in 2002 TOEFL scores in Japan were the worst in Asia after North Korea. Nonacademic subjects taught include art (including

Japanese calligraphy also called is a form of calligraphy, or artistic writing, of the Japanese language. Written Japanese was originally based on Chinese characters only, but the advent of the hiragana and katakana Japanese syllabaries resulted in intrin ...

) and handicrafts, music,

haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a '' kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a '' kigo'', or ...

or Japanese traditional poetry,

homemaking Homemaking is mainly an American and Canadian term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping, housewifery or household management. It is the act of overseeing the organizational, day-to-day operations of a house ...

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorat ...

, and moral education. Children also take part in "special activities," scheduled time each week to take care of class business, plan for field trips and ceremonies, and similar tasks. "Special activities" also serve as an arena for students to take an active role as members of the school community and to cultivate a sense of responsibility and willingness to work together. This is linked back to moral education classtime lessons, which are used as a context for "reflection on desirable practice, particularly in reference to special activities" and through which students can learn how to consider other peoples' perspectives and cultivate a sense of "omoiyari" (consideration of others). "Information technology is increasingly being used to enhance education, and most schools have access to the Internet." There is a system of

educational television Educational television or learning television is the use of television programs in the field of distance education. It may be in the form of individual television programs or dedicated specialty channels that is often associated with cable telev ...

and radio, and almost all elementary schools use programs prepared by the School Education Division of Japan's ex Broadcasting Corporation ( Nippon Hoso Kyokai—NHK).

Daily life

Both Japanese elementary and middle schools begin around 7:50 AM, with lessons starting at 8:30 AM. Japanese schools do not have school buses, both because of the small size of most school districts and because of the availability of public transportation. The first fifteen minutes of each day is set aside for either a schoolwide assembly (on Monday mornings) or attendance and announcements in homeroom. Classes are between 40 and 45 minutes each, with a break of 5 to 10 minutes in-between.

Lunch

After four morning classes, at about 12:30 PM, students are sent to pick up their homeroom's lunches from the school kitchens. Lunches are typically served in

bento A is the Japanese iteration of a single-portion take-out or home-packed meal, often for lunch. Outside Japan, it is common in other East and Southeast Asian culinary styles, especially within Chinese, Korean, Singaporean cuisines and more, ...

boxes, with small portions of a variety of freshly prepared foods. These include "a whole range of meats, fishes, vegetables, and sea plants. A typical meal consists of stew or curry, boiled vegetables, a sandwich, and salad. Milk is served with each meal. Usually, there is also dessert, such as gelatin, ice cream, and fruit." Because there are relatively few cafeterias in elementary schools, meals are taken in the classroom with the teacher, providing another informal opportunity for teaching

nutrition Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients, which can be metabolized to create energy and chemical structures. Failure to obtain sufficient ...

, health, good eating habits and social behavior. All students eat the same lunch, and are assigned to shifts for serving lunch to their homeroom. Lunch lasts about 40 minutes.

Afternoons

In some lower elementary school, classes are over after lunch and children are allowed to go home. Upper elementary students in those schools have one more class after lunch. However, other schools have a 5 or 6 classes per day, with only the youngest students not having a sixth period. Some schools allow for a 20-minute recess in-between, which is sometimes used for

cleaning Cleaning is the process of removing unwanted substances, such as dirt, infectious agents, and other impurities, from an object or environment. Cleaning is often performed for aesthetic, hygienic, functional, environmental, or safety purposes. ...

the classrooms: sweeping, mopping, throwing away trash, etc. Students then usually leave school around three o'clock. After-school clubs like sports and English club are offered at elementary schools, but unlike middle and high school clubs these usually meet only once a week.

Problems

Japanese elementary schooling is seen as effective, but not without some problems, notably increasing absenteeism and school refusal and a troublesome amount of

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an ...

(77,630 reported cases in 2010 throughout the school system)Japan Today
/ref> In addition, special provision for the young children returning to Japan from long periods spent overseas is an issue. The government also is concerned with the education of Japanese children residing abroad. However, in most urban centers there are at least private

international school An international school is an institution that promotes education in an international environment or framework. Although there is no uniform definition or criteria, international schools are usually characterized by a multinational student body an ...

s which can accommodate such returnees.

Controversies

A new course of study was established in 1989, partly as a result of the education reform movement of the 1980s and partly because of ongoing

curriculum In education, a curriculum (; plural, : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to ...

review. Important changes scheduled were an increased number of hours devoted to Japanese language, the replacement of the social sciences course with a daily life course- -instruction for children on proper interaction with the society and environment around them—and an increased emphasis on moral education. New emphasis also was to be given in the curriculum to the

national flag A national flag is a flag that represents and symbolizes a given nation. It is flown by the government of that nation, but usually can also be flown by its citizens. A national flag is typically designed with specific meanings for its colours a ...

and the Japanese national anthem. The ministry suggested that the flag be flown and the national anthem sung at important school ceremonies. Because neither the flag nor the anthem had been legally designated as national symbols, and because of the

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

ic wartime associations the two had in the minds of some citizens, this suggestion was greeted with opposition.

References

*
Japan
{{Reflist

External links

* ttp://www.gaccom.jp/en/ List of Elementary and Middle Schools in Japan