is a standard issued by the

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology The , also known as MEXT, is one of the eleven ministries of Japan that compose part of the executive branch of the government of Japan. History The Meiji period, Meiji government created the first Ministry of Education in 1871. In January 2001 ...

(MEXT) that specifies materials taught at all of

elementary Elementary may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Elementary'' (Cindy Morgan album), 2001 * ''Elementary'' (The End album), 2007 * ''Elementary'', a Melvin "Wah-Wah Watson" Ragin album, 1977 Other uses in arts, entertainment, an ...

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and

senior high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

s in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, either

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

. The authority of the ministry to issue the standard is due to . The ministry also publishes the that accompanies the guidelines. Nominally, the commentary is not legally binding. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology prepares guidelines with the basic outlines of each subject taught in Japanese schools. Typically the guideline is revised every 10 years to update content and objective. Since 1886, the purpose of the official authorization system had been in effect to standardization and maintain neutrality on political and religious issues.

Legality

The legal extent of the standard has been unclear. While the standard is not a

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

per se, court cases in the past have shown that it is legally binding to some extent. For example, in 1990, the High Court in Fukuoka ruled that a prefectural high school lawfully fired its teacher who taught a course in a way that violated curriculum guidelines.

Length of study

Organization of the School System in Japan 201904

The Japanese school system length of study consists of six years of elementary school starting at age 6, following that would be three years of junior high school and another three years of high school. At the end of the study, the student should be around the age of 18. Students that pursue higher education typically will be attending school for another one to four years in vocational school, junior college, or university.

Elementary school

During this period of time, the school curriculum covers Japanese, social studies, mathematics, science, music, arts and crafts, and physical education. This stage of learning usually starts at age 6 and continues for 6 years. A large share of time spent in elementary school is learning how to write and read Japanese

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

hiragana is a Japanese language, Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' means "common" or "plain" kana (originally also "easy", ...

, and

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

. Typically most students learn the English alphabet in the 4th grade. English is currently required in the 5th and 6th grade but is taught through informal activities rather than as a graded subject

Junior high (middle) school

During junior high school, the student is typically between 12 and 15 years of age The standard curriculum for junior high school students requires the students to learn subjects such as Japanese language, social studies, mathematics, science, a foreign language, music, fine arts, health and physical education, and extracurricular activities. During this stage of school, the curriculum requires students to decide on a foreign language to learn that can consist of English, French, Korean, German..etc.

High school

During high school, the student is typically between 15 and 18 years of age. The standard curriculum that most during this time study consists of Japanese language, geography and history, civics, mathematics, sciences, health and physical education, arts, foreign language, and home economics. It is not unusual to see students participate in extracurricular activities and integrated study which are required. Vocational programs are for students that takes courses in areas of studies such as business, industrial arts, and agriculture. Students in the program spend less time in the core curriculum subjects compared to regular students. After graduating from high school, students are now able to decide on higher education or to join the workforce and work.

Extracurricular activities

Extracurricular activities are normal and required for students in Japan from elementary school up until high school. Most of these activities are under teacher or a responsible adult supervision and guidance. Typically these activities are done either before school hours or after school hours to avoid disrupting normal education flow. Most college bound students typically withdraw from club activities during their senior year in preparation for university entrance examinations Additionally, students participate in

cram school A cram school (colloquially: crammer, test prep, tuition center, or exam factory) is a specialized school that trains its students to achieve particular goals, most commonly to pass the entrance examinations of high schools or university, univer ...

. Approximately 60% of Japanese high school students go for supplemental lessons that specialize in preparing students for examination, these classes extend the student's school day into the evening hours and there is additional homework. The Students of Kendo Club of Da Ji Junior High School 2006-12-1

The Students of Kendo Club of Da Ji Junior High School 2006-12-1

Some activities students tend to join are listed below *

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

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Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

Track and Field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

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Judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

Kendo is a modern Japanese martial art, descended from kenjutsu (one of the old Japanese martial arts, swordsmanship), that uses bamboo swords ( shinai) as well as protective armor ( bōgu). It began as samurai warriors' customary swordsmanship ex ...

School Band A school band is a group of student musicians who rehearse and perform instrumental music together. A concert band is usually under the direction of one or more conducting, conductors (band directors). A school band consists of woodwind instrum ...

Shodo , also called , is a form of calligraphy, or artistic writing, of the Japanese language. Japanese writing system, Written Japanese was originally based on Man'yōgana, Chinese characters only, but the advent of the hiragana and katakana Japane ...

Cram School A cram school (colloquially: crammer, test prep, tuition center, or exam factory) is a specialized school that trains its students to achieve particular goals, most commonly to pass the entrance examinations of high schools or university, univer ...

References

* Corresponding Japanese Wikipedia article. Retrieved on 2008-02-16.

External links

* * * Education laws and guidelines in Japan {{japan-edu-stub