Japan was a feudal nation before it rapidly modernized itself in the 19th century. The Tokugawa was a period of peace and it was during this time that schools first began to emerge in Japan. Monks and priests were the first teachers in these early schools. By the end of the Tokugawa period in the mid-nineteenth century there was a literacy rate of 50 percent for boys and about 20 for girls even though only a small percentage of the population is said to have attended school before the reformation took place (Cleaver 205). The upper classes were taught literature and military arts on a strong basis of Neo-Confucian learning while the less privileged studied reading and writing and arithmetic at schools called terakoya located in urban areas and supported by nobility or the

Education has been of crucial importance, as attested by the fact that Japan alone, of all the countries in Asia, has achieved exceptional economic development. But for this society to develop to a point where it is worthy to be called a ‘culturally advanced nation,’ there must be a return to the original aims of the early Meiji years and a renewed emphasis on education. That over 94 percent of Japanese students go on to high school education and that there are over 960 universities and colleges including junior colleges – these facts are no guarantee of the positive development of education. They represent the minimum investments required to maintain education at its present level. Adequate provision of education beyond this must be carried out to insure real equality of opportunity. (13)

The government plays an important role in the Japanese educational system. In a Case Study Project conducted by the United States government it is explained that Monbusho is Japan’s Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture. Monbusho provides a national curriculum that identifies what students and teachers need to know to prepare themselves for the national entrance exams. Of the entrance exams the Case Study Project said, “… the competition, which is engendered by a strict system of entrance exams and a great need for academic credentials, appears to motivate students in junior and senior high school to perform at high levels. Parents and teachers tended to be critical of the pressures exerted by the entrance exams but were rarely critical of the overall Monbusho guidelines” (1). Even though much time is spent studying the information needed solely for passing the entrance exams, teachers also spend an amount of time helping students who are of “lower-than-average academic ability” to learn necessary things that would not be on the entrance exams. In The Japan of Today the Ministry of Education is discussed. “The role of the Ministry of Education is broadly that of co-ordinator. Responsibility for school budgets, educational programs, school appointments, and the supervision of elementary and lower secondary schools lies in the hands of local boards of educational… As regards the content of education, each school organizes its own curricula in accordance with the Course of Study, prepared and published by the Ministry of Education” (116). While many sources by others site the Monbusho as one of the many problems with the Japanese educational system, the wording of the information given by the Japanese government itself makes the Monbusho sound positive with no faults.

The only source of information that had no negative points to make about the educational system in Japan was the book compiled by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In a book titled Introducing Japan the author Donald Richie briefly talks on the Japanese education

Some topics in this essay:
Tadashi Fukutake, Study Project, Ministry Education, Japan Education, Donald Richie, Grinnell Cleaver, Law Education, Japan Monks, Japanese Society, Project United, educational system, japanese educational system, japanese educational, entrance exams, students teachers, ministry education, study project, school system, tokugawa period, reform japanese, tadashi fukutake, reform japanese educational, meiji restoration 1868, educational system effective, charles grinnell cleaver,