Education In Japan Essay

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Nelson Mandela once profoundly stated, “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” While this quote definitely holds true for the United States of America, it is now true for Japan as well. Over the last few decades, the economy of Japan has vastly improved. It is now the second largest developed economy in the world today while being the third largest economy presently behind China and the United States. Japan is also a member of the Group of Eight which is a group of the eight leading industrialized countries in the world. So the question that many will ask is: How did a country this small whose economy was devastated by World War II improve its economy so dramatically in such a small amount of time? The answer is simple—the education system. Before WWII, the education system was a 6-5-3-3 system but was changed to a 6-3-3-4 system after the war with the hopes of mimicking the education system of the United States. Western influence on Japan has shaped the education system and subsequently caused the economy to grow. The westernization of the education system in Japan has made the country’s economy flourish and has shaped what the country is today.
The history of education in Japan is vast and one that has changed mightily over the centuries. The earliest recorded history of Japan’s formal education dates back all the way to the 6th century. During this time, Japan adopted the Chinese way of educating which included the introduction to the Chinese system of writing caused by Buddhism, and Confucianism. The Chinese writing system and Buddhism are still common in the Japanese culture today. “The Japanese have three writing styles…they are kanji, hiragana and katakana…the first two came from Chin...

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...ng the occupation in 1946 was the United States Education Mission. The goal was to change a number of things in the Japanese education system. Some of the changes included instituting a 6-3-3 grade structure(six years of elementary school, three of lower-secondary school, and three of upper-secondary school). There was also a revision of the curriculum and textbooks which included abolishing the moral education courses. The new system inserted a “reformed writing system, the establishment of coeducation, the introduction of university-based teacher education, and support for equal access to higher education” (Japanese Education). The policy makers of the occupation transformed the centralized system of education that Japan had before the war into a decentralized system that was based on the American model with school boards that were composed of elected individuals.

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