Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Preface to the Third Edition
- Map of Japan
- 1 The Japan Phenomenon and the Social Sciences
- 2 Class and Stratification: An Overview
- 3 Geographical and Generational Variations
- 4 Forms of Work in Cultural Capitalism
- 5 Diversity and Unity in Education
- 6 Gender Stratification and the Family System
- 7 ‘Japaneseness’, Ethnicity, and Minority Groups
- 8 Collusion and Competition in the Establishment
- 9 Popular Culture and Everyday Life
- 10 Civil Society and Friendly Authoritarianism
- References
- Index
5 - Diversity and Unity in Education
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Preface to the Third Edition
- Map of Japan
- 1 The Japan Phenomenon and the Social Sciences
- 2 Class and Stratification: An Overview
- 3 Geographical and Generational Variations
- 4 Forms of Work in Cultural Capitalism
- 5 Diversity and Unity in Education
- 6 Gender Stratification and the Family System
- 7 ‘Japaneseness’, Ethnicity, and Minority Groups
- 8 Collusion and Competition in the Establishment
- 9 Popular Culture and Everyday Life
- 10 Civil Society and Friendly Authoritarianism
- References
- Index
Summary
Demography and Stratification
The postwar Japanese education system is patterned on the American model. At the age of six, children enter primary school, which has six grades. They then proceed to middle school, which comprises three years; completing it is mandatory. Some 98 percent of those who complete compulsory education then progress to three-year high school. Thus, nearly all students complete twelve years of schooling, making high school education virtually semi-mandatory. An overwhelming majority of government schools are coeducational, but some private schools are single-sex.
Beyond this level, four-year universities and two-year junior colleges operate as institutions of higher education. Nationally, about 50.2 percent of the relevant age group proceed to four-year universities and 6.0 percent to junior colleges. While the proportion of students enrolling in tertiary institutions has steadily increased, those who possess university degrees amount to approximately 15.4 percent of the entire population. Outside the sphere of universities and junior colleges, a large number of unregulated, private commercial schools called senmon gakkō (special vocational schools) run vocation-orientated courses for those who have completed high school but who are unable or unwilling to gain admission to universities and colleges. Nearly one quarter of the relevant age group take this path. Some full-time university students are ‘double-schooled’ in these vocational schools to strengthen their technical skills and qualifications. As Table 5.1 shows, Japanese who are university-educated are a minority; the vast majority of Japanese have had little to do with university life.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- An Introduction to Japanese Society , pp. 124 - 155Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010