Japan’s transformation into one of the world’s foremost industrial nations has been quite an achievement, especially when you consider the fact that unlike the United States, Japan is almost completely lacking in valuable natural resources. This has really been a blessing in disguise, though, as it’s forced the country to embrace education. I’ve observed Japan’s educational system for a long time, back when I was teaching English conversation and grammar and now as a parent of two teenagers, and education is definitely a higher priority here than it was for me growing up. One positive aspect of education here is the existence of competition to make students study harder, both to get a higher ranking in their class or to get into a better high school or university. There’s a complex ecosystem of evening and weekend schools (juku) which help students keep up with their studies and prepare for upcoming examinations. Best of all, since young people are more engaged with school, they have less free time to get into trouble than I did while growing up.
So is America really not as focused on education as Japan? It struck me that my own high school days, essentially doing no studying or hard academic work to speak of until I got to college, might not be the case for everyone. How was is for you, and is Japan strange for expecting its students to attend evening schools until 10 pm then study even more when they get home?
Japan is extremely focused on education, at least compared to my own days growing up.
