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Given the formidable specter of the high school and college entrance examinations looming ahead of them, Japanese junior high school students might be expected to find school an unpleasant experience. However, according to a number of investigations, more than 80 percent of junior high school students report that they enjoy going to school (NHK Seron Chosabu 1992a; Sengoku et al. 1987). Nevertheless, students' positive views of school do not obscure their dissatisfaction with various aspects of their education. NHK Seron Chosabu (1987) compiled the following list of students' dissatisfactions with school:
Sengoku et al. (1987) found some dissatisfaction with the content of classes and the amount of time spent in classes at school. About half of Japanese junior high school students said that they would like the content of lessons to be easier and about 40 percent said they would like the total number of lesson hours to be reduced. Forty percent of Japanese junior high school teachers also complained that there was too much content in the lessons.
The content and pace of lessons is not the only focal point of students' discontent. Method of instruction and relations with teachers are also sources of dissatisfaction. Teaching practices in junior high school are, to a large extent, dictated by the high school entrance examinations. Teachers tend to teach to the examination, at the same time trying to cover the standard material required by the national curriculum. As a result, the knowledge taught in the schools is sometimes criticized as being fragmented, lacking cohesion, and divorced from students' daily lives. This, in turn, sometimes leads to students' loss of interest, motivation, and intellectual curiosity.
Studies show that Japanese students have little trust in their teachers and that teachers' authority has weakened. A 1979 international survey on children showed that relatively few Japanese students liked or respected their teachers, or felt they could discuss things with their teachers, and that these negative feelings toward teachers increased with age (Sorifu Sieshonen Taisaku Honbu 1979). Another study with junior high school students revealed a large difference in their ideal and actual perceptions of their teachers, specifically on dimensions such as sense of humor, friendliness, accessibility for discussion, fairness, and compassion. Most students felt that their teachers were too strict (Nihon Seishonen Kenkyusho to Seimei Hoken Bunka Senta 1984).
Parents seem to have a different set of complaints about teachers. In a separate investigation, Nihon Seishonen Kenkyusho (1984) reported that mothers of junior high school students wanted teachers to provide
Given students? and parents' views, it is not surprising that the number of Japanese teachers reporting burnout is increasing. Data from a report by Matsumoto (1987) indicates that 70 percent of junior high teachers get tired easily, about 40 percent are depressed or irritated, 30 percent are reluctant to perform their teaching duties, and 25 percent said that contact with students was troublesome. The recent increase in teacher burnout is thought to be linked to their fear of the potential for student violence. As a result, teachers lose confidence in themselves as teachers and find that the financial rewards do not compensate for the fear and frustration they experience in the classroom (Sengoku et al. 1987).
To supplement the efforts of regular teachers and to improve their child's chances of obtaining a high score on the entrance examination, many Japanese parents send their children to juku or hire private tutors. A survey conducted by Monbusho in 1993 (cited in Asahi Shinbun, July 30, 1994) indicated that 59.5 percent of junior high school students attended juku. The percentage attending juku increased as students advanced: 32 percent of fifth-graders, 42 percent of sixth-graders, 53 percent of seventh-graders, 59.1 percent of eighth-graders, 67 percent of ninth-graders. Among high school students, 9.7 percent of males and 11.1 percent of females reported attending juku (NHK Seron Chosabu 1992a).
Contrary to the belief that Japanese parents force their children to attend these cram schools, Yuuki, Sato, and Hashizako (1987) found that two-thirds of the Japanese students surveyed said they attended juku by their own choice. Sengoku et al. (1987) believe that the popularity of juku may be due to the fact that it is well advertised, and that there are strong forces of peer pressure and social conformity pushing students to attend. Because a high percentage of students do attend juku, those who do not go tend to worry that they are missing an opportunity to improve their examination scores.
There are other reasons besides peer pressure for attending juku. For example, according to Yuuki et al. (1987), the instruction in juku is more carefully prepared, thorough, and individualized than it is in the regular schools. The lectures are easy to understand. Relations between students and teachers in juku also seem to be better than in regular school. Juku teachers get higher evaluations from students than regular teachers. According to students, juku teachers teach diligently, are easy to talk to, talk about the future, are nice and kind (kokoro no yasashii), and understand the individual student.
Some students do complain that they have much more studying and homework from juku than they have from regular school. However, complaints about the speed at which the material is taught and the number of tests students have to take is approximately the same for regular schools and juku (Yuuki et al. 1987).
No student can be expected to do well in school without the help and support of his or her family. Japanese families, in particular, are known to make strenuous efforts to provide a home environment that is conducive to studying. Japanese homes are often regarded as havens from the outside world where adolescents can relax and, so to speak, let their hair down.
NHK Seron Chosabu (1992a) reported that 67.8 percent of junior high students and 60.5 percent of high school students said they had a lot of fun at home.
Closeness of parents and students is also evident in the fact that both parents and children in Japan seem to have difficulty detaching themselves emotionally from one another. Another study by NHK Seron Chosabu (1992a) showed that 43 percent of mothers and 29.8 percent of fathers of junior high and high school students admitted that they were still emotionally dependent on their children. Conversely, 57.4 percent of junior high and high school students said that they were still emotionally dependent on their parents.
Some psychologists, such as Kawai (1986), suggest that during the last 50 years the power structure in the Japanese family has shifted. According to Kawai, paternal power has gradually weakened with the changes brought on by World War II-the decrease in family size, the destruction of the primogeniture system, the technological revolution that gave women more free time-and, simultaneously, maternal power in the family has grown. Results of an international study on mothers and children indirectly confirm Kawai's assertion. By a slight margin, Japanese children were found to consider their mother stricter than their father (Youth Development Headquarters 1980). Nevertheless, it is paternal influence, Kawai implies, that provides the backbone of discipline in the family. The waning of the fathers' presence and involvement in the home is thought to hinder the child's ability to learn the self-discipline of persistence, with the result being deep frustration at times of setback that is thought to trigger various problem behaviors (Shimizu 1990).
Junior high school students' relationships with their mothers are not as close as is generally believed. Japanese mothers seem to lack confidence in their parenting abilities (Nihon Seishonen Kenkyusho 1985). There is a discrepancy between the perceptions of junior high school students and those of their mothers. For example, 76 percent of Japanese junior high school students do not believe that their parents are proud of them. At the same time, 77 percent of Japanese mothers reported being proud of their children. Similarly, 55 percent of Japanese mothers, but 76 percent of Japanese junior high and high school students, reporting believing that mothers understand their children very well. Both mothers and children generally agree that they talk with one another about a wide variety of topics. The most common topics of conversation are usually related to academic subjects (Nihon Seishonen Kenkyusho 1985).
Another index of parent-child relationships may be the amount of personal information children are willing to reveal about themselves to their parents. In 1992 the percentage of junior high school students who said they hid nothing about themselves from their mothers, fathers, and siblings was 48.6 percent, 42.1 percent, and 34.8 percent, respectively. For high school students, the respective percentages were 36 percent, 47.4 percent, and 39.7 percent.
The Somucho Seishonen Taisaku Honbu [Youth Division of Management and Coordinating Agency] (1990) reports that Japanese mothers have the following worries about their junior high school child: (1) academic studying and school advancement, 46.4 percent; (2) their futures (including employment potential), 13.3 percent; (3) peer relationships, 11.9 percent; and (4) school life, 11.6 percent.
The findings that academic achievement is the chief worry of Japanese mothers in regard to their junior high school children as well as the main topic of conversation between mothers and children further reflect the values of a credentialist society (gakureki shakai).
According to the Nihon Seishonen Kenkyusho (1985), about 50 percent of students report infrequent communication with their fathers; nonetheless, 80 percent of Japanese junior high school students report having a good relationship with their father. To children, fathers seem to be understanding, easygoing, and undemanding in regard to academic achievement. However, fathers actually have little contact with children and participate infrequently in child rearing. Students see their father as being most interested in his own work. This "absent father" is thought to be responsible for adolescent problems in identity formation, particularly among boys (Shimizu 1990).
According to one report, Japanese fathers knew some things about their junior high school children either very well or fairly well, such as their favorite academic subject (70.4 percent) and their standing in their class (80.9 percent). However, only 54.9 percent indicated that they knew their child's homeroom teacher's name and only 40.7 percent said they knew their child's dreams about the future (Fukutake Shoten Kyoiku Kenkyusho 1993).
However, students and fathers may have different impressions about how much fathers understand their children. A much lower percentage of fathers (39.6 percent) believed that they understood their children well than junior high and high school students (67.3 percent) felt that they were understood by their fathers (NHK Seron Chosa 1992a). Many interpretations of this discrepancy are possible. One explanation may be that, due to the lack of direct contact with the father, children imagine that their father receives information about them through the mother. Fathers, however, who work long hours away from home, may feel isolated and left out of the family.
The incidence of certain forms of deviant behavior and juvenile delinquency in Japan appears to be rising in recent years. At the same time, junior high school students, who have been among the most frequent perpetrators of deviant acts, are seen as becoming less rebellious than in the past (Sengoku et al. 1987). The lack of rebelliousness may derive, at least in part, from the fact that junior high school students seem to have less to rebel against than did their counterparts of the past. In contemporary Japan, parents and adults appear to be reluctant to enforce rules and to discipline children. Some social scientists believe that with no strong social force to contend with, children are not internalizing the traditional values of society but, rather, are simply doing what they are told, and what they are being told to do is study.
Japanese students have been taught that what is most important is doing well in school, and that the pinnacle of academic achievement is to gain admission to a good university. NHK Seron Chosabu (1992a) reported the educational aspirations of more than 1,500 junior high and high school students. When asked how far they wanted to go in their education, 24.8 percent said high school, 11.8 percent said special schools and miscellaneous schools, 11.9 percent said junior college or technical college, 42.0 percent said university, and 1.7 percent said graduate school.
Students aspiring to go to a university comprise the largest group. Attending a university requires graduation from high school. Add the fact that almost 94 percent of junior high school students continue on to high school, and it becomes evident that the high school population is growing rapidly. Kajita (1992) argues that the rapid increase in the percentage of students entering high school has contributed to the growth of various problem behaviors. For example, jobs that did not require high school graduation 40 years ago now do. Students who want these jobs now have to go to high school and study even though they do not enjoy it. A study by NHK Seron Chosabu (1992a) found that 24.3 percent of high school students did not want to be there. This high percentage of discontented students may contribute to the increase in behavioral problems among Japanese youth.
According to Sengoku et al. (1987; Sengoku 1991), there is another problem: the friction between schools and society. Schools are viewed as trying to instill rules and traditional values that are no longer present in the real world. But why have Japanese values changed? One reason suggested by these authors is that Western ideas of individualism along with criticism of traditional values have flooded Japan since the end of World War II. In addition, adults find that adopting the old values of hard work, harmony, and self-sacrifice does not produce the financial or psychological rewards it did in the past. Those who work hardest do not always do best. The traditional values, therefore, may be beginning to lose their credibility in Japan. Consequently, schools, which teach these traditional values, are not keeping up with the changes in society.
The common expression "7-5-3 education" indicates that 70 percent of elementary students, 50 percent of junior high students, and 30 percent of high school students understand the content of the school curriculum. In addition, the examination-focused nature of the curriculum causes many students to lose interest and motivation, and to fall behind. In response, teachers seek to control students by creating even more elaborate sets of rules for them to follow. The tendency of Japanese teachers and school administrators to try to guide students' lives by strictly enforcing an excessive number of school rules is known in Japan as regulationism (kanrishugi). Regulationism, as seen by some, results in a stifling of students' sense of individuality and uniqueness, thus intensifying the pressures students may feel in relation to school. Such pressures, in turn, are thought by many to be responsible for behavior problems among children and adolescents in Japan (see Matsumoto 1985; Shinbori 1982).
Continued
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[Secondary Education in the Life of Japanese Adolescents - Part 3]