Federal Series

A Look Back

Schooling in Japan, 1985

In 1985, Education Week Staff Writer Sheppard Ranbom spent three months in Japan investigating its educational system and the increasingly loud calls for reform there. Just two years earlier, a panel appointed by then Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell had released the landmark indictment of American education, A Nation at Risk. But “Even as alarmed U.S. reformers urge adoption of such Japanese tactics as longer school hours and stricter adherence to basics,” we wrote in 1985, “the Japanese are looking to the American educational model as a better guide for producing the kind of creative ingenuity that many Japanese now argue their country needs for its future growth. . . . From an American perspective, what is most astonishing about Japan’s scrutiny of its learning system is that our biggest economic competitor is worried at all.” The visit spawned a three-part in-depth series covering just what the Japanese did to achieve their success, how the system differed from U.S. efforts, and the discontent it bred. The series gives an insightful look at issues plaguing Japan’s education system 17 years ago—many of which are being fiercely debated today. The more things change...

Education A Look Back: Schooling in Japan, 1985
In 1985, Education Week Staff Writer Sheppard Ranbom spent three months in Japan investigating its educational system and the increasingly loud calls for reform there. Just two years earlier, a panel appointed by then Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell had released the landmark indictment of American education, A Nation at Risk.
September 25, 2002
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4 min read
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Education North Wind Bows to the Rising Sun
Japan's fabled educational system produced a diligent and capable workforce that propelled Japan to economic dominance. But parents and policymakers have grown weary of the toll that the system's high expectations is taking on their children. After more than a decade of debate, the government is implementing a series of reforms promising a more relaxed approach to education.
Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, September 25, 2002
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21 min read
Education Schooling in Japan, Part Three Change and Constancy
A venturesome blending of old cultural values with new and foreign ideas has given Japanese education its dynamism. A cautious insistence on planning has given it stability.
Sheppard Ranbom, March 6, 1985
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1 min read
Education Education's 'Wave of the Future'
If Harumi Aoki's students love to call her "a former housewife," it is not from any lack of respect. It's because the noted poet, recently honored with Japan's prestigious "H Prize" for one of her collections, is teaching creative writing to a class full of Osaka housewives.
Sheppard Ranbom, March 6, 1985
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5 min read
Education Source Materials on Japan
Following is a list of source materials for "Schooling in Japan" and selected readings on the nation and its schools.
March 6, 1985
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5 min read
Education 'I'm Not Very Optimistic About Change'
Nobuo K. Shimahara is a professor of educational anthropology in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and a senior researcher at the National Institute of Education, where he is participating in the Japan-America collaborative study initiated by former Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell.
March 6, 1985
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18 min read
Education Little Power, Many Demands
Even in America, the idea is not as simple as it sounds: Give the best teachers extra pay and recognition and the whole teaching profession will be invigorated.
Sheppard Ranbom, March 6, 1985
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14 min read
Education Doublespeak
A careful bureaucrat, Mr. T. tells me that he sometimes writes articles for the education journals. But because the Tokyo-based organization he works for is funded by the government and works with teachers, he cannot write exactly what he wants. He must find a middle ground, he says, to please both the conservative education ministry and the liberal teachers' union. His arguments have to be extremely refined to be able to be of interest to these polarized groups.
March 6, 1985
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1 min read
Education Mama's Hospitality
Whenever I visit Kyoto, I usually stay near the T. family, because Mr. T.--a police detective, private-school owner, interpreter, boarding-house keeper, fortune teller, masseur, musician, etc.--is the best guide to Japanese culture I know and because his wife, "Mama," is a gracious hostess.

Whenever I drop by--no matter what the hour--Mama serves me something to eat or drink and tries to make me comfortable until the sensei (the term for a revered teacher) is free from his various business chores.

Sheppard Ranbom, March 6, 1985
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2 min read
Education OTHER VOICES: Some Perspectives on Reform
Following are the comments of a broad range of interested parties on how, and whether, the Japanese education system should be changed.
March 6, 1985
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6 min read
Education 'The Hidden Law'
Twenty-seven-year-old Yukiko Kunishige is a bright, free-thinking woman who excelled in school until a high-school experience she describes as "closed and narrow" ended her desire for formal education. She skipped college, opting instead for what she calls "the reality of the world."
Sheppard Ranbom, March 6, 1985
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14 min read
Education 'New' Minds for New Business
The Mitsubishi Corporation is Japan's largest diversified trading company, so its manager for recruitment and development, Kazuaki Hikida, has little trouble finding qualified applicants for the 150 managerial-trainee positions he fills each year. More than 1,000 recent college graduates apply.
Sheppard Ranbom, February 27, 1985
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14 min read
Education Wanderer of the Alleys
Jiro is 11 years old and wanders the neighborhood like a stray cat, lapping his milk from the bowls left for him in the neighbors' houses.

They take him into their homes, feed him leftovers and fruit, serve up the love he cannot find at home.

Sheppard Ranbom, February 27, 1985
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2 min read
Education Classroom Rebels
An American visiting a Japanese high school is struck by a curious piece of Americana that appears again and again on notebooks and textbook covers. It is the image of James Dean, the young actor of the 1950's whose life and death symbolized for a generation of Americans the loneliness of cultural alienation.
Sheppard Ranbom, February 27, 1985
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12 min read
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