Supplementary Education in Japan:

The Insecurity Industry

“The World-Wide Growth of Supplementary Education”

University of Waterloo, June 4-6 , 2010

Julian DierkesInstitute of Asian Research

University of British Columbia, Canada

The Japanese Education System: History

Rapid implementation of nation-wide education after 1868 Meiji Restoration

Hierarchical and centralized control until 1945

Basic Law of Education (1947) as foundation of postwar education

1960s opening of upper secondary and higher education

The Japanese Education System: Structure

Preschool and daycare < 6 yrs.

Compulsory: 6-15 yrs./grades 1-9

6+3(+3 > 90%)(+4 > 70% some tertiary)

Private and public schools at all levels

Curricula for primary and secondary promulgated by national Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology ( – 文部科学省 MEXT)

Some role for local boards of education

Supplementary Education: Definitions and Scale

( 学習 ) 塾 (gakushū)juku vs. 予備校 yobikō

50,000 juku

No statistics on participation

2008 Benesse Time Use Survey

• From 10% ( 高 1• 北海道 ) to 70% ( 中 3• 近畿 )

• 50% once or twice/week

Supplementary Education: History

Historical continuity from pre-modern

education?

Exam-oriented pedagogy

“Juku-boom” of the 1970s:

a) disposable income,

b) fewer children,

c) meritocratic access to careers/SES,

d) rankings of educational institutions

Supplementary Education: Policy

Juku regulated only as businesses

Juku as indication of the failure of public

education

History of attempts to incorporate into

educational policy

Some reforms-from-below

Supplementary Education: A Market

Voluntary participation

Selection of options

Information on options

For-profit

Supplementary Education: Curriculum and Pedagogy

“Shadow education”: Virtually no

departure from official curriculum or

school pedagogy

Variety of social settings

Variety of delivery methods

Supplementary Education: Organizational Forms

Historic roots in small institutions, but corporate growth since 1990s

Chains, franchises, independent

Local, regional, national

Learning aids industry

Supplementary Education: Teaching Personnel

No formal qualifications

Careers in the shadow (businessmen, teachers)

Recruitment of graduates

Successor challenges

Supplementary Education: Interaction with Schools

Accelerated teaching leads to wide discrepancies in classrooms

Public opposition to supplementary education: bureaucracy, unions

No direct communication between schools and supplementary education

Experimental PPPs: Supplementary education in (public) schools, teachers’ training

Supplementary Education: The Insecurity Business

Historical origins eclipsed by current

insecurity as motivator

“The lost decade(s)”

State of semi-permanent policy crisis

Sensationalization of social ills

Supplementary Education: The Future

Demography = demise

Education markets = conglomerates

Policy insecurity = PPPs

Social ills and individualization = “free schools”