2. "To pressure kids who can't even express themselves
yet to do something they don't want to do will end
up warping Japanese society."
- Prof. Toshiyuki Shiomi
University of Tokyo
3. Elementary
Exam hell and competition to get into the right school begins at a
very early age for some Japanese children, whose families invest
large sums of money to prepare them for entrance exams for
prestigious kindergartens and elementary schools that in turn
prepare students for exclusive secondary schools and universities.
- 52 national universities have 73 elementary schools
4. Elementary
The kindergarten entrance exams tests children on
their knowledge of shapes, the color of fruit, number
sequences and polite behavior.
An estimated 500,000 per-schoolers are enrolled in
cram schools to prepare them for the tests. Some
children begin studying for these exams when they are
6 months old, learning activities like how to open and
close their hands.
5. Elementary
Parents often form lines in front of exclusive
kindergartens and elementary schools in the wee
hours of the morning to submit applications for the
schools even though they are told that waiting in
line like that gives them no advantages and
admission is determined by performance on a test
and by lottery.
6. Japanese Secondary School Exams
- Tests are given in January and February
- Children are put in long hours in juku in forth and
fifth grade to prepare for these exams and shift
into overdrive in the sixth grade.
- Parents increasingly feel that normal public
schools offer a substandard education.
7. Japanese Secondary School Exams
- Require knowledge of current events, advanced
math and kanji (Chinese characters) that aren’t
taught in middle schools.
- Japanese students get graded on a 1-to-5 scale
- Their main goal is to prepare students to get good
scores on their college entrance examinations.
8. University Semestral Exams
The school year in Japan is divided into three terms.
1. April to July
2. September to December
3. January to March.
-There are final exams at the end of each term. There
are also midterm exams in the first and second
terms but not in the third, which is shorter than
the other two.
