Education In Japan

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Education in Japan In the past one hundred years Japan’s society and culture has seen great change. The country has been industrialized, modernized and westernized. This change began in 1867 when the Meiji restoration commenced. The Meiji restoration was a turning point for Japan; it created equality amongst all Japanese people. ‘Meiji’ means ‘enlightened rule’ and was the title the Emperor Mutsuhito adopted during 1867 and 1912.The Meiji restoration was the ‘westernization’ and ‘modernization’ of Japan. The Japanese government went to western countries for new ideas and technology for their country. During this period the Japanese government established human rights, such as religious freedom, broke down the boundaries between social classes and made huge changes to the education system by making it accessible to all. The Japanese also begun railroad construction to allow the shipment of goods and transportation of people, set up modern systems of banking and taxation to aid in the expansion of businesses’ and investors and organized a telegraph and postal system which enables news to spread quickly. Prior to the Meiji restoration the type and level of education Japanese people received depended on their social class and gender. The Japanese saw girls getting an education as a threat, believing that it was purely a western thought which would risk the traditional culture of their society. Traditionally women in Japan were seen as second class and servants to their husbands. Japan’s education system nowadays is similar to the structure of the education system in the United States. They both are broken up into three levels: Elementary school- first through sixth grade Lower-secondary- grades 7-9 Upper-secondary- 10-12 In Japan, class size consists on average of 40-45 students. The students spend the whole day in their homeroom and the teachers travel
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