Technical/Vocational Upper Secondary Schools

Students who enter the vocational stream are required to choose an area of specialization in which they must take subjects worth 30 credit points. They are also required to take a number of general education subjects to bring their number of credits to 80 over three years of study. Subjects studied tend to be fairly specialized and the training provided is quite job specific. Students are admitted either on the basis of a recommendation from their lower secondary school, or through an entrance examination.

Duration of Program: Three years (minimum 80 credits)

Curriculum: Students must choose a field of specialization from seven major areas: agriculture (11.5%*), industry (35.7%*), business (32% *), fisheries (1.2%*), home economics (6.6%*), nursing (1.6%*), welfare (0.4%*), and other (11.5%*). General education subjects: Japanese, a foreign language, mathematics, science, social science, art and physical education).

* Percentage of students in the vo-tech stream specializing in this field.

Leaving Certificate: Kotogakko Sotsugyo Shosho ( Certificate of Secondary Education). This is the same qualification earned by students in the academic stream, and no distinction is made on the certificate. As in the academic stream, holders of the certificate are eligible to take the national university entrance examination; however, for university admissions students from the vocational stream are at a significant disadvantage as the entrance examination is based on the content of academic courses.

Other Upper Secondary Level Programs

In addition to three-year vocational upper secondary schools, secondary-level educational opportunities are also offered at colleges of technology and specialized training colleges (described below in Non-University Higher Education section).

Higher education

Higher education in Japan is provided at universities (daigaku), junior colleges (tanki daigaku), colleges of technology (koto senmon gakko) and special training schools and colleges (senshu gakko). Of these four types of institution, only universities and junior colleges are strictly postsecondary providers.

With 77.1 percent of all tertiary-level enrollments, the private sector in Japan plays a key role in postsecondary education. At the university level there are a wide variety of institutions, from the very large to the very small, and from the very specialized to the multi-faculty, multi-campus university.

In 2004, there were a total of 709 universities in Japan, comprising 87 national universities, 80 local public universities and 542 private universities. There has been a significant year-on-year drop in the number of universities at the public level in the last two years as the government begins to enact reforms prompted by the declining number of high school graduates. Although Japan’s population is stable, the proportion of college-age children is declining, with the number of high school students dropping from more than five million in 1985 to under four million in 2002.

In April 2003, a three-year plan of mergers began and at least 35 of Japan’s 100 national universities have merged or are in the process of doing so. Between 2003 and 2004, the number of national universities dropped to 87 from 100. No merger plans have been announced by Japan’s private universities, which are relatively autonomous of the ministry. The number of private universities continues to grow at a rate of approximately 16 a year.

While total enrollments at national universities have been climbing in recent years, there is a definite prospect of declines, as there is at private universities. It is the largely private junior college sector, however, that appears to be bearing the brunt of the declining numbers of college-age students. Between 1998 and 2004 the number of junior colleges dropped from 585 to 508 (-13.6%), while enrollments over the same period have plummeted from 416,825 to 233,749 (-44%). As universities continue to search for students to fill classrooms, they are increasingly accepting transfer credits from junior colleges, something that would not have even been considered ten years ago. Many junior colleges provide specialized training and certification, yet increasing numbers of employers in specialized fields now prefer to hire people with university degrees, which is further decreasing the appeal of a junior college education.

The ministry’s program of university mergers is part of a larger overhaul of the higher-education system, which includes plans to make national universities more self-supporting financially and more autonomous in their decision making. The cornerstone of these reforms is an authorization for national universities to incorporate as public corporations with a board of trustees, independent of the ministry. This has implications for faculty hiring and firing practices, curriculum content and research capabilities.

National universities have traditionally been supervised by the ministry and largely financed from the national budget. Local public universities are generally funded from prefectural budgets. Private institutions derive the majority of their income from tuition and student fees, but also make up to 20 percent of their budget from the ministry. Under the reforms universities that fail to meet government-imposed enrollment targets will lose ministry subsidies. If imposed, the financial penalties may prove to be the final nail in the coffin of many private universities, already buckling under the strain of decreasing enrollments.

Each of Japan’s 47 prefectures has at least one national university, which generally offers a wide variety of programs at undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate level. Local public universities offer mainly undergraduate programs.

Accreditation

Universities and colleges must meet and maintain standards set by the ministry in accordance with the University Establishment Standards to gain and keep their accreditation.

Since 1947 the Japan University Accreditation Association (JUAA) has operated a voluntary system of accreditation that exists in addition to the Ministry’s mandatory accreditation. JUAA is a voluntary association of national and local public and private universities, which accredits institutions based mainly on institutional self-assessment. Until quite recently, however, neither the government nor universities made much use of the JUAA accreditation system.

Influenced by global trends in quality assurance, the Japanese government has recently spearheaded efforts to transform accreditation in higher education. In 2000, the National Institution for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation (NIAD-UE), established by the government, launched a national pilot project on the evaluation of quality standards within higher education. As a result, Japan’s School Education Act was amended in 2002 and a new accreditation process began in April 2004. A number of new and established accreditation organizations, including JUAA, have now been authorized by the government to assess all public and private institutions of higher education. Accreditation is to be valid for seven years, after which institutions will be reassessed.

The first round of accreditations is now one year in and it will take a further six years until all institutions have undergone the process. The new accreditation process is designed to compensate for increased financial and decision making autonomy recently granted to institutions of higher education as the decisions of the accrediting organizations will have implications for the levels of government subsides that institutions receive.

Admission to Higher Education

Admission to an institution of higher education requires the Upper Secondary School Certificate of Graduation (Kotogakko Sotsugyo Shosho) and, in most cases, is based on competitive examinations.

Entrance to public universities is based on two entrance examinations: the highly competitive National Center for University Entrance Examination, which is administered throughout Japan over a two-day period each year, and examinations administered by the individual universities at which the student wishes to enroll. The most prestigious national universities have such high applicant volumes that the national test is often used as a screening device for qualification into their own admission tests. Ministry policies require that universities also consider other factors such as school reports and interviews, but by far the greatest weight is placed on the examinations.

Given the great lifelong advantage traditionally enjoyed by those who graduate from a top university, the stakes and pressure associated with the admissions and examination process are very high. Many students who fail to gain admission to their preferred institution try again the following year and commonly devote themselves full time to the preparation process at private schools known as yobiku. Such students are commonly referred to as ronin, or masterless samurai. The ronin experience is so common in Japan that the Japanese education system is often said to have an extra year built into it.

Private universities can also use the national examinations for admission purposes, however most choose to set and grade their own examinations, and students often sit for at least one of these in case they fail to gain admission to their desired national institution. Private schools charge fees for these examinations, which make up a not insignificant portion of their operating budgets.

In 2003, 72.9 percent of upper-secondary graduates (including those retaking the university entrance examination) enrolled at an institution of higher education of some description. Forty-nine percent enrolled at either a junior college or a university.