Title Towards a Lifelong Learning Society?

The Reform of
Continuing Vocational Education and Training in Japan
Journal Comparative Education
Volume & Page Vol. 25, No. 2 (1989), pp. 133-149
Year 1989
Litterateur Kevin McCormick
Reviewer Sri Kumalasari
Nim 210020301028
Review Date 03 October 2021
Review Journal Japanese Vocational Education

Core Problem The essence of the problem lies in the past success of the
system of education and training in relating education to
employment through motivating high age-participation rates in
formal education, and in achieving high standards in general
education, more specific skills training has been left largely to the
employers. The ‘one chance’ nature of the educational system based
on highly competitive entry using entrance examinations has
concentrated the minds of young people and their parents.
The necessary information on desirable and targets for parents
and children can be found posted on school walls, for example, in
the corridor of a reputable senior technical high school hangs the
poster of a ‘mock test’ company, listing the universities in rank
order by the ‘mock test test scores’ which would give an 80%
chance of entry. The company derives this information from the
‘mock test’ which it provisdes for pupils preparing for the joint
first-stage university entrance examination for the national and
public universities. Given the large market for the ‘mock tests’ the
scores can be standardised. Thus the pupils, their parents and
teachers in school and ‘cram school’ can learn the pupils standard
deviation scores.
Discussions The school education Act distinguishes between “Formal
shools” and “non formal schools”. Included in the former are
elementary schools (six years from age 6), junior high shools (three
years from age 12), senior high schools (three years from age 15),
and institutions for higher education. The main routes through
school education and vocational training into employment are
outlined in fig.
Compulsory education covers the nine years of elementary
school and junior high school. Higher education included four-year
universities, two-year junior colleges, and higher technical colleges
(which provide a five –year course equivalent to senior high school
and junior college).
The non formal school are less closely controlled by the
ministry of education, and may be distinguished further into
miscellaneous shools and special training schools. The special
training schools were promoted from among the miscellaneous
schools in 1976 in a attempt to raise standards. The main
requirement are that courses are longer than on year, that there are
more than 800 hours of tuition per year, that there than 40 student,
that there are fewer than 40 student per class, and that there are
more than three teachers with relevant knowledge and experience.
Following recent recommendations of the national council on
education reform, graduates, from a three year upper secondary
school course will be qualified for university entrance. The majority
of stidents in the special training schools have entered from the
academic courses of senior high schools and seek a more practical
course in the special training school. Since vocational elements are
largely excluded from the curriculum of compulsory education, and
since over two-thirds take general courses in the senior secondary
schools (a tendency which has been increasing over the past
decade), non formal educatioan does offer some compensatioan for
the academic bias of upper secondary education.
The Ad Hoc Council’s reports to the prime minister’s office
wrote of the need for Japan’s third major educational reform,
conjuring up echoes of the earlier momentous state initiatives of
1872 (when Japan launched an education system for Japan’s
modernisation) and 1947 (when the new education system for
democratic Japan was initiated). Yet these current reforms are being
canvassed in the context of a society which is widely thought to be
successful, and where the educational system is widely assumed to
have played a significant part in that success. The earlier reforms,
however, were advanced in a period of much greater national self-
doubt. Moreover, the prominet role occupied by the private sector
in continuing vocational education and training in Japan sharply
circumscribes the likely scope of public sector initiatives. As a
recent American review team from the US office of educational
research and improvement noted, ‘Most continuing education for
adults in Japan takes place in private, proft-making institutions”.
While employers in most countries are major providers of
continuing vocational education n the form of training, the scale of
private-sector provision in Japan is considerably extented by
private-sector educational bodies.
This brief and highly selective account of continuing
vocational and training structures and mechanisms ini Japan raises a
number of interesting points for discussion for and international
readership. Of all the areas in which nation states an supra-national
bodies might seek foreign example of policy harmonisation, the
field of continuing vocational education and training is one of the
most fraught and complex, for it manifests and mirrors much of the
cultural heterogeneity of different national tradition in a most
intimate fashion. Within the European Community (EC) the
harmonisatioan of professional qualifications has made remarkably
slow progress when set against the goals of the free movement of
labour in single market. Cross-cultural comparison poses the
questions of not merely what similarities and diffrences exist but
 also how and why those institutions emerged. It is by considering
these questions that one can move on to examine more closely the
scope for change and development in other societies and to perceive
the constraints on change more clearly.
Journal Excellence The advantage of this journal is that the author describes about,
1. Pressures which encourage the reform and development of
continuing vocational education and training.
2. The way in which vocational element are largely excluded from
the curriculum of compulsory schooling.
3. Scope of public vocational trainng.
4. Nature of training within enterprises.
5. A range of issues which need to be addressed on the agenda of
vocational education and training in Japan.
6. the relevance of the Japanese experience for contemporary
discussions of vocation and training in Europe and the USA.
Journal Deficiency The drawback in this journal is that in this journal the discussion is
more dirested to vocational training. The discussion of vocational
education in Japan in not very detailed in the journal.
Inference If the educational system has been opertaing as a talent-
screening system and takes out the top 30-40% of the ability band
of the age-group for university of junior college, then the 10-14%
entering non formal educatioan might br thought to come from the
second and third quartiles of the ability band. This seems a
reasonable estimate of the ability intake since students tend to be
drawn from the academic streams of senior secondary schools. In
employment they tend to be treated as equivalent to the graduates
of the two-year junior college, although in cannot be entirely clear
whether this is on account of valued knowledge, skills and potential
or simply on age grounds since they will be two years older than
senior high school graduates.
Although Japanese four-year universities are noted for their
large annual output of engineers or their ability to draw on a high
proportion of the more able students in the age cohort to study
enginering, the character of their courses emphasises engineering
science and has a relatively large component of general education.
Moreover, the prominent role occupied by the private sector in
continuing vocational education and training in Japang sharply
circumscribes the likely scope of public sector initiatives. As a
recent American review team from the US office of educational
research and improvement noted, “Most continuing education for
adults in Japan takes place in private, profit making institutions.
While wmployers in most countries are major providers of
continuing vocational education in the form of training, the scale of
private-sector provision in Japan in considerably extended by privat
sector educational bodies.