International comparisons of achievement have placed Japanese students near the top, along with students from other East Asian nations such as Singapore. This international standing, however, has declined in recent years. PISA in 2006 reported that 15-year-olds in Japan ranked sixth in mathematics. A decline in academic achievement is among many challenges that Japanese education faces today. In the proposed poster, we detail many of the challenges that Japanese Education currently faces. We believe that many of these challenges are not unique to Japan and hope that discussions with international colleagues will take us a step closer to resolving issues facing many nations under globalization.

Japan is well known for competitive entrance exam systems. A recent revision of the curriculum in 2002 by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Science and Technology (MEXT) was in response to the heated competition. Many criticized the revised curriculum watered-down the academic standards. As a result, it forced many parents to send children to rigorous after school programs to augment the content not taught in school. Those who did not get supplementary education suffered from low quality education, resulting in decreased students’ academic performance. The MEXT is attempting to further revise the Courses of Study to improve students’ academic performance. Positive results have yet to emerge.

Bullying and classroom disorder have become serious problems in recent years. An increasing number of students refuse to go to school and parents choose to withdraw their children from public schools. Bullying is also linked to truancy and suicide. The MEXT implemented amendments in 2000 to place school counselors on site, hire more teachers, and reduce class size at compulsory education levels. However, an increasing rate of juvenile delinquency, as well as youth prostitution, is a major societal concern.

Public higher educational institutions became public corporations in 2002. Critics say that this policy was implemented in order to achieve business efficiency of Japan’s state institutions. This policy has been criticized for making educational institutions into for-profit entities at the expense of quality public education. It is also of concern that this is a step towards privatization of all public higher educational institutions.

The national government provides affirmative action, remedial education, and financial support for the descendants of historically discriminated Burakumin (outcast people of the feudal era whose occupation involved killing) as well as indigenous Ainu and Ryukyu ethnic groups, though affirmative action for Burakumin expired in 2002 and de facto discrimination against these minority children remains. Other minority groups include Korean immigrants and Chinese returnees and refugees of the 1970’s. There are also undocumented foreign workers from Asian countries such as Philippines who came to Japan during the bubble economy in the 1980-90s. The descendants of Japanese citizens who had migrated to foreign countries such as Brazil are now allowed to come back to work in Japan unconditionally. Little support exists for linguistic and cultural minority students in public schools This led to the establishment of heritage schools. These schools were not credited until 2004 when the Japanese government entrusted higher educational institutions to allow ethnic high school graduates to take college entrance examination.