Education in the Empire of Japan

What these low-class people did learn was generally geared towards the basic and practical subjects such as reading, writing, and arithmetic.

[1] By the late 1860s, the Meiji leaders had established a system that declared equality in education for all in the process of modernizing the country.

In December, 1885, the cabinet system of government was established, and Mori Arinori became the first Minister of Education of Japan.

Mori, together with Inoue Kowashi created the foundation of the Empire of Japan's educational system by issuing a series of orders from 1886.

Other advisors, such as George Adams Leland, were recruited to create specific types of curriculum.

The curriculum was centered on moral education (mostly aimed at instilling patriotism), mathematics, design, reading and writing, composition, Japanese calligraphy, Japanese history, geography, science, drawing, singing, and physical education.

During the Taishō and early Shōwa periods, from 1912-1937, the education system in Japan became increasingly centralized.

Blind people were encouraged toward vocations such as massage, acupuncture, physical therapy, and piano tuning.

The Senmon Gakkō taught medicine, law, economics, commerce, agricultural science, engineering or business management.

The principal educational objective was teaching the traditional national political values, religion and morality.