Higher education in Japan

Japanese high school students are faced with immense pressure to succeed academically from their parents, extended family members, teachers, guidance counselors, peers, and society at large.

This mindset is largely based on a result of a traditional society that has historically placed an enormous amount of importance on the encouragement of study on top of the merits of scholarship and benefits of pursuing higher education, especially in an education system that places all of its weight upon a single examination that has significant life-long consequences on one's eventual socioeconomic status, promising marriage prospects, entrance into a prestigiously elite white-collar occupation, and a respectable professional career path.

As the Japanese economy is largely scientific and technological based, its labor market demands people who have achieved some form of higher education, particularly related to science and engineering in order to gain a competitive edge over their peers when it comes to seeking for employment.

[2] Prussia served as the largest inspiration for the modern Japanese higher education system, as German universities were regarded as one of the most innovative in all of Europe in addition to 19th-century Germany being close to Japan in its goals for industrialization.

The contemporary Japanese higher education system now boasts elements incorporated from the United States on top of its European origins.

[3] The expansion and development of modern higher education in Japan has contributed to its economic growth after World War II which continued on until the late 1980s.

In contrast to the practice of relying on grade point averages and percentages for assessing eligibility in countries like Canada and the United States, entrance to universities in Japan is primarily determined by the scores obtained in entrance examinations (nyūgaku shiken (入学試験)), which serve as the main criteria for university admission.

In order to secure employment at a major Japanese corporation or an international company that is based in Japan, earning a degree from a prestigious university isn't mandatory.

In the context of employment recruitment, the educational background of individuals from universities holds considerable importance and remains a crucial element in the hiring process.

This is due to the well-established connection between the reputation of the university a person graduated from and their chances of obtaining desirable job opportunities and promising career paths.

Due to the paramount significance that this determining factor holds in the recruitment and hiring process, Japanese employers continue to place a high value on academic achievements, educational background, co-op and internship experience, as well as the reputation of educational institutions when assessing and selecting highly qualified candidates for job vacancies.

These students, called ronin, meaning masterless samurai, spend an entire year, and sometimes longer, studying and making preparations to secure another opportunity to attempt at the entrance examinations.

Yobikou sponsor a variety of programs, both full-time and part-time, and employ an extremely sophisticated battery of tests, student counseling sessions, and examination analysis to supplement their classroom instruction.

The investigation revealed that a computerized system that automatically deducted points from the final scores of female applicants and male re-takers had been in place since at least 2006.

[10][11][12] The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper quoted an unknown source at the university who attempted to explain the rationale for the discrimination, saying "many female students who graduate end up leaving the actual medical practice to give birth and raise children.

Though university is the most prestigious form of higher education in Japan, a number of Japanese students choose to attend vocational schools instead.

These colleges frequently emphasize early childhood education, home economics, nursing, teaching, liberal arts, humanities, and social sciences in their curricula.

Junior colleges also train people who are studying to become mid-level technicians in civil, mechanical, electrical, and systems engineering sectors.

[22] These schools offer programs that are classified into eight fields of study: industry, agriculture, medical care, health, education, and social welfare.

[23] They offer training in specific skills related to fields such as carpentry, graphic design, hotel management, home economics, hairdressing, fashion design, typing, culinary arts, computer science, engineering, liberal arts, agriculture, early childhood education, bookkeeping, hygiene, foreign languages, therapy, dietetics and medicine.

[27] The prestige of special training schools is lower than that of universities, but graduates, particularly in technical areas, are readily absorbed by the job market.

Educational programs are organized through a timetable where a student can attend classes at a special training school in the morning and a university in the afternoon.

Using this approach, a student can learn a variety of subjects at a university and gain vocational skills simultaneously at a special training school.

[23] Colleges of technology (高等専門学校, kosen) in Japan are trade and technical schools training skilled tradespeople and mid level technicians.

The five-year programs are offered within a number of fields such as broadcasting, business administration, computer science, arboriculture, medical care, web development, robotics, biotechnology, environmental technology and engineering.

For the industrial trades, students can also take courses in subjects such as applied chemistry, industrial chemistry, public works, merchant marine shipping, drafting, CNC machinery operation and tool programming, construction management, landscape horticulture, early childhood education, livestock management, land surveying, city planning, interior design, and food inspection.

There, high school age students acquire trade and technical skills through work-based learning, apprenticeships, and work placement programs.

[29] While university is by far the most prestigious form of education in Japan, many Japanese students choose to attend colleges of technology as an alternative route.

The school today proactively accepts foreign students due to the country's labor shortage of skilled technicians in Japan's information technology industry.

KIC was founded by Mr Tomio Fukuoka in 1958 as a small Electronics school in the city of Kobe, Hyogo prefecture, Japan, which was called Kobe Denshi[35] and received recognition as an "Institute of Advanced Vocational Education" from the Japanese Ministry of Education in 1988 for its vital contribution to Japanese computing society.