Brief Review of Mathematical Education in Japan

There are at present 95 national, 36 provincial and 334 private universities in Japan. Most of them have Engineering Faculties for research into engineering and education of engineering students. University education is for four years following on from six years primary, three years middle school (junior high school) and another three years high school (senior high school) education. There are also many junior colleges with two years courses for subjects like English literature, home economics, nursing and so on. For engineering students, however, two years education is considered to be too short, and there are 58 technical colleges offering five years education for middle school graduates.

Normally, after completing compulsory education at the end of middle school, one goes to an ordinary high school to study general subjects like Japanese, English, social sciences, mathematics, natural sciences such as physics, chemistry and biology for three years. There are engineering, commercial and agricultural high schools as well. Those who would like to learn specialized skills go to these vocational high schools, but the demand is small and the number of these high schools is not large. Altogether, over 95% of students go on to high school. High school education often seems to be a part of compulsory education. On graduating from high school, most students like to go on to higher education, and the entrance examination to universities becomes very competitive.