Japanese education system and problems of university and employment system

Hi, Good morning / afternoon / evening. I’m ponpokorin (@ponpokorin_24).

In this article, I will briefly explain the Japanese education system, then explain the internals of Japanese universities and the connection between universities and occupations. I am currently attending a university in Japan, so I can write more realistically. I would like to know about the state around Japanese universities.

Table of contents

• Japanese education system
• Current state of Japanese universities
• Japanese employment system
• Afterword

Japanese education system

First, I would like to see the flow from kindergarten to university and 専門学校. Until children enter elementary school, each family can take a different choice, but after entering elementary school, children will generally go to elementary school, junior high school, and high school in six, three, and three years. Please see the image below for a rough overview.

Reference: Ministry of education, culture, sport, science, and technology - Japan
https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/shinkou/genjyo/021202.htm
https://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/toukei/chousa01/kihon/kekka/k_detail/1419591_00001.htm

note: This is a rough indication. There are more detailed systems, but I omitted these.

The educational system differs depending on the country, so I write Japanese words as it is.  “大学” is completely same as University/college in other countries, so I hope you can read it like "this “小学校” is elementary school in our country!".

After graduating from high school, there are three major career paths: university/college, 専門学校(probably near to vocational school), and employment.

Looking at Japan as a whole, 54.7% of high school students enroll in university/college after graduating from high school, 16.4% enroll in 専門学校, and 17.7% find employment.

After this sentence, it will be longer if it is written as “university/college” every time, so I’ll write only as “university”.

Current state of Japanese universities

It is generally recognized that universities are better than 専門学校. I personally believe that this is one of the reasons that ordinary people are widely known that university graduates have high average annual and lifetime incomes.

Here is one thing I want you to be careful about.

An index called “偏差値”

In Japan, there is an index called “偏差値”, and it is recognized that the higher “偏差値” the university has, the better it is. In fact, basically, the excellent students aim for the university with the higher “偏差値”, and the surrounding people recommend them to go to university with high “偏差値”. On the other hand, there are some universities with extremely low “偏差値”, and such universities are sometimes referred to as "Fラン大学 (F-Rank University)". It is disparaging term. Although the number is small, some universities with low “偏差値” can be enrolled practically without exams, and the student's academic ability is low enough that university teachers have to teach what they should learn in junior high school or high school. Recently, this state is held in question.

Reference: (Japanese article)
https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/181672 (東洋経済オンライン)
https://business.nikkei.com/atcl/gen/19/00092/120600002/（日経ビジネス）
https://www.rikkyo.ac.jp/education/system/general/overview/publication/qo9edr0000005yo1-att/forum14_003.pdf（Statement written by a well-known university professor on the Web）

In addition, this “偏差値” is published individually by each study school (private) in Japan, but the general ranking is the same.

In summary, as advice to those who are considering studying in Japan, there are things like ranking by “偏差値” at Japanese universities, and even if you study at a university with a low “偏差値”, there may not be the academic significance .

Enrollment is difficult but graduation is easy

Except for the above-mentioned some universities with low academic ability, this is another major characteristic of Japanese universities. Depending on the university, there are university faculty members who rarely give up credits, for example, "pass if you are attending" "pass even if the content is terrible if you submit a report with the specified number of characters", there are such lectures. It can be problematic that a bachelor degree no longer supports substantial academic ability or expertise. However, this problem is related to the employment system in Japan described below and cannot be easily solved, and there is no sign of change for now (April 2020).

For this reason, students work hard for entrance examinations before entering the university, but many students do not concentrate on studying after entrance.

University student life

I wrote earlier that students will not focus on studying, but that will change significantly depending on whether they are in “理系” or “文系”.

Here, I explain about "理系" and "文系".

In fact, except for some universities, most Japanese universities require you to decide on your faculty and department before entering the university before taking the exam. Therefore, natural sciences such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology etc. are called "理系", and social sciences such as literature, sociology, politics, and history etc. are called "文系".

Even if the student don't know what he/she is going to study at university yet, he/she have to choose "理系" or "文系", and they will be divided into "理系" class and "文系" class.

When I was a high school student, I was very confused by the fact that I still had no idea what to study at university, but I had to choose "理系" or "文系" and I had to choose the faculty and department to take the exam. I still hope that this problem will be solved, I will vote if there is a politician who promises it, and I would like to change it if I have the opportunity.

Well, let's return.
Did you understand about "理系" and "文系"? In Japan, of these two, "文系" students relatively tend to be indifferent to studying. "理系" students have experiments because they study natural sciences, so there are many reports and lecture time and exercises are often set, so there is little time to spare. On the other hand, although there should be something that can be done such as field work, students in "文系" tend not to be assigned tasks frequently, and some students are playing around.

The above story explains the general trend of Japanese universities. There are exceptions, so if you're interested in a specific university, it's best to ask those who enrolled in a Japanese university what the atmosphere was like.

However, in my opinion, in Japan, the students who associate with international students are excellent or conscious students. If you want to know the real atmosphere of Japanese students, keep it in mind.

By the way, there is a general impression that "理系" students are focusing on studying, but some "理系" students as well as many "文系" students do not actively seek a high GPA. This is because Japanese companies rarely, or need not, refer to GPA when recruiting.

Japanese employment system

As you probably know, in Japan, "bulk hiring of new graduates" is still the mainstream. The idea is that the company will bring up new graduates and work with them for a long time. The potential for recruitment without a good background is a good thing for newcomers. However, I think this has also a negative effect on Japanese university education.

Note: The following is not verified by questionnaire survey etc., It is a frank summary of what I feel as a current university student.

1. GPA has no significant meaning and the number of students who focus on studying decreases

Here's a little more detail on what I wrote earlier. In Japan, many companies have the consciousness of "cultivating newcomers", so what they expect from newcomers is not good expertise, but good impression, coordination, and enthusiasm for work. Therefore, there are still few companies that use GPA for selecting applicant.

Also, in Japan, it is common for companies to offer a job offer when still a student is in university, such as a fourth year at a university or a first year at a master's degree and entering season is fixed. Because of that, if the student is held back, the company recruitment plan will go wrong, so it seems that companies sometimes refer to grades to see if the student is likely to graduate.

As a result, students have come to think that they only need to graduate, not to lose their credit, and not to motivate themselves to take a high GPA.

However, as an exception, in the case of "理系", I hear that the ratio of students who get jobs from companies by recommendation of university or professor is higher than "文系" students. In this case, the priority of recommendation may be given in the order of grades, so students in fields with many recommendations may be concerned about GPA.

In addition, the university side makes it relatively easy to pass credits such as graduation thesis to keep students from repeating the year and not disturb companies’ recruiting activity.

Therefore, students can get credit easily and are not studying actively.

2. Difficulty of applying the knowledge learned at university to society (wasting intellectual resources)

I mentioned earlier that students do not actively study, but such students have more specialized knowledge than other majors’ students, and there are a few students who have focused on studying. Nevertheless, some Japanese companies have stated that "new graduates will conduct work that is different from their specialty at the time of graduation" from the standpoint of "fostering newcomers from scratch." This means that the knowledge gained over four years at the university is wasted. I think this is a great social loss.

However, this problem is not caused by just companies. As mentioned earlier, universities also loosen credit recognition, so it is doubtful that university students' grades are credible from companies’ sight.

Afterword

Although I have summarized the problems so far, I think that the systems and customs initially are created for the purpose of helping someone or gaining some benefit etc. However, if the system and customs have become unsuitable for society with the times, why not change them? There may be mistakes, but there are also successes and discoveries. I think it's much more productive than frustrating with doing nothing.

Thank you for your reading! See you again!