Page 13 - Japanese Growth and Education: 演講人：Motohisa Kaneko教授

Japan’s Development and Education - Past, Present and Future -c113

social ascendance among the vast majority of population.

Educational reform transformed the dual-track structure into a single-
track structure, which opened the opportunity of higher education. The heavy
emphasis on basic education was maintained in the postwar period. Lower

secondary education was made compulsory, to extend the minimum schooling
to nine years. the remaining disparities in economy among different areas in the
country necessitated heavy subsidy from the central government to the local

governments
Obviously, these changes took efforts. Compulsory lower secondary
education was not enforced without considerable sacrifice of the local
communities amid major social strife during the 1950s (Kaneko, 2011).

Nonetheless, the economy started picking up in the 1960s, and education was
involved closely in the process of renewed economic development. Every youth

had at least nine-years of school education. It also created the basis to open the
opportunity of upper secondary education, and eventually higher education.

The J-Mode

Through the postwar economic growth, those factors described above were

galvanized to create a peculiar pattern of relation of education-economy link
which I shall call a “J-Mode.” The mechanism of the can be analyzed as the
interaction among three factors, i.e., the government, families and employers.

Household

The removal of social barriers from the prewar period, and the postwar

educational reform that opened opportunities of secondary and higher education
stated above created the basis of aspiration among the population for advancing