Entrance exams: schools, study and families

Juken means taking an examination. In discussions of school entry, it also evokes choosing schools, preparation, applications and waiting for results. Admissions selection decides who may enter a school; it is different from an examination for completing a course. Arrangements vary by educational stage and institution.

Ordinary municipal junior-high entry follows school assignment by the education board, rather than a competitive entrance test for everyone. Families may instead seek national, private or public integrated secondary schools, which make their own admissions decisions. The rule against academic tests at public integrated schools does not mean automatic entry for every applicant. For Tokyo’s general places in the 2027 intake, primary-school reports are combined with an appropriate selection of aptitude assessments, interviews, essays or practical assessments; each school specifies the combination.

High-school selection can combine subject tests with junior-high records. Details are regional. Kanagawa’s system published in 2026 generally uses Japanese, social studies, mathematics, science and English for full-time schools, together with a chōsasho, the school report recording achievement and other information. Some schools add interviews or practical assessments.

University routes include general selection, comprehensive selection and school-recommendation selection. General selection emphasises tests or essays; comprehensive selection combines detailed documents and interviews; school recommendation begins with a principal’s recommendation and school records. The University of Osaka explains that its comprehensive and recommendation routes can also use the Common Test, oral examinations and inquiry activities.

The National Center for University Entrance Examinations administers the Common Test for universities that use its results. Universities may also set their own examinations, interviews or other requirements. Even within one university, required subjects and documents can differ by faculty and route. There is no single admissions cutoff for all universities.

For the University of Osaka’s published 2027 Science Challenge route, covering Mathematics and Physics, documents determine the first-stage decision. Successful candidates take an essay examination and an oral examination. The final assessment combines these with Common Test results: its 1,000 points become 100, alongside 100 for documents, essay and oral examination together. Common Test performance must also be roughly eighty percent or higher. Meeting that condition leaves other evidence to be assessed.

Preparation may involve books at home, correspondence courses or juku—private classes for supplementary study or entrance preparation. Japan’s education ministry’s learning-cost survey separates home study, correspondence or private tutoring, and juku expenditure. These are different arrangements, rather than a package required of every candidate.

Kako-mon are past examination questions. Kyōgakusha’s university Akahon series, first published in 1954, collects such papers. Candidates may apply in their final school year or prepare again after leaving school. Those continuing full-time entrance preparation are often called rōnin; the term does not mean they are already university students.

Mock exams provide practice and feedback. Hensachi is a standardised score locating a result within that test’s candidate group; the mean corresponds to fifty. Kawaijuku distinguishes a mock-exam prediction at one point in time from eventual admission. Later study and the actual selection process still matter.

In the education ministry’s fiscal-2023 survey, corrected in 2026, annual juku spending for public junior-high pupils averaged about ¥230,000 across all pupils, or ¥349,000 among those with such spending. The denominators differ. This category includes fees, materials, in-juku mock tests and travel; it is not the total cost of admission.

Applications have their own sequence. The official portal for the 2027 Common Test separates account creation, registration, payment and downloading the admission ticket; payment completes the application. Families may also arrange campus visits, books and mock-exam costs. Study plans therefore intersect with schedules and household budgets.

This route also requires Osaka’s online application, examination fee and mailed documents. First-stage qualifiers take the second assessment on the published date of 20 December 2026, and register the information allowing Osaka to request Common Test results. Assessment before the Common Test is not an admission offer: the final decision follows in February 2027. Successful candidates then complete enrolment, including information registration, the required fee payment or exemption application, and documents.

Some candidates need arrangements such as specified seating, a hearing aid or a separate room. The National College of Nursing’s 2026 notice describes advance application, review and notification of the decision. This institution-specific example shows that preparation also includes making the assessment accessible.

Meiji- and Taishō-era higher-education selection already relied heavily on subject examinations. Competition was particularly intense at the old-system higher schools leading to imperial universities, institutions unlike today’s senior high schools. In 1927 selection gave greater weight to prior school performance and personal assessment; a 1940 policy strengthened combined consideration of records, written and oral tests, and physical examinations.

A postwar nationwide aptitude test sought to assess abilities alongside academic tests. Criticism of its reliability and the burden of preparing for both helped end nationally administered aptitude testing from the 1955 admissions year. As high-school attendance expanded, 1960s debates over excessive preparation and concentration on popular schools prompted further changes to records, subjects and selection methods.

Preparation developed its own media. Ōbunsha launched Juken Junpō in 1932, later renamed Keisetsu Jidai, and began university-preparation radio courses in 1952. The publisher aimed to deliver information and teaching to regional students. Books, correspondence and broadcasts extended preparation beyond an in-person classroom.

Common university testing changed from the 1979 Common First-Stage Achievement Test to the 1990 Center Test and the Common Test in 2021. The 2025 test added Informatics, including Informatics I, reflecting the high-school curriculum. Names, subjects and admissions combinations change, so two generations in one family may have quite different experiences.

The Common First-Stage Test, introduced for national and public universities in 1979, sought to reduce difficult or unusual questions beyond the high-school curriculum and assess foundational learning together. From 1990 the Center Test could also be used by private universities, with institutions choosing subjects and combining results with their own assessments. Reform aimed at evaluation from more than one angle. A shared paper supplied scores for differing institutional decisions.

The 2021 Common Test’s question-setting policy retained Center Test experience while making understanding, thinking, judgment and expression explicit. Questions could draw on classroom learning, everyday problems or analysis of evidence, asking candidates to apply knowledge to unfamiliar material. The history policy, for example, proposed relating unseen sources to classroom knowledge and testing hypotheses against evidence. Applying knowledge did not mean replacing every question with an essay.