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日本の学校制度
Six years of elementary school and three of lower secondary form Japan’s usual compulsory stages. The familiar 6–3–3–4 outline adds three years of upper secondary and a typical four-year bachelor’s degree, but integrated schools, support provision and vocational routes make the full system more varied.
Kindergartens educate children from age three until primary-school entry, using play-centred activities. They belong to the school system but fall outside the nine compulsory years. Integrated centres for early childhood education and care combine school and child-welfare functions. The preschool stage should therefore be distinguished from the statutory compulsory period.
An elementary entrant is usually around six, followed by six years of primary and three of lower-secondary education. A compulsory education school combines the nine years in early and later courses. A secondary education school instead combines lower and upper secondary. One institutional name need not correspond to only one stage.
Upper-secondary school is outside the nine compulsory years. The usual full-time course lasts three years, alongside part-time and correspondence provision. General and specialist courses serve differing purposes. Admission involves the relevant procedures and selection rather than an automatic move into one identical school for all graduates.
Bachelor’s courses usually take four years, with six-year courses in some fields and graduate study afterward. Junior colleges normally take two or three years. Colleges of technology offer a five-year route after lower secondary. Specialized training colleges have courses at different entry levels; senmon gakkō commonly refers to their post-secondary specialist provision.
After junior high, one usual route is three years of high school followed by university. A college of technology instead starts its five-year regular course at that earlier branching point; merchant-marine courses normally last five and a half years. General subjects, specialist study and practical work run together. Graduates receive the title jun-gakushi, rather than automatically receiving a bachelor’s degree.
They may enter employment, apply for university transfer or continue into a two-year advanced course. Advanced-course graduates can obtain a bachelor’s degree through the National Institution for Academic Degrees and Quality Enhancement of Higher Education only after meeting requirements and passing its assessment. The arrows show possible connections and eligibility, not guaranteed admission.
Schools for special needs education can provide elementary, lower-secondary and upper-secondary departments. Compulsory education can be completed in the relevant departments or an integrated compulsory education school. A chart showing only separate mainstream elementary and junior-high schools would leave out these arrangements.
MEXT distinguishes national, public and private institutions. Local education boards handle public compulsory-school enrollment, within the national institutional framework and standards. Municipalities commonly designate a school by area, with procedures for requesting changes subject to the local board’s criteria.
National rules establish stages and basic standards; municipal education boards connect them to a particular public school. Where a municipality has several elementary or junior-high schools, the board commonly designates one by attendance area and other criteria, and families follow its notice. A guardian seeking a change gives reasons for the board to consider under published standards. An application is not unrestricted choice or a guarantee.
Although guardians of foreign-national children do not have the same statutory enrollment obligation, boards should inform them of public-school opportunities and procedures and arrange acceptance for those wishing to enroll. The scope of an obligation and access to schooling are distinct.
The legal obligation to provide nine years of ordinary education applies to guardians of school-age children with Japanese nationality. Guardians of foreign-national children are not subject to the same statutory enrollment obligation, while public compulsory schooling is available through the relevant procedures. Local education boards supply the information for an individual enrollment.
The usual school year runs from April to March. A cohort normally includes children born from 2 April to 1 April of the following year. School entry follows these age and school-year rules, rather than each child’s sixth birthday. Public compulsory schooling is tuition-free and prescribed textbooks are provided without charge; additional materials, supplies and financial assistance have separate arrangements.
The Gakusei of 1872 proposed lower and upper elementary stages of four years each, with weak enforcement. The term compulsory education appeared in the 1886 elementary-school order, followed by a local duty to establish schools in 1890. A legal framework, school provision and actual attendance developed through related but distinct processes.
Compulsory education was set at four years in 1900 and a 1907 order provided for extension to six. The 1941 National School Order prescribed six elementary and two higher years, but wartime exceptions prevented the additional two compulsory years from being implemented before the war ended. A planned duration is not the same as everyone’s experience.
The Fundamental Law of Education and School Education Law of 1947 established the six-plus-three compulsory structure. New elementary and lower-secondary schools began in 1947, upper-secondary schools in 1948 and most new-system universities in 1949. Reform also addressed opportunity, coeducation, curricula and administration, rather than only changing grade numbers.
In the 1944 chart, the elementary course of the national school leads into separate old-system middle schools, girls’ high schools, vocational schools and higher courses. The 1950 chart instead gives six years of elementary and three of junior high as a common foundation before further routes such as high school. The point of branching and the structure of institutions changed, beyond their names.
The new junior-high course was introduced one year at a time from 1947 and covered all three grades in 1949. Shortages of buildings and teachers accompanied the reform, distinguishing legislation from practical provision. The higher course shown in the 1944 chart does not mean the planned eight compulsory years had been fully implemented.
Further institutional changes followed the postwar reform. Colleges of technology were established in law in 1961, with schools opening in 1962; specialized training colleges became a new system in 1976. Integrated lower- and upper-secondary education became an option in April 1999, and compulsory education schools began in April 2016. These routes connect general education, vocational study or stages within one curriculum; similar entry ages do not imply identical durations or qualifications.
Six years of elementary and three of lower secondary.
No. Integrated, support, technology-college and training routes also exist.
No. Its usual five-year course starts after lower secondary.
No. The additional two compulsory years were not implemented before the war ended.
No. Upper secondary began in 1948 and most universities followed in 1949.
No. It normally starts after junior high, awards jun-gakushi and requires further conditions and assessment for a bachelor’s.
No. The board judges the reasons under local standards.
The earlier post-elementary branches were replaced by a common six-plus-three foundation before further routes.
