Junior high admission requirements to be eased for foreign children

Sunday 29th June, 06:47 AM JST

TOKYO —

The education ministry plans to allow foreign children living in Japan to enter junior high schools without graduating from elementary schools to give them more opportunities to participate in Japan’s mandatory education system, ministry sources said Saturday.

The eased requirements are intended to cope with a rise in the number of foreign children at ages for compulsory school education as the number of foreign people living in Japan for longer, including Japanese Brazilians, increases, the officials said.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, however, plans not to ease the admission qualifications for Japanese children and continues to require them to graduate from elementary schools for entrance into junior high schools, they said.

Japan’s school education law stipulates that parents are obliged to have their children enter junior high schools after they graduate from elementary schools. A fine of up to 100,000 yen is imposed on violators.

The education ministry has so far interpreted the provision as meaning that children cannot enter junior high schools unless they graduate from elementary schools, and applied this to foreign children in Japan.

But an advisory panel of experts presented a report to the ministry Friday and recommended that foreign children be admitted to junior high schools to help them get accustomed to and be active in Japanese society.

The planned step will enable foreign children going to international schools to enter Japanese junior high schools for higher education in Japan and open the door for those who were unable to go to elementary schools for economic reasons to take part in mandatory education at junior high schools.

In recent years, international schools have been popular for Japanese parents as they think their children can learn foreign languages under better circumstances than at Japanese schools.

Under the planned step, Japanese children going to international schools cannot enter junior high schools although similar foreign children can do so.

The education ministry is opposed to easing admission requirements for Japanese children because it is concerned that such a step could result in a collapse of Japan’s compulsory education system.

If requirements are similarly eased for Japanese children, this could help spread the idea that children do not need to go to elementary schools and prompt parents to have their children only go to private cram schools for admission to junior high schools, the sources said.

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6 Comments

rjd_jr at 08:25 AM JST - 29th June

What a "wonderful" concept and idea.
Scrote at 09:35 AM JST - 29th June

It all sounds quite convoluted. What if your child has dual nationality? Which "rules" apply then?
borscht at 10:38 AM JST - 29th June
The education ministry is opposed to easing admission requirements for Japanese children because it is concerned that such a step could result in a collapse of Japan’s compulsory education system.

So, given the choice of going to or not going to a junior high school, the education ministry KNOWS no one will go to junior high school. And they know this because:
1. a) they know junior high school education is crap
2. b) you can learn everything you need to function in Japanese society in kindergarten
3. c) Japanese people aren't interested in education unless it's forced on them?
Also, if you send your child to an international elementary school to learn a foreign language, why would you send them to a Japanese junior high school? To unlearn that foreign language? I can see sending them to a juku to learn Japanese and then to a Japanese high school to prepare them for college by why a junior high?
tokyofun1 at 11:44 AM JST - 29th June

If requirements are similarly eased for Japanese children, this could help spread the idea that children do not need to go to elementary schools and prompt parents to have their children only go to private cram schools for admission to junior high schools, the sources said.*

I think that this is nuts...of course Almost all parents are going to send their kids to school especially Elementary school. Also I think that because the education ministry thinks that people only send their children to an international school to learn a FOREIGN language is narrow minded of them...( well actually not to surprized...) Didnt they ever consider that the parents may not want memorizing robots for children and would rather have them be able to think for themselves and actually HAVE an oppinion and BE ABLE to express it. Rather than settling and deciding everythink with a quick game of rock, paper, sissors??? I wonder if this is how the misistry came to THIS WONDERFUL idea....should we do it or not? JAN KEN POI...........what u think?
flyingfish at 05:06 PM JST - 29th June

i dont really understand this law .so if someone could explain thanks..

are they saying that if a japanese goes overseas and comes back when hes junior high school age he cant go either because he hasnt graduated from a japanese elementary school?
romulus3 at 05:16 PM JST - 29th June

no way is my son going to Japan junior high school. Its Montessori all the way...