708-Chaudhari Technical Institute, Gandhinagar - Gujarat ...

caretakers, and much of the time give up their careers to take on childrearing
as a fulltime job. However more Japanese women now have a career and a
family. The Japanese word for child-rearing is shitsuke, a word also used for
tacking a kimono into shape and teasing rice seedlings into an upright
position. Childrearing is considered by the Japanese to be extremely
important.
EDUCATION LEVEL
The schooling years in the Japanese education system are segmented along
the lines of 6-3-3-4: 6 years of primary or elementary school; 3 years of
middle or junior high school; 3 years of high school; and 4 years of university.
However, the government has just announced (October 2005, Daily Yomiuri)
that it is intending to make changes in the Education Law to allow schools to
merge the 6-3 division between elementary and middle schools.
Many private schools, however, offer a six year programmed incorporating
both junior high school and high school. There are two options for tertiary
education: junior college (two years) and university (four years).
A school year has three terms: summer, winter and spring, which are each
followed by a vacation period. The school year begins in April and ends in
March of the following year.
An elementary school (from 6 years) and junior high school (3 years)
education, i.e. nine years of schooling are considered compulsory (see
pages on legality of homeschooling).
This system, implemented by the School Education Law enacted in March
1947 after WWII, owes its origin to the American model 6-3-3 plus 4 years
of university. Many other features of the Japanese educational system, are
however, based on European models.
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