What are the advantages/ disadvantages to sending kids to school in Japan?

We’re trying to workout if we should send our kids to school in Japan or moving back overseas and enrolling them back home.

We’ve heard the schooling here strongly favors rote learning, things like cram school kind of scare us. Is this really how it is here?

Those who sent their kids to school in Japan, how was your experience, if you’re not a native Japanese speaker, how did it workout for you, even if you’re a fluent Japanese speaker, did you struggle with the culture difference to schooling etc?

5 comments
  1. Are they Japanese? Yes – worthwhile until 6th grade. Then difficult decisions need to be made about next steps for junior high and high schools. Not Japanese? Absolutely not. They will struggle every day. You can’t help them and it is essential that at least one parent have a solid grasp on what is happening.

  2. > We’ve heard the schooling here strongly favors rote learning, things like cram school kind of scare us. Is this really how it is here?

    Short answer: No, it’s not.

    Longer answer: It’s complicated.

    For background: I grew up in the States. My wife is Japanese. Our kids were born and raised in the UK, and now go to school here. The same school their mom went to, actually. A very very typical local school, neither particularly good or bad, based on local reputation.

    First – ‘rote learning’ gets a bad rap. You cannot do advanced research without fundamentals that are internalized. The most creative person in the world will be a complete idiot if they don’t know what questions to ask – and that requires a rock-solid grounding in fundamentals.

    Japan does a fantastic job at this, across almost all subjects, particularly math and the sciences (just look at global test scores). The English curriculum could be better, I guess – but I don’t expect my kids to learn a foreign language in school alone (I didn’t) they’ll learn by going overseas if and when they choose.

    In Japan, parents really need to be actively involved, which – IMHO – is sorely missing in the US, at least. Studies suggest that parent involvement can be one of the key determinants behind educational outcomes.

    My son in junior high has frequent assignments / homework that require a lot of observation and note-taking. Then they spend a few weeks discussing what they observed and thinking about the reasons behind what they observed. It’s *miles* more interesting than anything I took in junior high school. It’s absolutely not ‘rote’ learning. It’s basically learning how to do research.

    Very few kids in our neighborhood go to cram schools. My kids won’t be. There’s -zero- pressure from anyone that we can see. We know a couple of kids going to Kumon for math drills, but the kids seem to enjoy it from what we can see, and once they hit junior high school they stopped going and instead are in volleyball club or whatever.

    Ultimately – your kid’s education will depend on YOU, as the parents. Whatever you think is important, and if you’re involved in your kid’s education, is how they will turn out. The school is secondary.

  3. From a broader perspective, I wonder whether the school system in any country is anything else than glorified babysitting these days. We will send our daughter to normal primary school and not force any juku down her throat but on the other hand if she wants to go because her friends are why not.

    I was in school in the 80s-90s so I’m honestly not sure what I would be comparing to. From what I’ve understood so far the system here develops strong results in STEM subjects, but may lack in social sciences which is highly valued in western cultures. But the bigger question is what kind of world are we raising our kids for? I think a kid can grow up and be perfectly happy and fine in any school system around the world and other things like luck with friends, location etc will play a much larger role.

    Saying western schooling systems are better is a bit too simplistic I reckon. Some people are probably just homesick at some point and use schooling as an excuse. If your Japanese is fluent you should be able to navigate the system and cultural differences enough to deal with what comes.

  4. Are your kids likely to live in Japan in the future? If so, send them to Japanese school. Japanese school is great at producing members of Japanese society.

    They won’t have to ask / complain on reddit about every stupid little thing that people ask / complain about here.

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