Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > Japanese Government Policies in Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 2001 >Introduction Section3.1

Japanese companies overcame the first oil crisis of October 1973 by "streamlined and efficient management," following which Japan entered a period of stable growth. In spite of this, the government's fiscal position did not improve much thereafter, and from FY1978 onward, the Government resorted to a zero ceiling in its budget formulations, or in other words, it kept annual budgetary increase requests to zero.

  Under the new climate of severe economic and fiscal conditions, priority was given to the qualitative improvement of education, specifically the measures the 46 Report proposed implementing.

  For example, the Law for Securing Human Resources of 1974 paved the way for a dramatic improvement in salaries for teachers and the securing of well-qualified teachers. Further, new types of universities for teacher education (Hyogo University of Teacher Education, Joetsu University of Education and Naruto University of Teacher Education) were established with the purpose of promoting practical education and research concerning school education. Those universities have graduate schools to provide incumbent teachers with opportunities to train and upgrade their skills, and departments for training and educating teachers for elementary education.

  In 1975, the Government began providing subsidies for current expenditures under the Law Concerning Support for Private School Promotion to private schools, and at the same time took measures to curb the rise in the number of students attending private schools. Efforts also were made for a shift from the quantity to quality of higher education, as part of the planned improvement of higher education as proposed by the Conference on Higher Education.

  In 1976, meanwhile, specialized training colleges (also called professional training colleges) were newly recognized as institutions of higher education.

  In 1981, after more than 10 years of preparations, the University of the Air was inaugurated as a special corporation with the aim of providing adult members of society opportunities for university education and contributing to improving the content and methods of education used at existing universities through the utilization of broadcasts.

  However, the sharp rise in the advancement rate of students wishing to attend university led to a situation where both children and parents engaged in an "excessive competition for entrance examinations," as schools demanded higher grades. The situation shed light on the need to review and improve entrance examinations and ease the competition such exams produced.

  Under the circumstances, the Joint First-Stage Achievement Test for national and public universities was held for the first time in January 1979 as a new method for the selection of university entrants. Thereafter, selection methods became increasingly diversified by combining the joint first test with second achievement tests conducted by individual universities. Further, the university system was also diversified, including the establishment of new types of graduate schools that were not based on undergraduate education.