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CHAPTER SPREAD OF EDUCATION AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

In the beginning of the Meiji Era, when the modernization of Japan began, the modern educational system was created under which elementary education, offering fundamental education to all the people, and higher education, offering the training of leaders, were first developed to push forward the modernization of the Japanese society and economy. The educational system was expanded during the following years in which a national economy was developed on the basis of light industry, principally spinning, and the foundation for heavy industry was laid. As the result of the spread of elementary education, secondary education was promoted, together with the development of vocational and women's education. When heavy industry developed further and Japanese economy reached its maturity, the educational system was further expanded and higher education was developed following the spread of secondary education. After World War , when the Japanese economy entered the stage in which heavy and chemical industries developed, tertiary industry expanded and the national income increased, upper secondary education and higher education took rapid strides under the new educational system.

In this way, in Japan, close relations are observed as a whole between the economic growth and the development of education at each level.

Figure 5 shows the spread of education since the beginning of the Meiji Era in terms of the number of students enrolled at each level of elementary, secondary and higher education and the economic development in terms of the overall industrial production index. It is observed that the two factors are correlated to a certain extent.

Figure 5. Trends in Enrollment in Institutions of Elementary, Secondary and Higher Education

That is to say, it is to be noticed that, from the beginning of the modernization up to the present, the rapid rise of industrial production continued, except for the severe setback due to World War , and the similar trend is observed as to the quantitative development of secondary and higher education.