Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > Japanese Government Policies in Education, Science, Sports and Culture 2000 > Trends in Educational Reform Section 2 Q8 What kinds of schools are there?

There are three types of unified lower and upper secondary school. More specifically these are:

1. Secondary education school

A secondary education school is a six-year school. There is no upper secondary school entrance examination, and six years of unified education are offered. There are no academic examinations for entrance into public secondary education schools. Selection of entrants is determined by a combination of interviews, practical tests, recommendations, lotteries and/or other means, in accordance with the characteristics of the individual schools.

2. Joint-type lower and upper secondary schools

This is the type of school where the establishing body is the same for the lower and upper secondary school and where upper secondary entrance examinations do not take place. Since students who have graduated from the lower secondary school are able to enter the upper secondary school at the same establishment, they are able to learn for six years from lower secondary to upper secondary school in a coherent manner. There are no academic examinations to enter public joint-type lower and upper secondary schools, as is the case with secondary education schools.

3. Cooperative-type lower and upper secondary schools

In this type of school, municipal lower secondary schools and prefectural upper secondary schools jointly determine educational content, enliven teacher-student exchanges to conduct consistent education. Cooperative-type upper secondary schools conduct entrance examinations through interviews, essays, practical tests, and other means, and do not look at student credentials or carry out academic examinations.