c. Girls' High Schools and Practical Education

Immediately after the Russo-Japanese War, was the period when progress toward the realization of girls' education and the increase in the number of girls' middle level schools other than girls' high schools was also striking. Among these schools, those which were directed to teaching arts and crafts necessary for the everyday lives of women were most numerous, but inasmuch as there were no regulations concerning content, the diversity in the purposes of these schools was considerable.

On October 26, 1910, the government promulgated a revision of the Girls' High School Order, which came into force on April 1, 1911. By this revision specifications for the arts and crafts course were also amended and it was indicated in Article 11 that girls' high schools might offer a practical course (jikka) to those who would primarily study subjects related to the home and family and those girls' high schools which offered only a practical course were required to indicate that in their names. As a consequence practical course girls' high schools (jikka koto jogakko) began to be established. The length of the practical course was determined to be 1) in the case of entry as a graduate from an ordinary elementary school, four years, 2) in the case of entry after completion of the first year of higher elementary school, three years, and 3) in the case of entry after completion of the two-year course of higher elementary school, two years. However, in the latter case, a one-year extension was possible. Consequently among the practical course girls' high schools were four-year, three-year, and two-year institutions. To accommodate these changes, a revision of Regulations for the Enforcement of the Girls' High School Order was issued in October, 1910, and put in force in April, 1911, and subjects and instructional hours appropriate to the three different lengths of practical courses were specified.