（3）The Kindergarten Order

With the spread of kindergartens, various educational groups and kindergarten teachers' organizations requested some systematic national guidelines. In particular, at the third general convention of persons connected with kindergartens and at the general meeting of nursery teachers under the auspices of the Imperial Education Society (Teikoku Kyoikukai), both held in 1921, motions were adopted calling for an order on kindergartens and related regulations. During the following years petitions on the matter appeared, and in 1925, both houses of the Imperial Diet agreed on the need for an order on kindergartens and related regulations. Thus in December, 1925, the Prime Minister asked the Educational and Cultural Policy Council for recommendations, and these ultimately were incorporated in the Kindergarten Order promulgated on April 22, 1926.

The purpose of kindergartens as set forth in the Kindergarten Order included "the cultivation of the children's mind and body as well as the development of their good temperament and disposition that would assure success in home education." Kindergartens were allowed to receive children from three years of age to such time as they would begin formal education in an ordinary elementary school.

According to Regulations for the Enforcement of the Kindergarten Order issued at that time, "play, singing, observation, conversation, handicrafts and other subjects" were to be taught in the kindergartens. All of these subjects except observation had already been taught in the kindergartens by that time under Regulations for the Enforcement of the 1900 Elementary School Order as well as under the preceding Regulations concerning Kindergarten Education and Facilities. The inclusion of the phrase "other subjects" indicated that a certain freedom of choice was to be permitted in the setting up of educational content - something which was not provided for in the ordinary elementary schools.

Each kindergarten was to enroll no more than 120 children except in special cases where the limit might be raised to about two hundred and each teacher was to be responsible for no more than forty children. Licenses (menkyojo) for the kindergarten teachers would be given by the prefectural governors to those who had passed certification (kentei) with or without an academic examiniation. Certification with an academic examination was to be enforced on the same level as for ordinary elementary school full teachers of general subjects except that the kindergarten teachers should be female.