（1）Reforms in Middle Schools

Middle school curriculum reforms based on the policies of the Special Council for Education were first implemented by a revision of the 1901 Regulations for the Enforcement of the 1899 Middle School Order, which was issued in March, 1919, and put in force in April of that year. The teaching of civic virtue was to be stressed throughout the curriculum. For physics & chemistry two new weekly subject hours were assigned in the third year in addition to the previously effected four hours in each of the fourth and the fifth years. Moreover, experimental work was to be included in the study of physics & chemistry. The subject of business was revised so that engineering could be given in place of the previously assigned handicrafts and the performance of practical drills was to be encouraged.

Based on the recommendations of the Educational and Cultural Policy Council, in April, 1925, a revision of the 1901 Regulations for the Enforcement of the 1899 Middle School Order was issued, which came into force in that month: the time devoted to physical education at each grade level was increased from three to five hours per week in order to include military drill (kyoren). Also, the Order on the Attachment of Military Officers to Schools was promulgated on April 13, 1925, and put in force on that day stipulating that military officers should be attached to each government and local public middle and higher level school excepting university in order to provide this drill.

The 1931 Regulations for the Enforcement of the 1899 Middle School Order were issued in January, 1931, and put in force in April of that year, replacing the 1901 Regulations. A new chapter was added at the beginning providing guidelines on The Essentials of Student Training and previous Chapter 1 entitled Subjects and Their Standards was revised and put as new Chapter 2. The number for each of the remaining articles was increased by one, but otherwise the document was the same as the former version. The Essentials of Student Training stipulated that middle school education was to be based upon a background of elementary education and it outlined an educational program that gave equal emphasis to moral education, civic education, general education and physical education. Subjects and Their Standards specified two curricular categories for the fourth and, or the third to, the fifth years of middle schools. The first category was for those students who after graduation would go directly to the business world and the second category was for those who would continue education above the middle level.

At the same time that these reforms were being carried out,

changes were effected in the content of subjects, and civics (kominka) and manual training (sagyoka) were added to the curriculum. The subject of civics, replacing the more academic law & economics, was meant to provide general knowledge that would be useful in a citizen's political, economic and social life.

The subject of manual training was to create respect for manual labor and the development of practical skills useful in everyday life; and students were to engage in actual gardening, handicrafts, and other manual activities. Also, business was reconstituted as a part of the regular subjects for the first category "in order to understand why one should respect his work and to foster a spirit of industriousness and potentiality." The subjects of natural history and physics & chemistry, which in the past had been handled separately, were now grouped together and taught as an integrated science subject.

In the field of foreign languages Chinese was added to the existing English, German and French. And to develop a greater appreciation of the national spirit, the content of subjects of morals (shushin), Japanese language & Chinese classics, history and geography underwent revision. Finally, a period of two hours or less was set aside each week for individual study projects. Students were encouraged to perform their own research under the guidance of an appropriate teacher.

Compared with the figures for 1900 following the promulgation of the 1899 Middle School Order, by 1936 the number of middle schools increased by 156% and the number of students by 350%. By 1936 there were 559 schools with a total of 352,320 students. Much of this increase occurred during the late Taisho era, but growth continued into the thirties. It was against the background of this rapid growth that the two categories of curriculum were introduced in the middle schools; in 1935, over 82% of middle schools offered both curricular categories with the remainder specializing in one or the other.