（2）The Implementation of the New Educational System and Courses of Study

The School Education Law came into force on April 1, 1947 as stated above and this Law took immediate effect for elementary and lower secondary schools when the new term began in April. Less than one year had elapsed since the publication of the Report of the United States Education Mission to Japan, and only a few months had passed since the Education Reform Committee began its investigations. Upper secondary schools and one local public and eleven private universities followed suit in 1948 and national and other local public and private universities in 1949. Thus educators were placed under considerable pressure to meet the deadlines for comlying with the new regulations.

The most urgent task facing the Ministry of Education was the preparation of elementary and lower and upper secondary school curricula and textbooks. As later specified in Regulations for the Enforcement of the School Education Law, which were issued in May, 1947, it was decided that curricula in these schools had to meet standards established by the Minister of Education in its Courses of Study (Gakushu Shido Yoryo). By the spring of 1947 the Outline of the 1947 Courses of Study (Tentative Plan) had been worked out for elementary and lower and upper secondary schools and the respective 1947 Courses of Study for each subject quickly followed. According to these plans, the standard offerings in the elementary schools were to be Japanese language, social studies, arithmetic, science (rika), music, drawing & handicrafts, homemaking, physical education, and free study, of which social studies, homemaking, and free study were new subjects. Social studies was intended to form the core of the curricula, teaching the young generation about community life, and develop their social skills and attitudes so that they could readily adapt to their society. The subject, therefore, was designed to encompass all aspects of human society, not merely to replace the deleted morals, civics, geography, and history subjects. Study of it began in 1947 in the elementary and lower secondary schools and in the following year continued through the upper secondary schools. Due to the shortage of time elementary and lower secondary school textbooks edited by the Ministry of Education were used temporarily during the 1947 school year, though later a more diversified system of textbook development was put into effect.

The curricula and number of hours devoted to each subject as specified in the Outline of the 1947 Courses of Study are given below in Tables 6-1 (Elementary Schools) and 6-2 (Lower Secondary Schools).

Since the Outline of the 1947 Courses of Study had been drawn up hastily, the Ministry of Education was anxious to carefully monitor the implementation of the new curricula. With the close cooperation of scholars and teachers, extensive studies were made of actual teaching situations. In June, 1949, the Curriculum Council was established specifically to review these matters. The Council launched inquiries in March, 1950, into the need for the homemaking subject of the elementary schools, the teaching of calligraphy, the need for the free study subject, changes in the total number of hours devoted to a subject, and similar matters. The results of their investigations were published in the 1951 school year as the Outline of the 1951 Courses of Study (Tentative Plan) (See Tables 6-3, 6-4 and 6-5.) and the respective 1951 Courses of Study for each subject.