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CHAPTER . IMPROVEMENT OF EDUCATIONAL CONTENT AND METHOD

Eight subjects are offered by the elementary schools: Japanese language, social studies, mathematics, science, music, art and handicrafts, home making and physical education. The lower secondary schools offer eight required subjects: Japanese language, social studies, mathematics, science, music, fine arts, health and physical education, and industrial arts or home-making, plus the following elective subjects: foreign languages such as English and French, and vocational subjects related to agriculture, trades and industries, business, fishing and home-making.

Upper secondary schools provide programs in such areas as Japanese language, social studies, mathematics, health and physical education, art, foreign languages, domestic arts, agriculture, industry, business, fishery, nursing, science and mathematics, music, and fine arts. These areas are sub-divided into nearly four hundred subjects. A new curriculum is to be employed in Japan beginning in 1971 in elementary schools, in 1972 in lower secondary schools, and in 1973 in upper secondary schools. Subjects will remain the same as those above, however their content will be somewhat changed.

There are many differences between Japan and other major countries in teaching areas and subjects.

In the lower grades of elementary schools in European countries and the U.S.A., subjects are developed within broad general areas. For example in the U.S.A. social studies as offered in Santa Monica District in the State of California includes science, health and fine arts; and in the primary schools in Coringham County in England, English and mathematics are combined into one subject, while musical composition, literary composition, handicrafts and drawing are being taught as one area called "creative activities". In the Federal Republic of Germany, Gesamtunterricht, which combines all subjects other than arithmetic and writing is

Common.

In the higher grades, teaching areas are differentiated into narrower subjects in several countries. In Japan, social studies for lower secondary education is divided into three areas: historical areas, geographical areas and civics areas, but in the England and Wales, France, West Germany and the U.S.S.R., curriculum differentiation begins at the level corresponding to the lower secondary school or upper grades of elementary schools in Japan so that the subject equivalent to Japanese social studies is differentiated into geography and history, while our science is divided into biology, physics and chemistry.

As regards national language instruction, reading, writing, hearing, speaking, grammar, and literature are taught in Japan in a comprehensive manner, while in many of the other countries, these instructional areas are taught independently of one other, or are combined into several groups.

Moral education is provided in Japanese elementary and lower secondary schools as a separate curriculum area. Among other major countries, however, only France provides moral education as a separate subject. In England and Wales and the Federal Republic of Germany, religious, if not moral education is offered instead. Labor education in the U.S.S.R. also aims at moral education.