JAPANESE GOVERMENT POLICICIES IN EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND CULTURE 1994

Section 3. Education that Teaches Respect for the Environment and Education Designed to Increase Interest in and Understanding of Nature and Foster Scientific Perception and Thinking

1. The Significance and Current Status of Environmental Education in School Education

2. Measures to Promote Environmental Education

3. Enrichment of Scientific Perception and Thinking

Section 4. Physical Education and Health Education

1. Enhancing Physical Education and Sports in Schools

2. Maintaining Physical and Mental Health

Section 5. Kindergarten Education Based on Respect for Individual Children

1. Trends and Issues in Kindergarten Education

2. Promotion and Enhancement of Kindergarten Education

Section 6. Special Consideration for Children with Physical and Mental Disabilities

1. Trends in Special Education

2. Special Education Promotion Measures

Section 7. Promotion of Dowa Education

1. Basic Thinking

2. Measures to Promote Dowa Education

Section 8. Developing Better Textbooks

1. Publishing and Distributing Textbooks

2. Improving the Textbook Authorization System

3. Free Supply of Compulsory Education Textbooks

Section 9. The Convention on the Rights of the Child and School Education

Section 10. Providing High-Caliber Teachers

1. Improving Staffing Levels of Teachers and Other Personnel

2. The Teacher Training and Certification System and Teacher Appointment Systems

3. Enhancing In-Service Training

4. Improving School Management

Section 11. Developing Spacious and Pleasant School Facilities and Attractive Teaching Materials

1. Improving Public School Facilities

2. Improving Teaching Materials

Chapter 4. Toward Diversified Development of Higher Education

Section 1. Ongoing Reform of Higher Education

1. Basic Directions of Reform

2. Specific University Reform Efforts

3. Revitalization of Organization and Management

4. Collection and Distribution of Information About University Reform

Section 2. Improvement of University Entrant Selection

1. Promotion of the Use of NCUEE Examinations

2. Toward Distinctive and Diversified Entrant Selection

3. Improvement of the System of Admission on Recommendation

Section 3. Toward Sophisticated, Individualized, and Revitalized Higher Education

1. Directions for the Enhancement and Development of Higher Education

2. Enhancement of National Universities

3. Enhancement of Local Public and Private Universities

4. Development of Human Resources in Science and Engineering

5. Improvement of Medical and Dental Education and Training of Medical Technicians

6. Enhancement of Colleges of Technology

Section 4. Support for Human-Resource Development Through Student Aid Programs

1. Programs of the Japan Scholarship Foundation

2. Programs Administered by Incorporated Nonprofit Organizations, Local Governments, School Corporations, and Other Organizations

Chapter 5. Promotion of Private Schools

Section 1. The Important Role of Private Schools

Section 2. Measures to Promote Private Schools

1. Financial Aid to Private Universities and Other Institutions of Higher Education

2. Financial Aid to Private Upper Secondary and Other Schools

3. Subsidies and Grants to Private Special Training Colleges

4. Loans from the Japan Private School Promotion Foundation

5. Tax Systems for Private Schools

Chapter 6. Promoting Scientific Research

Section 1. Future Directions in Science Policy

Section 2. Supporting Scientific Research Through Research Funds and Facility Improvement

1. Current Levels of Research Funds in Universities and Other Institutions

2. Expansion of Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research

3. Improving the Research Environment: Enhancement of Research Equipment

Section 3. Training and Recruiting Young Researchers

Section 4. The Role of Research Institutions in Promoting Scientific Research

1. New Directions for Research Institutions

2. The Role and Activities of Academic Societies

Section 5. Developing Information and Resources Relating to Scientific Research

1. Collecting and Providing Science Information

2. Improving Scientific Resources

Section 6. Prioritized Promotion of Basic Research

1. Challenging the Mysteries of the Universe: Astronomical Research

2. Exploring the Secrets of Matter: Accelerator Science

3. Realizing Human Dreams through Rockets: Space Science

4. Developing Energy Sources for the Twenty-first Century: Fusion Research

5. Understanding the World's Regions: Area Studies

6. Explaining Life Phenomena: The Life Sciences

7. Predicting Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions: Earthquake and Volcanic Eruption Prediction Research

8. Preserving Our Precious Planet: Global Environmental Science

9. Promoting Antarctic Research Programs

10. Conducting Research Under the New Program System

Section 7. Scientific Research in Cooperation with Society

1. Research Cooperation Between Universities and the Private and Public Sectors

2. Activities of Research Support Organizations

Section 8. Promoting International Scientific Exchange in Which Japan Takes the Initiative

1. The Importance of International Scientific Exchange

2. Promoting International Joint Research and Researcher Exchange

3. Scientific Exchange Through the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

4. Cooperation with the United Nations University

Chapter 7. New Horizons in Social Education

Section 1. Enhancement and Revitalization of Social Education

Section 2. Promotion of Learning Activities for Adults and the Elderly

1. Learning Activities for Adults

2. Learning Activities for the Elderly

Section 3. Improvement of Youth Education

1. The Need for Out-of-School Activities for Youth

2. Measures to Enhance Out-of-School Activities for Youth

Section 4. Enhancement of Home Education

1. Provision of Learning and Interaction Opportunities for Parents

2. Provision of Information and Advice

Section 5. Promotion of Learning and Social Participation for Women

1. Creation of a Gender-Equal Society and Women's Education

2. Development of Learning Opportunities

3. Promotion of Participation in Society

Section 6. Enhancement of Conditions for Social Education

1. Development of Varied Social Education Facilities

2. Improvement of Social Education Leaders

Section 7. Utilization of Educational Media

1. Promotion of Educational Media

2. Development and Supply of Audiovisual Teaching Materials

3. Training of Specialists in Audiovisual Education

4. Development of Audiovisual Centers/Libraries

Chapter 8. Promoting Sports

Section 1. Approaches to Promoting Sports

1. Why Is Promoting Sports Important?

2. Basic Directions

Section 2. Promoting Sports-for-All

1. Developing Sports Venues

2. Fostering and Utilizing Able Sports Instructors

3. Sponsoring Sports Events

4. Diversifying Sports Activities and Supporting Sports Organizations

5. Promoting Sports-for-All to Meet the Needs of an Aging Society

Section 3. Promoting Competitive Sports

1. Fostering Top Athletes

2. Promoting Professional Sports

Chapter 9. Toward a Culture-Communicating Society

Section 1. Culture Promotion Measures

1. The Need for Communicating Culture

2. Enhancing Government Systems for Promoting Culture

3. Budgetary Provisions for Culture Promotion

4. The Japan Arts Fund

5. Culture and the Taxation System

Section 2. Raising the Standard of Artistic Creation

1. Encouraging Artistic Creation

2. Developing, Training, and Recognizing Artists

3. Private-Sector Support for Artistic and Cultural Activities

4. Developing the New National Theatre

Section 3. Promoting Local Arts and Culture

1. Developing Local Cultural Activities

2. Expanding Opportunities for Art Appreciation at the Local Level

3. Improving and Enriching Local Cultural Facilities

4. Promoting International Exchange at the Regional Level

Section 4. Japanese Language Policy, Copyright Policy, and Administration of Religious Corporations

1. Contributing to the Beauty and Richness of the Japanese Language

2. Improving the Copyright System

Section 5. Protecting and Utilizing Cultural Properties

1. Developing New Cultural Property Protection Measures

2. Conserving National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties

3. Preserving and Utilizing Historic Sites and Other Monuments

4. Conserving and Utilizing Historic Settlements and Streets

5. Preserving and Transmitting Intangible Cultural Properties and Folk-Cultural Properties

Section 6. National Cultural Facilities

1. National Museums and National Museums of Art

2. National Research Institutes of Cultural Properties

3. The National Theatre

Chapter 10. Internationalization of Education, Culture, and Sports

Section 1. International Exchange in a New Era

Section 2. Development of Japanese Citizens Living in the International Community

1. Promoting Education for International Understanding

2. Improving Foreign Language Education

Section 3. International Exchange and Cooperation in Education, Culture, and Sports

1. International Exchange and Cooperation Mechanisms

2. International Exchange and Cooperation in Education

3. World Cultural Links

4. International Exchange and Cooperation in Sports

5. Cooperation Through International Agencies

6. Cooperation with Developing Countries

Section 4. Student Exchange Aimed at the Twenty-first Century

1. Promotion of the 100,000 Foreign Students Plan

2. Development of Foreign Student Acceptance Systems

3. Establishment of Assistance Systems for Japanese Studying Abroad

Section 5. Global Expansion of Japanese Language Education

1. Growing Enthusiasm for Japanese Language Learning

2. Helping Learners of Japanese Throughout the World

3. The Future of Japanese Language Education

Section 6 Improving Education for Japanese Children Overseas and Children Returning from Overseas

1. Improving Education for Japanese Children Overseas

2. Improving Education for Children Returning from Overseas

Chapter 11. The Shift to an Information-Oriented Society: Implications for Education, Science, Culture, and Sports

Section 1. Responses of Educational Administration to the Shift to an Information-Oriented Society

1. Promoting the Shift to an Information-Oriented Society in Education, Science, Culture, and Sports

2. Responding to the Development of Multimedia Through Educational Policies

Section 2. Developing Human Resources to Cope with the Shift to an Information-Oriented Society

1. Primary and Secondary Education

2. Higher Education

Section 3. Utilizing and Developing New Information Media

1. Using Computers in School Education

2. Developing New Learning Systems

Section 4. Promoting the Supply of Lifelong Learning Information and Scientific Research Information and Developing Information Networks

1. Promoting the Supply of Lifelong Learning Information

2. Promoting Swift and Accurate Access to Science Information

3. Developing Science Information Databases

Section 5. Developing a Copyright Policy for the Shift to an Information-Oriented Society

1. Promoting Public Awareness of Copyright Protection

2. Studying the Use of Works and Institutional Issues for Multimedia

Chapter 12. Educational Facilities for the Twenty-first Century

Section 1. Developing Educational Facilities for a New Era

1. Measures to Create Enriching and Pleasant Educational Facilities

2. Maintaining an Enhanced Educational Environment

Section 2. Developing School Facilities with Distinctive Characteristics

1. Distinctive School Facilities to Meet the Changing Demand for Learning

2. Providing Sophisticated and Diversified Educational and Research Environments in National Universities

CHART INDEX

Figure I.1.16 What Scholastic Ability and Other Skills Should Be Developed Through School Education?

Figure I.1.17 Is the Educational Function of the Family Weakening?

Figure I.1.18 Reasons for the Decline in Education in the Home

Figure I.1.19 Is Descipline the Role of the School or the Family?

Figure I.1.20 Should Adults in the Community Become More Involved in Children's Development?

Figure I.2.4. The Effect of Modifications to Class-Hour Management on the Workload of Kindergarten and Elementary School Children

Figure I.2.5. Opinions Regarding an Increases in the Number of Saturday School Holidays (School Children, Teachers, and Parents)

Figure I.2.6. Opinions Regarding an Increases in the Number of Saturday School Holidays (Parents, by Gender)

Figure I.2.7. Parental Attitudes Toward a Further Increase in Saturday School Holidays (by Type of School)

Figure I.2.8. Parental Approval or Disapproval of the Five-Day School Week

Figure I.2.9. Attitudes Toward a Semimonthly Five-Day School Week of Patents with Children Attending Pilot Schools

Figure I.2.10. Reasons for Approval of an increase in the Frequency of Saturday School Holidays (Parents)

Figure I.2.11. Reasons for Disapproval of an increase in the Frequency of Saturday School Holidays (Parents)

Figure I.2.12. Parents' Wishes in Connection with the Five-Day School Week

Figure I.3.1 Trends in Advancement Rates to Upper Secondary School

Figure I.3.2 Trends in Student Composition by Type of Course

Figure I.3.3 Trends in Numbers of Upper Secondary Students and Schools

Table I.3.2 Availability of Subjects

Table I.3.3 Increasing Flexibility in Grade Completion Certification

Education Delivery System and Class Schedule

First-year timetable

Example of interschool Cooperation

Table I.3.4 Curriculum at Iwayado High School

Table I.3.5 Subjects Offered at Iwayado High School

Table I.3.6 Subjects Offered at Iwayado High School

Table I.3.7 Improvement of Systems of Selecting Entrants to Upper Secondary Schools

Figure I.3.4 Network of the Upper Secondary School Transfer Student Admission Information System

Figure II.2.1 Efforts to Build a Lifelong Learning Society

Figure II.2.2 Projects Aimed at Developing Systems for the Provision of Information for Lifelong Learning Activities

Table II.3.1 Reasons Cited by Dropouts

Figure II.3.1 Age Distribution of AIDS Patients and HIV Carriers (as of April 30, 1994)

Table II.3.2 Percentages of Schoolchildren Provided with School Lunches (as of May 1, 1993)

Table II.3.3 Reduction of Fees and Other Expenses per Kindergarten Child Through Kindergarten Attendance Encouragement Subsidies in Fiscal 1994

Table II.3.4 Trends in the Number of Certificates Issued for Appointments Under the Special Arrangement for Part-time Teachers Without Teaching Certificates

Table II.3.5 Examples of Lessons Provided by People Teaching Under the Special Arrangement for Part-time Teachers Without Teaching Certificates (Fiscal 1993)

Table II.3.6 Examples of Hands-on Activities as Part of Induction Training for Beginning Teachers (Fiscal 1993)

Figure II.3.3 Trend in Age at Time of Promotion to Principal or Deputy Principal

Table II.4.1 Cirriculum Reform Efforts (July 1993)

Figure II.4.1 Multiple Oppoutunities to Take National University Examinations (Scheduled for Fiscal 1995)

Figure II.4.2 Trends in Access to Higher Education

Figure II.5.1 Trends in Current Expenditures of Private Institutions of Higher Education and Amounts of Subsidies

Table II.5.1 Special Subsidies as Percentages of Total Subsidies for Current Expenditures to Private Institutions of Higher Education

Figure II.5.2 Trends in Subsidies for Educational and Research Equipment

Figure II.5.3 Trends in Current Expenditures of and Subsidies to Private Upper Secondary Schools

Table II.6.1 Research Funds by Type of Organization and the Share of Public Funds (Fiscal 1992)

Table II.6.2 International Comparison of University Research Funds (Fiscal 1991)

Figure II.6.1 Japan's Science and Technology Budget (Fiscal 1994)

Table II.6.6 Interuniversity Research Institutes (Fiscal 1994)

Figure II.6.3 Structure of the Science Information System

Figure II.6.4 Structure of the Science Information Network (SINET)

Figure II.6.5 National Universities' Joint Research with the Private and Public Sectors

Figure II.6.6 National Universities' Acceptance of Commissioned Research

Figure II.6.7 Acceptance of Commissioned Researchers

Figure II.6.8 Grants and Endowments Received by National Universities

Table II.7.1 Classes, Courses, and Other Programs Provided by Boards of Education and Social Education Facilities (Citizen's Public Halls and Other Facilities)

Figure II.7.1 Overall Plan of the National Olynpic Memorial Youth Center

Figure II.7.2 Trends in the Number of Social Education Facilities

Figure II.7.3 Trends in the Number of People Using Social Education Facilities

Figure II.7.4 Public Library Trends

Table II.7.3 Trends in the Number of Social Education Leaders and Other Personnel

Figure II.8.1 Medal Tallies in the Olympic Games and the Asian Games

Table II.10.1 Assistant Foreign Language Teachers (as of July, 1994)

Table II.10.2 Countries with Which Japan Has Concluded Cultural Agreement (as of August 1994)

Table II.10.3 Main UNESCO Programs in Which Japan Is Cooperating

Figure II.10.1 Trends in the Number of Foreign Students (as of May 1 each year)

Figure II.10.2 Foreign Students by Region of Origin (as of May 1, 1993)

Table II.10.4 Foreign Students by Country or Region of Origin (as of May 1, 1993)

Figure II.10.5 Trends in the Number of People Learning Japanese

Table II.10.5 Results of the Japanese Language Teaching Competency Test

Table II.10.6 Results of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (Fiscal 1993)

Table II.10.7 Teachers Sent Overseas Under the REX Program

Table II.11.1 Installation of Computers in Public Schools (as of March 31, 1993)

Table II.11.2 Trends in the Number of Information-Related Courses in Upper Secomdary Schools and in the Number of Students Taking These Courses

Table II.11.3 Trends in Information-Related Higher Education Courses and Places for Entrants

Figure II.12.1 Areas of National School Facilities According to Age (as of May 1, 1994)

INDEX OF THE MARKED TEXT

Low-Interest Loan System for Sports Facilities

Programme for Assisting NGOs in Developing Literacy Resource Centers for Girls and Women

Pilot Model Research on Making Educational Facilities More Intelligent

MEXT HOME