a. The Promulgation of the 1886 Middle School Order

The 1886 Middle School Order was promulgated on April 10, 1886. Substantially in the same way as in General Guidelines for the Course of Study for Middle Schools (Chugakko Kyosoku Taiko) issued in July, 1881, this Order described middle schools as "places for carrying out the education necessary for those who wish to go into business as well as those who wish to enter a higher level school." The middle school was to be divided into two levels, an ordinary middle school and a higher middle school. The ordinary middle schools could be established in each prefecture and local tax funds could be used to support or subsidize no more than one per prefecture; moreover, ward, town and village funds were not allowed to be allocated to these schools. The Order specified that only five higher middle schools would be established throughout the nation, and that all of these would be managed by the Minister of Education and financed by the National Treasury and additionally by loca1 tax funds from the prefectures concerned.

This structure was somewhat different from the division specified in earlier General Guidelines for the Course of Study for Middle Schools.

The new policy called for one Imperial University, five higher middle schools and approximately fifty ordinary middle schools; hence the students for one higher middle school were to be chosen from among the graduates of roughly ten ordinary middle schools. As the system developed, the two levels of middle schools differed in their functions and were geared to different social classes. Education Minister Mori Arinori neatly summarized this aspect during a speech he made while on a regional inspection tour. According to Mori, the higher middle school was the place for nourishing those "who would enter the upper ranks of society" and who "would come to dominate the thought of the many." The ordinary middle school was "not for those who would stand in the lower ranks" but rather could be viewed as a school for training "those people who would do the most useful things" and who ought to be in the middle ranks of society.

In his speech, Education Minister Mori revealed the following thoughts concerning the establishment of ordinary middle schools: "Some of those who graduate from the ordinary middle schools would advance to higher middle schools or to a specialized school (senmon gakko), but ordinary middle schools will generally have as a goal the education of those who will go into business directly upon graduation. If this be so, then there ought to be no need to support such schools from taxes. However, our country is not yet in such a position, and therefore it is necessary that one ordinary middle school, supported or subsidized by local tax funds, be established in each prefecture. The principal and others with authority in these schools should be selected by prefectural government agencies and the management should be responsible to these same organs."

According to the 1886 Subjects and Their Standards for Ordinary Middle Schools issued in June, 1886, based on the 1886 Middle School Order, the course for ordinary middle schools was set at five years; entrance requirements included being at least twelve years of age and having graduated either from an elementary school that provided preparation for a middle school or from some other school at the same level. Ordinary middle schools were divided into five grades with each grade being of one year duration. Other than ethics, the ordinary middle school curriculum was divided into thirteen subjects including an optional subject in a second foreign language or agriculture depending on the student's desire to seek employment or go on for further schooling. In addition, according to the circumstances of the area, it was possible with the permission of the Minister of Education to establish commercial and engineering courses. However, this provision should not be viewed as a step to the realization of vocational education in the ordinary middle schools; this was purely a makeshift to meet an immediate need at that time when the facilities for middle level vocational education were not well developed.

The promulgation of the 1886 Middle School Order took as its object the formation of educational organs where useful men of talent could be educated and from which exceptional men could be drawn for higher learning. Initially these schools received a relatively small number of males from the middle and upper classes.