（2）The Vocational School Order and the Consolidation of Industrial Education

On February 7, 1899, the Vocational School Order was promulgated, which came into force on April 1 of that year. According to this Order, five types of vocational schools were to be set up: technical schools, agricultural schools, commercial schools, merchant marine schools, and vocational supplementary schools. Sericulture schools, forestry schools, veterinary schools and fisheries schools were included in the category of agricultural schools. Apprentice schools were classed as a type of technical school. These various vocational schools could be set up in all the prefectures. Moreover, the Minister of Education could order prefectures to establish necessary vocational schools according to the circumstances of the area. On the other hand, counties, cities, towns, and villages, and also school associations of towns and villages could establish vocational schools in cases where the establishment of such schools was necessary according to the circumstances of the area and on the condition that they did not hinder the realization of elementary educational facilities within that area.

Following the promulgation of the Vocational School Order, various accompanying regulations were also issued: the 1899 Technical School Regulations, the 1899 Agricultural School Regulations, the 1899 Commercial School Regulations, and the1899 Merchant Marine School Regulations were issued in February, 1899, and put in force in April of that year, followed by the December, 1901 issuance of the 1901 Fisheries School Regulations, which came into force in April, 1902. According to these Regulations, the respective types of vocational schools were to offer general subjects; for example, in the case of technical schools, they comprised morals, reading, compostion, mathematics, physics, chemistry, drawing, physical education, etc. In addition were various subjects appropriate to the respective vocational specialties with special emphasis placed on the actual practice.

For agricultural, commercial, and merchant marine schools category A and category B of schools were provided in the respective Regulations. According to the various Regulations, for technical schools and fisheries schools and also for category A of agricultural, commercial, and merchant marine schools, the length of the course was to be three years in general and entrance was to be limited to those who were at least fourteen years of age and who possessed academic standing equivalent to graduation from a four-year course of a higher elementary school, while for category B the length of the course varied from three years or less to two years or less according to types of schools and entrance requirements were being twelve years of age and above, or ten years of age and above depending on types of schools and possessing academic standing equivalent to graduation from a four-year course of an ordinary elementary school. In that the age for graduation from middle schools and the age for finishing vocational schools in the former case were the same, we can say that the vocational educational facilities were fundamentally unified to the system of middle level education.

In this manner, the system for vocational education came to be consolidated, and as a result the nation's schools for middle level education were divided into two large groups, those which conducted higher level general education and those which offered vocational education. This dual system remained in effect until after World War 2. The two types of middle level schools were quite different in their character and provided two distinct career doors to the graduates of elementary schools. Whereas the vocational schools provided terminal education, the middle schools constituted almost the sole route to higher education. With the establishment of the vocational education system, the policy of linking the organs of middle level education to the advancement of industry was extraordinarily advanced. And over the next decades much of the numerical expansion in middle level education occurred in the vocational sector.