（3）The Higher Conference on Education and Education System Reform

After the Higher Conference on Education had been established, the Ministry of Education presented inquiries to the Conference with respect to the orders and regulations pertaining to reform of the educational system including the proposed order on vocational schools, the proposed order on middle schools, the proposed order on girls high schools, and drafts of varuous ministerial regulations. In 1899, with the foundation of the Education System Reformist Society mentioned above the movement for education system reform gained further momentum, going as far as a proposal in the Imperial Diet for an education system survey committee. Under these circumstances, the government was unable to put off the issue of education system reform, and in November, 1902, Education Minister Kikuchi Dairoku (1855-1917) made an inquiry to the Higher Conference on Education with respect to its recommendation s on a government proposal for the reform of the educational system.

Among the essential points in the proposal put forth by Education Minister Kikuchi Dairoku were the following: 1) making higher schools the preparatory division (yobimon) of the Imperial Universities and shortening the higher school course by one year to a two-year length; 2) while middle school graduates ought to directly enter the preparatory division of the Imperial Universities, for the present time in view of the gap between the two school levels, a supplementary course would be established in the middle schools, and those finishing this course would enter the preparatory division of the Imperial Universities ; 3) specialized schools would be newly formed, comparable to the specialized course in higher schools. In response to this, there were strong protests from the side of the Imperial Universities, generally on the grounds that the proposals would lower standards. Eventually that part directed at forming the preparatory division of the Imperial Universities and the supplementary course of the middle schools was dropped. However, the proposals concerning specialized schools and vocational specialized schools were approved and implemented with the promulgation and enforcement in 1903 ofthe Specialized School Order and a revision of the Vocational School Order.

As related above the issue of education system reform was not fully resolved, and thus the Ministry of Education carried out several surveys concerning education system reform, which were soon discontinued as a result of the breakout of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. After the War, public opinion calling for reform increased. In March, 1910, the House of Representatives of the Imperial Diet discussed a proposal entitled the Education System of the Empire of Japan Proposal (Teikoku Gakuseian), which called for an overall reform including the shortening of the length of the course. This proposal did not pass the House of Representatives, but in that same month a broadly phrased Proposal concerning Education System Reform (Gakusei Kaikaku ni kansuru Kengian) was approved by that House. Together with stating the necessity for shortening the length of the course, the latter proposal recommended an urgent reform of the educational system.

In April, 1910, Minister of Education Komatsubara Eitaro submitted a proposal to the Higher Conference on Education for a somewhat different approach to reform involving the development of a new higher middle school. On the basis of the reply to this proposal, a draft of an imperial order was prepared by the Minister, and then submitted to the Privy Council. The order was promulgated on July 31, 1911, as the Higher Middle School Order. But as noted earlier, this Higher Middle School Order was never enforced and the issue of education system reform remained unresolved until the Taisho era when the Special Council for Education (Rinji Kyoiku Kaigi) was convened to once again consider possible changes.