| Feb 03 | Stocking up on useless facts to pass an exam |
| I have been studying academic juku (for-profit supplementary schooling) for many years and have visited over 50 individually operated juku throughout Japan. I have been thrilled by the dedication of charismatic educators, and dismayed by the relentless focus on standardized test results and by the lack of a diversity of offerings beyond the narrow confines of the curriculum in an era of hypereducation. In January, thousands of students in Japan sat for the central university entrance examination (center shiken or center test). For ambitious students, the exam is merely a requirement to check off on their way to the entrance examinations for specific fields of study that follow later. For others, the exam is a convenient way to avoid multiple examinations. The exam is one of the ultimate goals that supplementary education through primary and secondary schooling focuses on. (Japan Times) |
| Feb 02 | Govt to create new child care program in '15 |
| The government has agreed on a final draft plan for a new preschool child care program designed to combine kindergartens with day care centers. The scheme is designed to reduce the number of children on day care center waiting lists, and the target year for its introduction is fiscal 2015. The government will cover the projected cost of the new program by allocating more than 1 trillion yen in the fiscal 2015 budget to its implementation. It intends to cover about 700 billion yen with revenue expected to be earned through an increase of the consumption tax rate. The hike is part of a government plan to reform the social security and tax systems. (Yomiuri) |
| Feb 01 | Japan jobs treadmill grinds down workers and firms |
| Third year university student Saki Fujii flips through a meticulously kept diary of her six-month job hunt and eyes the busy week of interviews ahead -- another step on the treadmill for one of Japan's would-be workers. The 22-year-old knows her best hope of finding a full-time position is by doing exactly the same thing as those before her, in an unending round of interviews, job seminars and employment fairs. "I don't think it's necessarily a good thing that everyone takes part in the job hunt," she says. "With so many students looking to be recruited at the same time, we can't really expect to be employed at the company we want to work at." She is following in the footsteps of generations before her -- but a few corporate exceptions are now beginning to offer a different path. Like most of her fellow students at the prestigious Waseda University, Fujii's school life was one long slog of exam cramming. (mysinchew.com) |
| Jan 31 | Foreigners' poor test grades force rethink on nurse tests |
| Non-Japanese applicants hoping to become certified nurses could see the government's notoriously rigorous exams get easier with the inclusion of English-language tests and a new set of communication exams based on basic Japanese. Non-Japanese hoping to become care workers took the certification test for the first time Sunday, while those aspiring to become certified nurses have been applying for the exam since fiscal 2008. But the low pass rate is prompting the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry to consider changing the system. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 29 | Students: English useful, but not for me |
| Seventy percent of middle school students think English ability would be useful for obtaining a job in the future, but only 11 percent want to get a job that requires English, according to an education ministry institute survey. The survey, conducted by the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry's National Institute for Educational Policy Research in November, covered 3,225 third-year middle school students nationwide. Eighty-five percent said they think, "It is important to study English" or "It is rather important." (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 29 | Free care for Fukushima kids rejected |
| The government has turned down a request by the Fukushima prefectural government to make medical care free for prefectural residents aged 18 and under. Tatsuo Hirano, state minister for disaster reconstruction and disaster management, met with Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato at the Fukushima prefectural office Saturday to tell him of the government's decision. "It's necessary to handle this issue carefully because it affects the basis of the medical system," Hirano said. "It would be difficult to implement." (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 29 | Radiation testing on school lunches differs |
| Municipalities are carrying out tests for radioactive substances on ingredients used in school lunches, but parents are worried whether their children are adequately protected as the tests are conducted in various ways. According to data compiled by the Fukushima prefectural board of education, 33 of the 59 municipalities in the prefecture test school lunches for radiation. Using two radiation measuring instruments, the Koriyama municipal government checks school lunches only once a week, although ingredients left over from lunches on the other four school days also are tested. This means that some tests are carried out after the schoolchildren have eaten their lunch. (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 27 | 40% of universities mull shifting academic year |
| More than 40 percent of the national universities are warming to the University of Tokyo plan to shift the start of the undergraduate academic year from spring to fall, a survey found. Major private institutions, including Waseda University, Keio University and Ritsumeikan University, have also shown willingness to ponder the move, which a University of Tokyo panel recently advocated to bring the system in sync with international norms. The survey, conducted by Kyodo News between Monday and Wednesday, covered the presidents of all 81 national universities except the University of Tokyo and graduate schools unaffiliated with universities, as well as 12 major private universities. The response rate was 100 percent. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 26 | Elderly to get 24-hour nursing 'patrol' |
| The government said Wednesday it will launch a 24-hour "patrol" service to help the elderly become more self-reliant by facilitating in-home nursing care. The service, to get under way with the April 1 start of the new fiscal year, will be covered by public nursing care insurance. The government also aims to curb the ballooning costs of nursing care by allocating extra funds to welfare facilities that discharge residents to receive services at home and to caregivers who offer rehab services to prevent ailments from getting worse. Services at nursing homes are more costly than those provided at home. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 25 | Blasts in lab at Osaka school spark fire; all safe |
 A fire broke out at an Osaka elementary school Tuesday morning after a string of explosions in a science room, prompting 250 students and teachers to evacuate, but no injuries were reported, police and firefighters said.
The explosions at 10:45 a.m. gutted almost all of the 30-sq.-meter room at Kiyoe Elementary School in Suminoe Ward before the fire was put out an hour later, the authorities said.
They were trying to identify the cause of the blasts, which prompted the dispatch of some 30 fire engines and a helicopter. (Japan Times  ) |
| Jan 24 | School says it's responsible for deaths / Principal admits failure to protect 84 people killed, missing in March 11 disaster |
| The Ishinomaki municipal board of education and the principal at Okawa Primary School in the city of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, have admitted responsibility for events that led to the deaths of up to 84 people killed by the Great East Japan Earthquake. The board had been reexamining evacuation measures taken by the school after 74 students and 10 teachers were killed or went missing as a result of the March 11 tsunami. During a meeting with parents on Sunday, the board for the first time admitted there were problems with the school's evacuation instructions and apologized for the lack of guidance to students during the disaster. Since March 11, parents of children who died had accused the school of being irresponsible and complained that education authorities had failed to provide adequate explanations regarding the tragedy. (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 24 | Health ministry aims to get smoking rate down to 10% |
| The health ministry is drawing up a plan to reduce the smoking rate in Japan to around 10 percent, almost half the 23.4 percent in 2009, officials said Monday. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry aims to insert the numerical target into its fiscal 2013-2022 health promotion plan, and in its basic plan for anticancer programs for the next five years, they said. It is expected that smokers who want to quit will reach around 40 percent in the upcoming survey, due partly to price hikes, and that the reduction target will be set on the assumption all of them will quit. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 24 | Women chase opportunities overseas |
| The cosmopolitan cities of Shanghai and Hong Kong are attracting motivated Japanese women who are disillusioned by the hidebound culture of the business world at home. Many Japanese women trying their luck there are apparently enjoying successful careers, or at least having a good time preparing for one. Yoshie Nagashima, 39, decided to take a chance in China nine years ago when she was working for a major Japanese electronics maker. In Japan, she was frequently accused of being too pushy, and whenever she received a favor from her boss it invited jealousy from her male colleagues. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 23 | It's Murphy's Law if you don't get the joke in Japanese |
| If you miss the punch line to a Japanese joke, don't feel bad. It's simply unrealistic to use something as elusive as humor to measure your ability to understand a foreign language. On the other hand, knowing what makes people laugh is a great incentive for language study. Years ago, I found the lessons in my university's Japanese textbook rather dull, and set out to supplement them with more amusing materials. I was reminded of those efforts last August, when I read the お悔やみ (okuyami, obituary) of veteran TV entertainer Takehiko Maeda (前田武彦), who had passed away at the age of 82. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 22 | Mixed response to autumn enrollment plan |
| National universities are evenly split over an autumn enrollment system proposed by the University of Tokyo, with about half considering a similar change to their calendars but others skeptical whether it would fit Japanese society. The survey was conducted after recent reports the University of Tokyo, also known as Todai, plans to shift the enrollment of its undergraduate students from spring to autumn. Among 36 institutions that have started or will start discussions on introducing autumn enrollment was Tsukuba University, which said the change will be crucial to securing excellent students and faculty members from overseas to improve the university's education and research capabilities. (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 20 | Foreign Ministry hires interpreters for media |
| Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba has begun providing simultaneous interpretation in English at his weekly press conferences to provide more information to the international community about Japan's diplomatic activities. At his first bilingual press conference Wednesday, receivers and earphones were handed out and an interpreter provided simultaneous translation from a booth set up inside the briefing room. Two non-Japanese speaking reporters attended for the first time, the ministry said. Although the ministry is hoping the interpretations will reduce the global community's mounting distrust of the government, at least one media expert doubted it would have much of an impact on Japan's poor reputation for disclosure. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 20 | Other universities may follow Todai's lead |
| A number of leading public universities have announced they will consider shifting to autumn enrollment, in tandem with the University of Tokyo's steps to move enrollment for all academic departments to autumn to help ensure its international competitiveness in education and research. The universities' announcements Wednesday have been welcomed in financial circles, which have been dissatisfied with universities' ability to develop human resources. However, many challenges remain. "Autumn enrollment is the standard internationally. It would be more convenient for foreign students," Kyushu University President Setsuo Arikawa said at a regular press conference Wednesday. (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 19 | Radioactive gravel finds way to school |
| Radiation-contaminated gravel shipped from a quarry in the evacuation zone around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant found its way to an elementary school building as well as roads and pathways around houses, sources said Wednesday. The gravel went into concrete that was used to make an elementary school in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, more resistant to earthquakes. The area where the gravel was used had a radiation reading of 0.1 to 0.2 microsieverts per hour. "We are surprised at the news as we had never expected it. We'd like to make efforts to ensure children's health by checking the radiation level on a regular basis," the school's principal said. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 19 | Todai panel recommends fall enrollment |
| A University of Tokyo panel has proposed that the leading institution shift undergraduate enrollment from April to the fall in line with the international norm, sources said Wednesday. The proposal in an interim report sets the tone for further deliberations at the renowned university locally known as Todai, which has been considering reforms to improve its competitiveness among the world's top-notch institutions that usually begin their academic year in September or October. The report, which recommends introducing the change in five years, will be officially released Friday. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 19 | Unfair criticisms of education |
| Some recent comments criticizing Japan's education system are devoid of reality. It's true that more Japanese students used to go abroad when the country's university system was not developed, just as China sends thousands of students abroad today because its university system is not yet fully developed. There are two opposite tendencies in Japan today. On one hand, dire economic conditions in Japan, where the average disposable annual income of a Japanese family is ¥6 million to ¥7 million, compete with the cost of a university education, which ranges as high as ¥4.5 million (assume ¥1.5 million a year for living costs). Meanwhile, high school graduation no longer qualifies one for decent jobs in Japan anymore as so many manufacturing jobs have vanished to China. Only administrative jobs are available, for which a university graduation degree is needed. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 19 | Haiku a day helps you work, rest, play |
| In the 1920s, Tokyo high school student Hideichi Oshiro was moved by a haiku by Edo Period poet Matsuo Basho describing the subtle beauty of a wildflower he had come across during a walk in the mountains. After reading the poem by Basho (1644-1694), "I wanted to make this kind of haiku in my life. Nothing else, just one haiku," the 101-year-old Oshiro said in a recent interview at his Newburgh, New York, home, about 100 km north of Manhattan. The centenarian poet has completed much more in his lifetime than just one haiku. Oshiro, known to his friends and family as "Hide," continues to write a new poem every morning, as he has done for decades. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 18 | Ruling puts brake on severe punishments |
| A Supreme Court ruling Monday that found severe discipline over the issue of the "Kimigayo" national anthem "unconstitutional" is expected to put a brake on authorities trying to impose excessive punishment over teachers' refusal to sing the anthem. The Tokyo metropolitan government began meting out punishment to public school teachers and staffers who refused to comply with orders to stand up and sing the "Kimigayo," apparently out of concern that such an act would disrupt school events and make it difficult for teachers to maintain discipline. The metropolitan government had seen recurrences of people refusing to rise and sing the anthem even after such actions became compulsory in 2003. (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 16 | Men can be sexy when talking about themselves |
| An often misunderstood perception about the Japanese language is that it's long-winded and excessively polite. True, there's an entire lexicon devoted to politeness, called keigo (敬語, the language of reverence) and in Kyoto, there's such a thing as kyūtei kotoba (宮廷言葉, palatial language) - spoken almost exclusively among established families of imperial blood, and most of it indecipherable to the lower classes. But that's only one aspect of a diverse and ever-morphing language equipped with infinite shades of nuances and tiny, detailed quirks. And one of those details is seen (and heard) in the use of pronouns. Pronouns are a surefire indication of when a person is about to switch conversational lanes from polite to casual, formal to intimate. Men especially, will make the changeover from boku (僕) to ore (俺) in referring to themselves. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 15 | University entrance exams kick off |
 The national unified college entrance examinations began Saturday, with more than 550,000 applicants and a record-high 835 public and private institutions taking part.
The exams mark the start of an annual competition for spots in two- and four-year universities for the start of the 2012 academic year in April.
Total applicants fell by 3,447 from last year to 555,537, and included 439,713 high school students scheduled to graduate in March, according to the National Center for University Entrance Examinations, an affiliate of the education ministry. (Japan Times ) |
| Jan 14 | Tokyo foreigners get disaster drill |
| A total of 150 non-Japanese took part Friday in an annual emergency drill for foreign residents in Tokyo looking to learn or reaffirm how to deal with a disaster like the one that hit March 11. With the help of 80 volunteer translators covering eight languages, the participants went through eight simulation "zones," including a smoke-filled house, an earthquake simulator and fire extinguisher practice, set up outside the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium in Shibuya Ward. For the first time, the event featured an exercise on how to react during a quake measuring lower 6 on the Japanese intensity scale to 7, in which participants gathered in a room and evacuated the building with a staff member's guidance. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 14 | Japan disaster builds international bridges |
 Out of the tragedy of ruin wreaked by the tsunami that laid waste to large stretches of Japan's northeast coast, a beacon of international friendship has risen.
In a famously homogenous country where foreign faces are rarely seen outside the major cities, international volunteers have poured in to help the victims of Japan's March 2011 earthquake disaster put their lives back together.
Ishinomaki has never been on the foreign tourist trail. A year ago it had a sprinkling of non-Japanese that included English teachers, but it was not a place that many outside Japan had ever heard of.
However, in the ten months since huge waves crushed large areas of the city, washing away or badly damaging half of its 61,000 houses, thousands of people have offered to lend a hand, many of them from abroad. (AFP) |
| Jan 12 | Fukushima to test milk from 10,000 mothers |
| The breast milk of about 10,000 mothers residing in Fukushima Prefecture, home to the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, will be tested for radioactive contamination, prefectural officials said Thursday. Many breast-feeding mothers have expressed concern that their milk is contaminated by radioactive materials released into the air and sea by the Tokyo Electric Power Co. plant since it was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. A month after the crisis started, a citizens' group said radioactive iodine in small amounts was found in the breast milk of four women living east or northeast of Tokyo, 220 km from the plant. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 11 | Japanese strategy for improving teachers is catching on in Chicago |
| In the sunlit library at Jorge Prieto Elementary on Chicago's' northwest side, an experiment is under way. A provisional classroom has been set up. A white board sits at the front of the room, and 20 eighth-graders are seated at library tables. Math teacher Michael Hock is giving a lesson about the distributive property. Scattered throughout the room are some 30 other teachers. They aren't wearing lab coats-but they might as well be. They clutch clipboards and carefully monitor kids' reactions to the teacher's explanations, peering over students' shoulders as they write answers. "What is the area of the garden?" Hock asks students as he points to an illustration on the white board. "Nestor, I haven't heard from you today." (hechingerreport.org) |
| Jan 10 | International education a triple-A investment in your child's - and Japan's - future |
| Bicultural families are on the rise in Japan. In 1970, less than 6,000 "international marriages" - where one partner is non-Japanese - were registered, or 0.5 percent of the total. In 2000, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare reported that one in 22, or 4.5 percent, of all marriages that year were between a Japanese and a foreigner. In Tokyo, it's now one in 10. Parents of bicultural children in Japan often find themselves in educational limbo when choosing where to send their progeny: the traditional state school or one of the numerous international schools. And although expensive, an international education should be considered a triple-A investment in their children's future, as well as Japan's. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 10 | Suicide leap at disciplinary school |
| A 21-year-old man jumped to his death Monday in an apparent suicide at a sailing school in Mihama, Aichi Prefecture, that is known for its strict education program for troubled young people, police said. The man jumped from the roof of a three-story dormitory at Totsuka Yacht School around 7:30 a.m., leaving a note on the roof terrace that read: "It's painful for me to live. I want to die," police said. The Hiroshima Prefecture native, who joined the school in December 2010, climbed onto the roof while taking out garbage with another student, the police said. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 10 | Forced custody transfer orders hit 120 in 2010 / Enforcement unsuccessful in many cases |
| A Supreme Court survey shows district courts ordered the forcible transfer of a child from one parent to another in 120 cases nationwide in 2010, amid a rapid increase in disputes between divorcing couples over the custody of their children. In the first survey of its kind, the court found the children were successfully transferred in 58 cases, or 48 percent of the time. In the remaining cases, the transfer failed because the parent rejected the courts "direct enforcement" order. This kind of order involves the presence of court-appointed officers, and is usually used during financial disputes when the state enforces the rights of creditors if debtors do not abide by court rulings. These officers have the authority to transfer movable or fixed property of debtors to creditors. (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 09 | The Kanji of the Year for 2011: human ties that bind |
| Every November, in its Kanji of the Year poll, the Japanese Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation invites the public to vote for the character that best symbolizes the year drawing to a close. It then announces the winner in mid December. Since 1995, when the poll was inaugurated, the Kanji of the Year has been a legacy of the news event in the preceding year that made the deepest impression on the people of Japan. It was thus no surprise that the top vote-getter in the latest poll was inspired by the tragic events surrounding the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11. In the days leading up to the announcement of poll results, my Japanese husband and I competed to predict the winner. My money was on 波 (nami, wave, the second character in 津波, tsunami), but my husband disagreed: "No, I think 波 is too evocative of the horrific scenes of March 11. Voters will show consideration for survivors' feelings and choose a character with a positive spin, one that honors the way volunteers and survivors pulled together in relief efforts. My prediction is 助 (tasu-keru, help)." (Japan Times) |
| Jan 09 | Japanese food wins over foreign epicures |
| Japanese cuisine is undergoing a renaissance with sophisticated food preparation and delicate handling of foodstuffs attracting increasing attention from non-Japanese. Locally produced foodstuffs also have been "rediscovered" by Japanese and this has helped people regain the confidence they lost in the face of the devastation caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake. However, many non-Japanese are knocking on Japan's door to learn the skills of local chefs. Derek Wilcox, a 35-year-old American, is one of 20 chefs at Kikunoi Honten, a Kyoto restaurant founded in 1912 that serves such seasonal delicacies as sashimi made from tilefish and crab meat. He has worked at the restaurant for five years. (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 08 | Thinner and thinner |
| Japanese girls weigh less than ever, according to an Education Ministry survey of 650,000 Japanese children aged 5 to 17. The average weight of girls in Japan was at its lowest since data started being compiled in 1948, even though average height has increased by five to eight centimeters. These worrisome results come primarily from an obsession with body image and increased dieting. More Japanese teens identify themselves as fat than in any other country, according to a survey of high school students in Japan, China, South Korea and the United States by the Japan Youth Research Institute in February 2011. Only 26 percent of Japanese, the lowest share of all the countries, said they were satisfied with their bodies. Meanwhile, 41 percent of elementary school girls in Japan thought they were too fat and a record 46 percent of Japanese girls, some as young as 6, reported having dieted. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 08 | Free English tests for students / Ministry to pay for proficiency checks at public schools from 2012 |
| n a bid to boost English skills among youngsters, the education ministry will allow students at a certain number of public middle and high schools to take English proficiency tests at government expense starting from the 2012 school year, it has been learned. Under the envisaged project, the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry will pick eight middle and high schools in each prefecture where students can take the Eiken and other English proficiency tests free of charge, according to ministry sources. The ministry will designate four of the eight as pilot schools where extensive English instruction will be provided, mainly by native speakers. It will then compare test scores of students between the two groups so it can improve the pedagogy at public schools to boost English skills among students overall, the sources said. (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 07 | Sony throws away Japan recruitment rulebook |
 Attention young Japanese job seekers: Sony Corp. wants to get to know you.
The Japanese electronics giant is shaking things up in the way it will hire the incoming class of fresh entry-level suits, stepping out from the rigid recruitment system used by the country's most elite companies for generations.
Gone are the indistinguishable black suits requisite for interviews. Gone is the formulaic interview involving a table, a chair either side and rote answers. Gone is the hiring taboo on applicants who spent the year after college studying abroad instead of jumping into the job market.
The changes, announced in late December, are the company's attempts to distinguish the individuals from the masses. (Wall Street Journal) |
| Jan 06 | Poor employment conditions push Japan's young to the edge |
| "I finally started working," said "Daisuke" (not his real name), 31, to his friends and former classmates at last year's high school class reunion. Listening to other people talk about their work, when he was asked about his own recent affairs, he couldn't help but lie. Daisuke lives in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, on his own. Since he was fired from his last company, where he worked as a temporary employee, he has spent the last two years unable to secure a stable job. Currently, he lives off welfare assistance. Daisuke graduated from a private high school in Saitama Prefecture in 1999. Coming from a financially stricken family, he could not afford to attend college. Instead, he began working part time at a restaurant and a convenience store five days a week. At times, he worked for some 14 hours a day. Yet, all he could make was no more than about 130,000 yen a month. (Mainichi) |
| Jan 05 | Battle of the brushes in Japan |
| From small children to octogenarians, thousands came together in Tokyo Thursday for a new year's battle of the brushes in an annual national calligraphy contest. In what has long been a ritual for the start of the year, people all across Japan write down their resolutions and hopes, or good luck characters, using a traditional horse-hair brush and ink made of charcoal. This year's contestants brushing their welcome to the Year of the Dragon included children from Fukushima prefecture, which is still struggling with the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years, set off by last year's massive earthquake and tsunami. "I wasn't sure if I would be able to write well, but I did better than I thought so I think it's good," said Natsumi Yazawa, a 14-year-old from Fukushima who traveled hundreds of kilometers to take part. (Reuters) |
| Jan 05 | Fukushima schools kick off semester |
Public elementary and junior high schools in the city of Fukushima kicked off a new semester Wednesday, one week earlier than normal amid the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant crisis.
Those schools had extended summer vacation by one week last year as schools and local governments took measures to cope with radiation fallout from the crippled plant. To catch up, they instead shortened the winter vacation by one week. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 02 | Japan's future could be in mums' hands |
 Public dismay with the Japanese government's response to this year's triple disaster - earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown - is driving some to become more politically engaged, helped by social and alternative media.
While still fledgling, it is the kind of grassroots activism that some say Japan needs to shake up a political system that has allowed the country's problems to fester for years.
Mrs Mizuho Nakayama, for example, is one of a small but growing number of Internet-savvy activist mums.
Worried about her two-year-old son and distrustful of government and television reports that seemed to play down radiation risks, she scoured the Internet for information and started connecting with other mothers through Twitter and Facebook, many of them using social media for the first time. (todayonline.com) |
| Jan 02 | 'Where are our children?' parents ask / Search continues at primary school destroyed by tsunami more than 9 months ago |
| Parents are still searching for missing children more than nine months after a tsunami inundated an Ishinomaki City primary school following the Great East Japan Earthquake in March. Seventy-four students at the city's Okawa Primary School--about 70 percent of the student body--were killed or went missing. The sounds of heavy machinery could be heard Friday digging into the area around the school in an effort to find four students still unaccounted for. Miho Suzuki, 43, who is searching for her daughter, Hana, a fourth-year student, talked to Masaru Naganuma, 42, who was operating a power shovel in driving snow. She handed a cup of coffee and a bun to Naganuma, saying, "You must be tired." (Yomiuri) |
| Dec 31 | Seabed with 13th century Mongol shipwreck may become historic site |
| The Agency for Cultural Affairs plans to have the seabed off Nagasaki Prefecture where the wreck of a ship believed to have been used by 13th century Mongol invaders has been found declared a national historical site, agency sources said. The declaration would make the area off Takashima Island in Matsuura, Nagasaki Prefecture, the first underwater ruins to be registered as such a site in Japan. The designation will in principle prohibit the area from being altered. The agency sees the need to take immediate measures in the area, given that the relics there are expected to provide archeologists with crucial information on the 1274 and 1281 Mongol attacks that, until the discovery of the relatively intact shipwreck, has mostly been available only from documents and drawings. (Japan Times) |
| Dec 30 | Japan's wartime sex slavery, Gwangju uprising included in high school textbooks |
| The education ministry on Friday approved a set of revised guidelines for high school history textbooks that mention Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery for Japan's World War II soldiers. Under the revised guidelines, the new textbooks will describe how Japan "intensely drafted (Korean) workers, soldiers and comfort women for the Japanese military during the Pacific War," the ministry said. The Pacific War refers to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean. The move comes as South Korea has pressed Japan to resolve long-standing grievances over Tokyo's wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women, euphemistically called "comfort women." The Korean Peninsula came under the Japanese colonial rule from 1910-45. (Mainichi) |
| Dec 30 | Tokyo to help 10,000 youths study abroad |
| The Tokyo metropolitan government has announced a project to help 10,000 young people study abroad over eight years starting in fiscal 2012 to rectify their increasingly inward-looking mind-sets. "Through studying abroad, we'd like to help young people toughen up so they can serve as leaders in the future," a Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education official said. Announced last week, the project will send not only high school and university students, but also young craftspeople overseas in the eight years from fiscal 2012 to 2020. (Yomiuri) |
| Dec 29 | Japan's cramming schools: Testing times |
 The yells of children pierce the night, belting out the elements-"Lithium! Magnesium!"-as an instructor displays abbreviations from the periodic table. Next, two dozen flags stream by as the ten-year-olds shout out the names of the corresponding countries. Later they identify 20 constellations they have committed to memory. Timers on desks push older students as they practise racing through tests. The scene at Seiran Gakuin, a juku or crammer on the edge of Tokyo, repeats itself nightly at 50,000 juku across Japan.
Seen as a brutal facet of Japan's high-speed post-war growth, crammers are as powerful as ever. Almost one in five children in their first year of primary school attends after-class instruction, rising to nearly all university-bound high schoolers. The fees are around ¥260,000 ($3,300) annually. School and university test-scores rise in direct proportion to spending on juku, often a matter of concern in a country that views itself as egalitarian. The schools are also seen as reinforcing a tradition of rote learning over ingenuity. (The Economist) |
| Dec 29 | Skilled foreigners to get grades, perks |
| The government announced Wednesday that it will start grading skilled foreign workers this spring and granting those with higher marks preferential treatment amid intensifying international competition for skilled workers. Justice Minister Hideo Hiraoka told a news conference that he hopes an increase in foreign workers with high-level skills will help to complement Japan's workforce. Under the new system, the government will classify professions into three categories - academic research, work requiring highly specialized skills, and management and administration. (Japan Times) |
| Dec 29 | Few options for left-behind parents even if Hague OK'd |
| For years, Japan was the object of international criticism for not joining the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction that prevents cross-border parental kidnapping. But in May, the government announced its decision to begin preparations for signing the treaty, which would make it the last country among the Group of Eight industrial powers to join the international convention. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in October said he would submit the legislation to the Diet when it opens in early 2012. But for the international community, signing the treaty is only a step in the right direction. A larger problem for many is that the Hague Convention is not effective retroactively - meaning that even if Japan joins the pact, it won't help parents like Toland. (Japan Times) |
| Dec 27 | Govt to poll student affluence / Authorities aiming to shrink disparities in academic performance |
| The government plans to survey students about their families' economic situation in tandem with the annual national achievement test given to all sixth-year primary school students and third-year middle school students. The questionnaire survey is meant to help resolve disparities in academic ability stemming from differences in the affluence of students' families, the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry said. The survey will be conducted from the 2013 school year. A ministry survey has already established that schools with a high percentage of students who receive economic assistance for things such as school lunches and trips also tend to have high percentages of incorrect answers on the national achievement test. (Yomiuri) |
| Dec 27 | Many angles to acquiring Japanese citizenship |
| Nationality has long been a controversial issue in Japan. For most, it is something they are born with; for others, it is something they had to fight for. For some, nationality may be a source of pride, while for others, it may be the cause of discrimination. Meanwhile, citizenship may be something that they have to sacrifice in order to pursue their goals or dreams - like comedian and runner Neko Hiroshi, who made headlines last month after announcing he had obtained Cambodian nationality in the hope of competing in the 2012 London Olympics. (Japan Times) |
| Dec 26 | A look back at the buzzwords and street slang of 2011 |
| On Dec. 1, publisher Jiyukokumin-sha announced that the winner of its annual 流行語大賞 (ryūkōgo taishō, buzzword grand prix) for 2011 was 撫子ジャパン (Nadeshiko Japan). This of course is the name of the winners of the Women's Soccer World Cup held last June-July, and you can hardly blame the voters for picking a word that relates to one of the happier moments in an otherwise pretty dismal year. Nadeshiko (撫子, scientific name Dianthus superbus) is a sweetly scented pink flower that, when preceded by 大和 (Yamato, the ancient name for Japan), has been applied poetically to extol Japanese womanhood. However, because the character in nadeshiko is also used for the verb 撫でる (naderu), meaning to fondle or stroke, this has invited bloggers on some websites to pun the word as nadekko (or nadecco), supposedly meaning a girl who is the object of a man's affection (or lust). (Japan Times) |