![]() ![]() Among other reforms, these new guidelines aimed to enable a new five-day school week-reduced from six-by cutting the educational requirements by a third in an attempt to relieve the stress placed on Japanese children and students. ![]() The Debate over Academic Decline The declining scholastic abilities of Japan’s children and university students-formerly ranked at the top of the world-is said to be a failure of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) (*1) policy of yutori kyōiku, or “education that gives children room to grow,” yutori meaning “relaxed” or “pressure-free.”ĭebate was first sparked by the government’s plans to introduce new “Courses of Study,” the national educational guidelines, in 2002. At the end of the 1990s, Japan was trying to digest the lessons of this era, and it launched a heated public discussion on the state of the nation’s education-the “academic decline” debate. This was the genesis of Japan’s lost decade. The industrial structure in Japan shifted in the 1970s from manufacturing to services, and Japan experienced a rapid changes in its information society in the 1990s. At that time worldwide economic restructuring and globalization took place, and debate over international competitiveness continued. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc from the end of the 1980s through the early 1990s, the Cold War came to an end, ushering in an era of tumultuous change that coincided with the end of Japan’s spectacular growth. With Japan under the protection of the United States during the Cold War, it was free to pursue economic growth while controlling defense costs. The expanding bubble saw excessive trust and pride in the Japanese system, with some describing “Japan as number one” when it eventually popped, it marked the end to Japan’s long stretch of economic stability. The bubble economy of the 1980s was the final flourish to the period that began with the growth boom starting in 1955 and matured with the steady growth that began toward the end of the 1970s. With Japanese society already challenged by a low birthrate and aging population, and with the middle-aged concerned about their retirement, young people also found themselves faced with anxiety over the future. The population of young people classified as NEET, or “not in education, employment, or training,” grew to 750,000 by 2000. So-called “freeters” ( fur ītā)-young people employed part-time, typically in a series of short-term noncorporate positions-rose to more than 4 million in 2001. The number of full-time employees with benefits fell as temp staff rose. The domino-like collapse of banks and brokerages created financial instability, and along with the bankruptcies came layoffs and the consolidation of the financial industry. The 1990s are known as Japan’s “lost decade.” Following the collapse of the bubble economy in the latter half of the 1980s and a succession of missteps by the financial authorities, Japan was left in a prolonged recession. ![]()
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