Education in Japan and England: A Personal View*

by

Rachel Hall London School of Economics and Political Science

Discussion Paper The Suntory Centre No. JS/87/158 Suntory and Toyota International Centres for 1987 Economics and Related Disciplines London School of Economics and Political Science Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK. Tel. 020-7955 6698 ___________________________________________________________________ * A preliminary version of this paper was delivered at a seminar held at Siena University. I am grateful to the Institute of Economics at Siena for their assistance.

NB: This PDF was retrospectively created in February 2004 of the STICERD discussion paper previously published in 1987.

Abstract

Japan and England tend to approach education in quite different ways and often for

different ends. Japan tends to see the direct economic benefit that accrues from an

educated population and therefore places a great deal of emphasis on schooling.

Successive English governments have not been so keen to provide a nationwide

system of schooling for several reasons: the fear of an educated working class and

the feeling that it should be a private or clerical responsibility, for example. This does

not mean that Japan devotes a particularly large slice of her resources to education

but perhaps that she has more clearly defined aims.

Keywords: Education, Japan, England, schooling, population, economic benefits. © by Rachel Hall. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source.