Why should prosperity be interrupted? In the 1970s, under the economic miracle, Japanese people began to set their sights on the welfare system construction in Europe while striding towards the goal of "100 million middle class". From 65438 to 0973, tanaka kakuei officially promoted the expansion of social welfare system. The Japanese call this year "the first year of well-being", which means that it will no longer be a problem for the Japanese who have many guarantees such as "free medical care for the elderly over 70 years old" and "price-linked annuity system". But in fact, Japan's expansion of pension benefits at this time is itself caused by a problem.
Japan's manufacturing industry has recovered due to a large number of orders brought by the special needs economy, and the economy has grown rapidly in the past 18 years, which means that Japan needs a large number of qualified modern workers-simple reading and writing can only meet the needs of low-end manufacturing industries, while in high-tech industries, intensive cheap engineers are needed to complete their homework and enhance the international competitiveness of Japanese enterprises. This means that Japan needs to further upgrade the demographic dividend to the engineer bonus. This demand led the Japanese government to vigorously promote the "cramming education" in 1960s. This kind of exam-oriented education can quickly forge higher education talents needed by society like an assembly line.
In addition, the Confucian cultural circle in Northeast Asia has always attached importance to education. As a result, Japan's "ambition to succeed" and the "elite education" in Europe and America combined to become the booster of "cramming teaching" in Japan that year. Parents' hope for class promotion, the temptation to be the top scholar and Yue Longmen, the wrong business trip turned into nasty and fierce competition, which made all Japanese students in that year live in dire straits-six days a week, homework like a sea, exams like a mountain. This is also the origin of the "exam-oriented education" model in Northeast Asia.
However, Japan's welfare system was not perfect at that time. In the educational competition of "sleeping for five hours every night, taking off the bill, sleeping for four hours, going to the to beno. 1", Japanese parents are also under great pressure of choice and educational expenses. The aggravation of mental and economic burdens directly leads to the decrease of fertility will. According to Wind's statistics, after the postwar baby boom peaked in the late 1960s, Japan's fertility rate began to plummet, from 20% in 1968 to 15% in 10 years, and even below 9% in 20 16 years.
In view of the aggravation of the country's aging problem, Japan spent ten years from tanaka kakuei to Nakasone to improve the integrated welfare construction from cradle to grave, aiming at reversing the aging problem in Japan through the incentive welfare system. In order to directly relieve the worries of men and women of childbearing age, the Japanese government began to implement "loose education" from 1973, trying to reduce the per capita education cost of children and promote young parents to have more children.
However, as the saying goes, a leopard cannot change his spots. In East Asia, the native idea of "aspiring to be a dragon" is combined with the implementation mode of "elite educationalism", and the Japanese have been unable to extricate themselves from it for fear of falling behind others. What kind of prince would like to have? Others can, and so can my son! From 65438 to 0976, under the pressure of public opinion, the Japanese Ministry of Education began to reform the cramming "hell education". In the "Education Curriculum Standards", the Ministry of Education officially established that Japanese education has entered a "relaxed era"-requiring public education to provide only the core teaching content, avoiding meaningless extension, trying to reduce the burden on students, but at the same time being able to live a full and free life. In order to carry out "general education", Japan not only revised the school class time from the original six-day course to five days, but also reduced the overall class time from 582 1 hour to 5785 hours. In order to avoid competition for further education, the voluntary registration system was deleted from the Learning Guidance Outline implemented in 2002, and the whole teaching content was reduced by 30%.
However, liberal education has not brought freedom to students, alleviated the pressure on young parents, and even failed to boost Japan's fertility rate. In fact, all the development directions are diametrically opposed. Japan claims to have a "100 million middle class", and the middle class is the group most eager to break through the ceiling and rise in the class. Due to the lack of asset accumulation, this class is also the most insecure and easy to slide to the bottom, which leads to the middle class all over the world keen on investing in education, hoping that their children can at least keep their existing lives when they grow up. As the most conservative ethnic group in Japan, the Japanese middle class is no exception.
However, the arrival of the "relaxed era" means that the Japanese government no longer provides quality education support for students, but only maintains a "most basic general education" on the bottom line. Such consequences will inevitably greatly increase the educational burden of the middle class eager for class transition and the bottom families in Japan. It is also true. With the determination of the "free era", since the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan cannot interfere with the operation of private schools or even cram schools, it can only stipulate that it is forbidden to apply for voluntary examinations in public schools. As a result, the number of students and the quality of teaching in public schools have declined, resulting in a large number of students from ordinary Japanese families unable to enter expensive private schools and having to spend a lot of time in public schools. If they want to improve their learning quality, they can only seek after-school tutoring.