There was a certain form of educational organization in ancient Japan, which began with the introduction of Confucianism into Japan and the establishment of private schools in the court. According to Records of Historical Records and Records of Japan, when Shen Ying ruled Japan, Qi Zhi, a sinologist from Baekje on the Korean Peninsula, came to Japan. A Qi Zhi was familiar with China classics and was hired as the teacher of the Crown Prince Tu Daozhi. Qi Zhi also recommended Dr. Wang Ren to Emperor Shen Ying. Wang Ren came to Japan in the 16th year of Shen Ying (285), bringing with him ten volumes of The Analects of Confucius and one volume of Thousand-character Works, and became a teacher of Chinese studies in the imperial court. Since Confucianism spread to Japan, a study center was established in the court, and the children of the Crown Prince, the royal family and the court nobles all went to study in the study center in the court, and court education began. In 552, Buddhism and Buddhist classics were introduced to Japan through Korea. Since then, the integration of Confucian culture in China and Indian Buddhist culture has become a torrent to promote the development of Japanese culture. The driving force of this torrent is Shoto Kutaishi. During his regency from 593 to 622, he promoted the cause of culture and education, founded many Buddhist temples to spread Buddhism and publicize Confucius' philosophy. In order to directly absorb China culture, he sent envoys, overseas students and monks to China Sui Dynasty to transplant the feudal system and culture of China.

In June 645, the eldest brother, Prince Nakatomino Kamatari, seized the political power controlled by the old aristocracy, established Emperor Kotoku, and imitated the organizational system of China, with the title of Dahua. In 646, the imperial edict of "from big to new" was promulgated, which established a centralized state system and promoted the transformation of Japanese society from slave society to feudal society. Since then, Japan has set up officials to study. On the one hand, it has continued to send overseas students to China; on the other hand, it has established a noble education system in Japan, modeled on the education system of the Tang Dynasty in China. In 668, the eldest brother Prince officially ascended the throne and became the emperor of heaven. In education, aristocratic children who started to establish universities and went to universities are called doctoral students. In the first year of Dabao (70 1), Prince Endurance and Bubi Fujiwara formulated the Dabao Law, which affirmed the measures taken since Dahua's innovation in legal form. The "Learning Order" part of the Dabao Act has made various regulations on universities and Chinese studies, which is a major event in the history of Japanese education development. According to the education system stipulated in Dabao Law, universities (or university halls) are set up in Kyoto, and Chinese studies are set up in local areas. After a long period of war and division, feudal lords with strong economic strength, such as Oda Xintai, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, rose one after another and gradually formed a force to unify the whole country. 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu was awarded the title of "foreign invasion general", established a shogunate in Edo (Tokyo), restored centralized system, and completed the great cause of reunifying Japan militarily and politically. From then on, until the Meiji Restoration for more than 260 years, it was called the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate era.

During the Edo period, in order to maintain the feudal hierarchy, the shogunate praised the school founded by Zhu, a Neo-Confucianism scholar in China and Song Dynasty. The Shinto thought of Japanese traditional religion has been developed in harmony (or Chinese studies). In order to prevent the invasion of European colonial forces, the shogunate adopted the policy of "locking up the country" and prohibited trade with other countries except China and the Netherlands. Japan can only learn about western culture and scientific knowledge through the Dutch. Therefore, western science and culture was called "Lan Xue" at that time and began to spread in18th century. Various schools, such as Confucianism, Harmony Studies and Blue Studies, have influenced Japanese academic thoughts, educational theories and teaching contents at different stages and to varying degrees. During the Edo period, cultural education showed a revival trend, educational institutions gradually developed and various forms of running schools were available. Educational institutions are divided into shogunate schools, vassal schools and "people's" educational institutions. Famous shogunate-affiliated schools include Changping Sakamoto Institute, Kazuo Institute, Kaicheng Institute and Medical Institute. Changping Sakamoto College is the most important center of Confucianism, with a shrine dedicated to Confucius. He Xue Workshop is the center for teaching Japanese Sinology. Kaicheng College is a center for teaching western culture and scientific knowledge as well as western languages. The Institute of Medicine teaches Dutch medicine. Francisco schools are generally located in the territory of Daming, mainly to train various Francisco warriors. The teaching content of religious studies began to focus on Chinese books and martial arts at the same time. After 17 15, the teaching content of modern scientific knowledge has been gradually increased, such as mathematics, medicine, navigation and military technology, and western languages. Some of them have been studied. "Popular" educational institutions include rural schools, private schools, temples, psychology and practical learning workshops and other types of schools. There are two kinds of rural credit: schools run by clans or princes for their children and schools set up by ordinary people in rural areas. The former is similar to the vassal school, while the latter is similar to the temple. Private schools were founded by individual scholars in various places, which played a great role in the development of cultural science in the Edo era. Most of the temples in the early edo period were located in the temple, and then the number of temples outside the temple gradually increased. By the eve of Meiji Restoration, there were more than 20,000 temples. Organizers of temple houses include soldiers, monks, doctors and gods, as well as civilians. Students are called "temple children" and come from all walks of life, mostly civilians. The main subjects of study are reading, writing and arithmetic. This is a mass education institution. It laid a certain foundation for popularizing primary education after Meiji Restoration.