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The family, as well as peers and school, plays a crucial role in forming student's attitudes toward schooling and academics. In the case of Japan, research has documented that studying and homework are central concerns of Japanese families (Stevenson and Stigler, 1992; Lewis, 1995). This theme is captured in the media by the stereotype of the "education mama" (kyoiku mama) who sacrifices her career to stay at home making lunches, fixing school uniforms, and preparing material for the next day at school. In the media portrayal of Japan, hordes of students wearing headbands which signify their participation in the "exam war" (juken senso) are supported by the eternally patient supply corps of doting mothers.
As with many media images, this image of Japanese education is somewhat distorted. It is true that in Japanese culture the mother is expected to play a central role in supporting her child 's education, a role that fathers are rarely expected to fill. Indeed during the important preschool and early elementary years, it may seem to the young Japanese mother that everything is, as Fujita (1989) described, "all mother's fault". The mother in the early years is responsible for providing a wide range of support including (but not limited to) lunches, clean uniforms, preparing various accessories such calligraphy brushes or swim gear, as well as overseeing homework. However, parental involvement in education changes dramatically as students enter adolescence.
After entry into junior high school, students spend more time in school than with their families (please refer to Figures 4 and 5). Perhaps because students are away so much of the day, the parents we interviewed made great efforts to create a time when all the family members could be together. For some this was a family vacation in the summer, for others an outing to local parks or museums on national holidays. For the working-class families, like those at Shimogawa Elementary and Naka Vocational, finding such a time was extremely difficult. A Shimogawa mother described her family's situation:
Well, we get up very early, at 3:30 a.m., because we have a bread store and must get to work. I don't know when the kids get home from juku or what time my daughter goes to bed. I asked her: she usually goes to bed at 11:00. Grandpa stays up until she comes home as it is dangerous for a girl to come home that late. My boy sometimes falls asleep by 8:00 in front of the television. He is hard to get up in the morning — asleep in bed! How many hours he sleeps! I think his brain gets a good rest.
Working-class homes were not the only ones where it was hard for the family to be together. I interviewed several middle- and upper-middle-class families where the mother did not work outside the home but the father worked in another part of Japan.
Family schedules seemed less coordinated once students entered high school. In families where the father commuted to work, dinner time was rarely an opportunity for everyone to get together. A student at Arata described her family’s dinner routine:
Sometimes its 8:00 to 8:30. Sometimes as late as 8:40. Recently just my mother and I eat together. My dad is always home around 8:30. My brother, he goes out on dates and such. We are all over the place.
Another student said that because of her club participation “I eat separately. My father comes home at 5:30 and the three of them (parents and sibling) eat together.”
Japanese parents tolerate the fact that they see little of their children after the elementary school years are over, but many expressed concern about the need for parents and children to engage in some form of recreation. One mother at Chuo explained that her friends had an innovative way of socializing with each other and their children. She and her friends take their sons to go karaoke singing:
I usually go more with my son's friend's mothers than with my husband. We learn a lot about school, about the students and the classes. The karaoke establishment is the place where we parents can talk. It is also a place where there is consideration for others: gentleness, kindness, all these things come out. So, in terms of education, I don't think it is good for students whose parents don't take them places. A student needs to have experiences like: 'Oh look, if mother does that, then it is all right if I do that.' Even if a student doesn't understand, if he sees his parents doing something, he will learn. When he goes out to play at a friend's house or bowling, he will learn from the way that his friends' families talk with each other.
Parents in this study expressed widely divergent views about the basic purpose of schooling.
For example, some parents thought that studying was supposed to be fun or enjoyable so that students would like school and continue to want to attend. Others saw studying as building up character. As Singleton (1967) wrote, a major goal of schooling for many Japanese parents is to get students to persevere (gambaru) and patiently bear inconveniences or hardship (gaman suru). This is a type of training in determination, and parents see these qualities as essential for the future success of their children. One mother at Chuo eloquently discussed her views on studying:
From the student 's view, school is a fun place; if it wasn't fun, they wouldn't go. But I think it is also a place of pain (kutsu). They have to study. It is necessary to study to grow up into an adult. They have to do it or else, everyday. So, I think that studying can be painful.
I think that you learn up until death. It isn't the kind of studying you do sitting at a desk. For example, you study the relationships between people. Learning to cook is also studying as is learning how to do things from your husband's mother. If we aren't learning each day, what reason can we give for having this human life? Human development is not just studying at a desk. I think they have to prepare them for society — they have to focus on human development.
Parents of junior high students in particular put emphasis on the character-building aspect of studying. Because parents and teachers alike see this as a crucial time in the formation of student character, junior high schools have traditionally tried to balance studying hard with vigorous physical activities, exposure to the arts and music, and a lively calendar of events. While parents want their children to do well on the exams, they also want them to be well-rounded people, but their concern for success on the entrance exam tends to come through most clearly. Teachers respond to this primary concern, but the teacher’s reactions are often interpreted by parents as putting too much emphasis on studying for the tests.
On the other hand some teachers complained that parents did little more than tell their students to study. They wanted parents to take a more active role in the overall education of the student. Teachers also saw studying as more than book work, and they lamented the fact that they are pressured into teaching to the test. While teachers and parents evinced a strong desire to work together to provide a vital learning climate for students, both parents and teachers tended to respond more to the concerns around the entrance exams. These common responses feed off each other and tend to drive classes more and more toward exam preparation.
The concept of studying (benkyo) has very broad and overall positive connotations in Japan. Several Japanese terms cover the range of studying activities in which students engage. Specific school assignments are shukudai, preparing for lessons or reviews of class is called yoshu, and practice questions are renshu mondai. Shukudai and yosh are the closest English approximations of "homework." Each day, junior and senior high school students will cover a certain part of the text in class, and will be expected to review the day's lesson and prepare for the coming lesson as "homework." Renshu mondai are typically questions assigned by the teachers that highlight salient parts of the lesson or mimic questions that will appear on upcoming tests.
In both junior high and high schools, the assignments for the days classes are commonly written by the students on the chalkboard in the rear of the homeroom class each day. Students take turns throughout the year being responsible for writing down these assignments. The homeroom teacher also frequently checks to see that the day's "homework" is recorded for all to see on the board. This kind of studying is associated with school work. While studying (benky) can mean "cracking the books," it also has wider meanings. As one parent at Chuo Junior high School put it:
Human development (ningen keisei) is not just studying at a desk. I think they have to prepare them for society — they have to focus on human development. I realize, as the teachers do, that while in school they have to study, but they have to learn things outside of that, as I said before, consideration for friends, kindness. I think they really have to study those things. Then there are the relations between seniors and juniors (senpai/ko hai). They have to study that a lot. It isn't just what I expect; they have to do these things if they are going to develop their humanity. If they just study, they won't have much humanity. It is best if they can combine the two: studying and developing humanity. I think that is necessary for education at the junior high school.
Teachers saw the junior high school and high school years as a time when students become more socially responsible. As students mature, the teachers expect them to take more active roles in the life of the school as well as take responsibility for instructing younger members of their clubs or committees. However, the necessity of preparing students for the entrance exams means that teachers rarely have enough time to devote to character development. In this regard, the parents were often critical of the education provided by the schools. Students, they felt, were not developing a sense of social responsibility necessary for life in Japan's adult world. The mother of a third-grade girl at Shimogawa put it this way:
But when she gets out into the world, I think she will have to measure up to different standards. So, when she goes out into society, it won't be that she is good or bad at math, nor if she can speak English well or not. There are lots of kids out there without "heart." For us it is most important to instill our students with a sense of thoughtfulness for others (omoiyari). Studying, well, it is a problem if they can't do it at all, but if they don't bully, if they respect others, that is the kind of upbringing we want.
Studying in the broadest sense means a continual process of learning or self-improvement. Teachers and parents in this study referred to the fact that students must learn how to interact with others as part of the "studying" that goes on in school. Benkyo, in this context, refers more to the things students need to learn. For example, Japanese students tend to define social rank based on age and years of affiliation within a given organization (e.g., between juniors and seniors). In the clubs, first-year junior or senior high school students are juniors (ko hai). They are expected to follow the direction of the second- and third-year students who are their seniors (senpai). Seniors generally are the team captains or club leaders and take an active role in organizing the training as exemplified in the basketball practice at Arata described above.
Preparation for the entrance exam (juken benkyo) is yet another distinct kind of studying recognized by adults and adolescents. Studying for the exams occurs in several contexts. Junior high and high schools provide extra-classes (hoshu), usually for third-year students only, that are directed at preparing for the exam and cover different material from that learned in the regular classes. Junior high and high school students also enroll in advancement juku (shingaku juku) where they will memorize material from previous tests and take many practice tests. Individually, students also engage in juken benkyo by buying any one of the many practice test books and pamphlets available in bookstores or by enrolling in correspondence courses that are specifically aimed at preparing students for the entrance exams.
Parental involvement in homework is sometimes a source of conflict for teachers and parents. After the first few years of elementary school, parents may rarely look at a student's homework. Many junior high parents feel that they cannot help their students with homework. Except for teachers, university professors and an occasional engineer, Japanese parents seldom feel confident in giving students guidance or assistance on study matters once they enter junior high school. Nor did teachers expect parents to take an active role in supervising or checking homework. Parents often noted that junior high students had begun studying material that is too complicated for parents to understand.
This tendency for parents to take a less active role in supervising homework was more pronounced at Shimogawa than at the more affluent Midori or Chuo where parents tended to have higher academic backgrounds. But, across all levels of social background, once a student enters junior high school, parents tend to urge students to study, but rarely supervise homework. One teacher at Midori noted that: "Yes, parents are very concerned. They don't help with homework, but they do send their students to juku; 60-70 percent of kids go to juku. Some kids go to club, juku and enrichment courses. So, kids have no time with friends."
One parent at Shimogawa, when asked if she made her child study, said:
Yes it is necessary. It is really hard to judge what to say in order to increase their motivation. That is my worry nowadays. My middle one, he goes to juku. 'I hate juku' he says, so I say 'how about a home tutor?' The problem is, if I knew someone it would be okay but I don't know anyone. So I am worried. I let the kids pick. We try to make it the habit that they study each day.
However, parents of high school students were very noncommittal about motivating their children to study. A father at Arata said: "My daughter? I leave it up to her: study time and the like." Parents who were well-educated themselves tended to take a more active role in school events, but in general parents of high students appeared to offer little or no supervision of homework or studying. However, they were willing to provide monetary support and enroll their children in juku:
At high school parents don't help at all [with homework]. If the father is an engineer or something like that, maybe. But for most people, when the student gets into high school, they don't help. They will send the student to juku, or they will spend money to provide a study room or hire a home tutor. (Meiji teacher)
One reason parents gave to explain why they no longer supervised their children's schoolwork was that they were uncomfortable discussing the lesson because they did not know its format or the explanations included in the teacher's text. From junior high school on, memorizing the correct answer is of paramount importance in a student's education. The changing role of parents in their children's study habits appears to be tied as much to the changing nature of how subjects are presented and the kind of answers that are required as to the level of difficulty of the material.
Parental participation in school activities varies depending on the age of the student and the kind of school attended. In the elementary years, parents are actively involved in many school activities. For example, a teacher at Kita Elementary described the various events that parents, usually mothers, took part in:
Teacher: We have a meeting for each class once a year. The other times that someone from the home would come with the students would be the school festivals. In fall, we have the sports festival. As for other meetings, in the first and second semesters, we have a meeting just with the parents. Often it is just the mother. Out of thirty students I'd say that only one father comes, so it is really 99 percent mothers.
Interviewer: Are there other times when parents come?
Teacher: Yes, three times in a year. Three times to see the class. Also there is the exercise (undo) meet, music meet, and other exhibitions (happyo-kai).
By junior high school, parents are coming to school less, especially to view classes. However, at some schools parents will still turn out in numbers for school events. According to one parent who was active in the PTA at Shimogawa:
There are parents who are very positive and those we never see at all. About half and half. There are working couples, where the mother also has a job, quite a few at this school. For many parents it is inconvenient to get the time.
While parents of junior high school students tend to come to school for fewer events, they are still active in such organizations as the PTA. In the Japanese PTA, the parents elect one or two members to represent all the parents of the students in that class. Two common PTA activities are producing a newspaper, which keeps parents informed of what the students are doing at school, and providing support for major school events like the yearly festivals.
As one mother at Naka Vocational explained to me, parents can relax when their students get into high school. Even in cases where parents still admonish students to study, the effect is negligible. A teacher at Naka Vocational noted:
There are many parents at our school who have stopped demanding anything of their kids. Even like coming home late. I wish they would be a little stricter. They tell their kids to study, but the kids are high school students, so they don't listen.
At the high school level, parental involvement is also affected by the kind of high school that students attend. Parents of Meiji students appeared to be more likely to come to school for various events than parents at other schools. When there are specific events that affect students' future academic opportunities, teachers at Meiji can expect a strong showing. For middle-ranked schools like Arata, parental turn out can be lower. An Arata teacher noted:
Well, at the sports festivals most of those who came were all PTA members. In terms of other things at the school that parents take part in, there are lectures on school advancement. They come to school to hear about school advancement matters, but I don't think the percentage of those coming is so high.
In sharp contrast to Meiji and Arata, parents at Naka Vocational rarely, if ever, came to school. I asked a group of students at Naka Tech if their parents ever took part in school events.
Student 1: No.
Student 2: Nope.
Student 3: They don't.
Student 4: When my brother was in school my dad did some things, but not now.
The withdrawal of parents from school activities as the student grows older occurs simultaneously with a decrease in the amount of time students spend with their families. By high school, Japanese students exhibit a surprising degree of independence. They often commute long distances, their parents do not supervise their homework, and they may be at school or juku until late at night. Even when they return home, many high school students headed to their rooms to listen to music, study, or play computer games. Those attending juku, or who take an active role in sports, often do not eat dinner with their families. The balance between family time and school time is increasingly tilted toward the school (or part-time jobs in the case of Naka Vocational students) as the student grows older.
The condition of Japanese families is a major topic of concern for Japanese educators. Teachers tended to link student problems (e.g., juvenile delinquency, lack of motivation, emotional troubles) to problems in the family. Recently the Japanese media has focused on the rising incidence of bullying and linked bullying to the decline in family size. With smaller and smaller families (there are less than two children per Japanese couple on average), students have fewer siblings.
Despite the relatively low rates of delinquency in Japan, parents and teachers are concerned with what they perceive as the growing isolation of Japanese students. Adults argue that children who are brought up with little contact with siblings or peers of various ages lack both a sense of degree and a sense of responsibility. Many Japanese also argue that the low birthrate has also had another effect: parents are too emotionally attached to their children to discipline them sternly. Teachers in particular expressed frustration at the lack of upbringing (shitsuke) exhibited in most Japanese homes. When asked how student behavior had changed over the last twenty years, a senior teacher said:
That's difficult. Well, getting angry. When parents get angry or scold children, well children used to say 'I'm sorry' and reflect on what they did wrong. Now, they aren't used to being scolded. The number of children in each family is decreasing, parents pamper their kids, and they don't scold them. (Meiji teacher)
Teachers were adamant that parents needed to take a stricter approach in raising children, particularly in inculcating basic manners. Public conduct and poor upbringing were linked together by several respondents. A teacher at Naka Vocational wished that parents would train their children better:
There are parents who don't scold their children. For example, in the middle of a train a mother may not care if a child jumps on the seat with shoes on. It's a question of basic morals. This comes out in junior high and high school. It's not just here in Naka City, it's all over. It's a loss for the adult society. At our school, you'll notice garbage thrown all over. The students haven't learned to take care of their own things.
However, there is disagreement as to what specific behaviors in the family cause adolescent problems. Many teachers do not see the cause of adolescent delinquency as a lack of upbringing or sternness, but rather they feel that rebellious or dangerous behavior on the part of students often stems from the lack of communication between members of the family. Many teachers pointed to a number of factors which stifle family communication: students are busy studying; fathers are working late; family entertainment is provided by the television. Students, many teachers argued, are growing more and more distant from their parents.
These kids aren't understood at home. There is no place to express their feelings, to relax, or to tell their inner feelings. When they go home, there is no one who gives them comfort. The atmosphere at home is like: 'Hey you!' That is how they are treated at home. They don't want to go home. We often go to visit the house, talk to the mother and father and try to get the kids involved, try to get the family to relax together. The student's mind (kokoro) needs to be eased or relaxed, but there must be someone at home to put the student at ease. If someone at home does this, then the child will calm down. (Midori teacher)
A teacher at Chuo was more blunt. He linked parental involvement in the student's life with most juvenile problems:
Here [at Chuo] all of the families are well-run. The parents look after the students. It probably is not proper to talk of such matters, but there are a few families where both parents are working. For example, at my last school both parents worked. For that reason the students were able to do as they liked. Here the father goes out to work and the mother stays at home. The students are in contact [with their parents] which means that they don't do as they like. Generally, if you talk about social problems, in those households where students lack a parent, that is where you see tobacco and thinner use [sniffing glue or paint thinner is the most common form of substance abuse among Japanese adolescents]. Here the parents are definitely around, so we don't have these problems.
Whether or not parents and teachers blamed a lack of strictness or a lack of communication for the problems of Japanese young people, all were concerned about the lack of social connection between adolescents. This is a condition that many feel is increasing in Japan. The current generation of adolescents, adults hypothesize, is not as adept at developing friendships as previous generations. At Naka Vocational one teacher noted that because students had underdeveloped social skills, the possibility for students to develop negative relationships became more likely.
Well, from where I stand I'd say the students aren't very good at making friends. To make friends, well . . . you have to mutually boost each other's goals. Our students don't really make "friends." What happens is that they egg each other on: riding bikes without permission or license, staying out late. The negative side is common. They aren't very good at making the positive kind of friendships.
Teachers were generally concerned about the decline in upbringing of students (shitsuke) and their inability to work within the highly structured Japanese school setting. Educators saw themselves as the primary teachers of proper social behavior and worried that students were not exposed to good models at home. As one teacher at Shimogawa put it:
Upbringing (shitsuke). Now a days, quite a lot of the teaching of upbringing is given at the school: greetings, manners, and the like. The school gives that guidance, but I would be thankful if the home were the base for upbringing. For example, in a recent bullying incident, money was gradually disappearing from the parents purse. If the people at home were careful about this, the incident would not have happened.
A teacher at Midori described problems between students and their families in the following way:
They don't understand their studies, they don't play with friends, they are removed from everyone. They can't communicate, so they easily slip into bad behavior, they break things. These students appear to have communication problems at home.
These problems at home sometimes escalate into violence. Students from poor families, and students who have only one parent, are considered more likely to commit acts of violence at home. The counselor at Naka Vocational described his work:
I often go to a student's house if the parents request it. I listen to what the parents want to say. The parents have things to say, but the parents just tell kids what they want them to do. I try to listen and find a way to explain. There is a communication gap (between students and parents). There can be fights or face-to-face confrontations. I've seen this kind of thing. One time a father said just a few words and his son grabbed him around the throat. The (family) relations were very bad.
Teachers and parents alike thought that adolescents in Japan today have a much harder time socializing with their peers and working out their disputes. The isolation of children is a significant theme in both the media and research literature in Japan. Authorities argue that children no longer have access to large, multi-age play groups. Isolated in apartments with little access to playgrounds, they suggest that Japanese children do not have the opportunity to socialize with other children until they are in pre-school, and then they socialize only with children of relatively the same age. Given that the average number of children per family is now less than two in Japan, they further argue that few Japanese students experience the rough and tumble play common in the larger families of a generation ago.
Parents and teachers expressed concern over the pressure that exams and long hours of study put on students. While time spent in hours of tiring club practice were generally not seen as harmful, the long hours of studying were deemed to be potentially detrimental to the students' health. Lack of sleep, the result of long hours of study, tended to be more common at schools like Chuo and Meiji where student schedules were packed with juku and clubs. A teacher at Chuo commented:
During the tests, students are up really late. They study all night. Virtually all are up to midnight. They don't sleep before then. When that goes on, I wish they would use their time better.
Divorce was another common theme. The school counselor at Naka Vocational estimated that out of every 40 students, 12 were living only with their mother because of divorce or (more rarely) the death of their father. This teacher reasoned: "With only the mother, it is hard to make ends meet. The parent can't watch over the student." At Meiji, the school counselor said that most student problems are related to situations where "the mother and father are fighting. We aren't used to divorce in Japan. So, when it looks like parents are divorcing, the kids don't know what to do."
[Chapter 4 - The Role of School in Japanese Adolescents' Lives (Part 5 of 6)]