Computers in the Japanese School System

by

Lyle De Souza

This paper takes a critical and evaluative look at the use of computers in public junior high schools in one of the world’s most high-tech countries, Japan. It shows that, since the dawn of the millennium, Japan is slowly but surely beginning to harness the technologies now available to help give its younger population a competitive advantage in what is set to become the ‘information age’.¹ The paper uses the case study of a British English language teacher² who pioneered the use of advanced technologies to help learning in general and the teaching of English as a foreign language (TEFL) in particular.

Much is made in the media in both the West and Japan of the uniformity of the Japanese education system. To Japanese traditionalists, uniformity is the solid rock of Japan’s post-war economic success. It is the ‘glue’ that forms the cohesiveness of Japanese society—where standards of behavior are learned to be later obeyed. Modern day reformists and detractors have argued that such a system discourages individualism and creativity. They argue that—at any given time on any day—schools the length and breadth of Japan are likely to be teaching exactly the same things from exactly the same textbooks using exactly the same teaching methods. This would be fine assuming the teaching methods were effective but sometimes in Japan (particularly in English language teaching³) they are not and, even if they are aware of the shortcomings, Japanese teachers are reluctant to challenge the system.⁴

Foreigners have long been exceptions to this rule, allowed their eccentricities so long as they do not disturb the wa (spirit) of Japanese society too much. Indeed, they are often welcomed for their new ideas and ways of thinking, which are often then adapted and internalized by the Japanese. The pioneering young teacher Lyle De Souza from Great Britain was someone who saw the drawbacks of the Japanese education system from his neutral, outsider perspective and who was not afraid to stand out in Japan by introducing innovative new teaching methods. De Souza found that teaching situations he encountered in Japan nearly always followed the same formula:

A JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) and an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) have a team-teaching lesson the following week. In a spare period at school they make a cup of tea and sit down together to lesson plan. The JTE and ALT think about possible ideas for the lesson. The JTE has been busy with her homeroom class, club, school meetings and so on and so cannot think of any ideas easily. The ALT has been visiting other schools and teaching other grades so he has no ideas at hand either and will have to spend a long time looking through his desk or making a new lesson from scratch. They both sit together for a long time hoping to recall good ideas and not repeat previous ones. Their tea becomes cold. The next class starts in a few minutes. The JTE and ALT decide to “think” about it over the next few days. (A few days later). The JTE and ALT have finally gathered several ideas for the lesson. They decide to have another short meeting where they choose the best ideas for the lesson. The lesson plan is completed. (Planning time = at least twenty minutes but usually much longer). The teachers have a great team-teaching class. After the class the teachers realize they need to plan for the next class coming soon. The teachers repeat the entire process above from the beginning. (Adapted from Chuo Kagawa 1998)

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1 See “Power and Interdependence in the Information Age” by Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, Jr. < http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/prg/nye/power.pdf >

2 Lyle De Souza a participant of the Japanese Ministry of Education’s JET Program (Japan Exchange and Teaching Program). JET’s aim is to facilitate the exchange of language and culture between (English-speaking) nations and Japan. De Souza was posted at Shiun JHS, the largest JHS in Western Japan in the city of Takamatsu on the island of Shikoku between 1996-1999.

3 See “TOEFL Scores: Japan Compared to the World” <http://paulstapleton.tripod.com/Lesson/Lesson%202%20TOEFL.htm>. Japan, despite being Asia’s richest nation, was ranked second-bottom just ahead of North Korea with an average score of 487 in the year 2000.

4 Deru kugi wa atareru (trans: the nail that sticks out gets hammered down).