How the japanese learn to work 2nd edition - part 10 docx

Policies and prospects 169
of post-war Prime Ministers, Hayato Ikeda. ‘Human resources’ (jinteki shigen)
were two of his favourite words.
The legal framework for the Ministry of Labour’s training and testing
activities—the 1959 law—was set at that time. Retraining needs from the
run-down of the coal industry as cheap oil began to flow in the 1960s provided
another momentary focusing of political interest (and the brilliant idea of
earmarking a tiny oil-import tax for that retraining led to a valuable source
of finance for vocational training as a whole, via the Employment Projects
Promotion Agency). In the 1970s, the switch to slower growth after the oil
shock coming, together with the realization of how much more rapidly the
Japanese population’s average age would rise than any other nation’s before,
brought the question of retraining for the older, especially the ‘voluntary
retired’, worker into political focus—and the revision of the Vocational
Training Law in 1978 was in part a response to that.
That issue still smoulders, but by and large VET is still not a matter of
great political interest as it is in some other countries. No-one would think of
appointing a political overlord to co-ordinate policy. Japan has so far avoided
large-scale youth unemployment. If there is a concentration of unemployment
among the least skilled segments of the working population, it has hitherto
gone unremarked. Skill shortages are sometimes forecast—as when a MITI
committee forecast a 600,000 deficit in software technicians by 1990—but
these rate only relatively restricted coverage in the industrial press. The 1984
revision of the vocational training law (the Law to Promote the Development
of Vocational Skills) requires the Minister of Labour to promulgate a national
plan, but this formality amounts to little more than a description of the
Ministry’s current budget initiatives and a forecasting of future ones. (See
Cantor 1984, McDerment 1985, RDIVT 1984, etc. for accounts of the formal
system.)
CONSULTATION AND RESEARCH
The viability of the sectionalist modus vivendi means that it is left to each

Ministry separately to find ways of keeping in touch with its constituency,
and of canvassing for suggestions about, or monitoring the effects of, its
policies. The Ministry of Labour has a Central Consultative Committee
(distinct from the Central Skill Development Association which has the
executive function of running the testing services) on which sit eight ‘men
of learning and experience’ (six professors, one essayist and one pension
fund president), six trade unionists and six employers’ representatives. The
Ministry of Education has a similar Consultative Committee for Scientific
170 How the Japanes learn to work
and Vocational Education—similarly composed except that it does not have
the formal trade union representation. Various bureaus in MITI set up ad hoc
committees for separate fields—like the one quoted above on software skills,
while the Enterprise Behaviour Section of the Policy Bureau, which has a
watching brief for training matters in general keeps in touch with panels of
outside experts and mobilizes them for particular research and consultative
exercises. A similar section in MITI’s Small and Medium Enterprise Agency
has a similar function. The purely consultative status of the formal bodies,
and the general tradition that they should allow their secretariats to set their
agendas, mean that their influence on policy is not great.
Research efforts are equally multi-sourced. The Ministry of Labour has
two research centres under its budgetary control—the one at its university-
level Research and Development Institute of Vocational Training, and the
other, a free-standing quango which takes the English title: National Institute
of Employment and Vocational Research. The former is the only centre of
note for work on the pedagogy of skill training, but both are engaged in
socio-economic research. In the latter they are matched by the Ministry of
Education’s National Institute for Educational Research and by a research
institute—the Japan Efficiency Association—at Sanno College which is
supported by MITI. (NIER tends to stick to work related to the schools
within the Ministry of Education’s purview, and the JEA to research within

industry, but there is a good deal of overlap.) There is also an employers’
training association (the Japan Industrial and Vocational Training
Association, associated with the Japan Productivity Council) which spends
a little over one per cent of its half-billion yen budget on research.
Both the great degree of overlap in these research activities and their
overall quality may be gauged from such of it as has been cited in these
pages. Very little of it is observational or interview research; the vast bulk
is postal survey research with low response rates, which raises as many
questions as it answers. Nevertheless, it does answer some questions and
raising others is also a very useful activity. It also has to be said that Japanese
policy-makers are very well-served by the established statistical services—
triennial establishment census, the annual wages survey, the monthly and
annual labour surveys, the non-wage labour costs survey, etc. —which are
maintained at a high standard.
Policies and prospects 171
RECENT TRENDS
Vocational training, how much should be spent on it, how it can be improved
in order to enhance the nation’s ‘competitiveness’ is no more a burning
political issue in Japan than it was when the first edition of this book was
written in 1988. An electronic trawl through two months of a major paper
(The Nagoya Chunichi, October 1996 and February 1997) found no articles
containing the words ‘vocational education’ (shokugyo kyoiku) and only 17
which contained the two words (occupation—shokugyo and education)
separately. Only 9 contained the words ‘skill development’ (noryoku
kaihatsu). In the same months there were 1,291 references to ‘primary
education’, and 456 references to ‘middle schools’. There were 7 references
to the vocational special training schools (senshu-gakko), and 1,444 articles
which contained the word ‘university’.
So society as a whole is not much exercised about vocational training,
however it might actively question whether or not the basic educational system

is producing the creative individualists which everybody seems to think Japan
needs. For trends in thinking about the directions of the vocational educational
system itself one is forced to have recourse to the four main monthly
magazines for training specialists, and there it is difficult to discern any clear
recent trends.
We noted in the first edition of this book a general long-term shift of
emphasis from concern with initial training to mid-career training. This was
the more marked in Ministry of Labour circles because it failed to adapt the
initial training programmes of its Vocational Training Centres to the rapid
attenuation of the 15-year-old school-leaving group in the 1960s, it lost out
to the private sector Special Training Schools in the attempt to capture the
growing army of 18-year-old school-leavers, and has never succeeded in
recapturing a substantial position in the initial training field.
We also noted the changes of nomenclature which have occurred as, over
the years, the image of the modal industrial trainee has shifted from that of
the rude mechanical apprentice who needs a good dose of discipline in his
instruction, to that of the middle-class, middle-aged employee struggling
with a new software package, or trying to master a new set of environmental
legislation. Training has not become a part of the ‘human resource
management’ which has made acceptable for business schools what used to
be called industrial relations in the US and Britain. As just mentioned, Prime
Minister Ikeda popularized the phrase ‘human resources’ in the 1960s, but it
never entered the formal vocabulary. But the old word shokugyo kunren—
172 How the Japanes learn to work
vocational training—which used to be the title of the relevant Ministry of
Labour’s Bureau, and also of the 1959 law, and the 1978 amended law, clearly
had overtones of disciplined slog which were not thought consonant with
the modern age. The word gave way, both in the title of the Bureau and in the
1984 comprehensive revamping of the legislation, to shokugyo noryoku
kaihatsu—vocational ability (skill, talent) development—with its more

positive, learner-participative overtones. Almost simultaneously, one began
to hear more of the word jiko-keihatsu—self-study, literally, self-
enlightenment—the vogue word for autodidactic efforts, of which much is
still made, especially in company training programmes. The coming word,
used in the title of the 1996 Ministry of Labour White Paper, is jinzai ikusei
(shisutemu) —the (system for) fostering human talent.
The increasing emphasis on self-study was (as explained in the Ministry’s
1985 White Paper (RH 1985:221)) in part a response to the increasing
difficulty in standard-packaging industrial training, as the skills required
increasingly involved know-how arising from rapid technological
development, or enterprise-specific know-how in production processes. One
of the main thrusts of the 1984 law was to use the enhanced funding of
training (through use of the accumulated funds of the employment insurance
system) for advisory support for, and subsidization of, enterprise training
efforts. This included both deliberate Off-J-T teaching within the firm, and
the enterprise standard-setting and enterprise skill-testing designed to
encourage individual efforts at ‘self-enlightenment’ in supplementation of
the Ministry’s own skill-testing system.
We followed our summary of these trends with this paragraph.

This emphasis on ‘self-enlightenment’ also reflects another trend,
namely an increasing acceptance that the lifetime employment system,
having survived the no-growth crisis in the mid–1970s and the
adjustment to slow-growth since, is here to stay. That is to say, in spite
of some marginal signs to the contrary such as the increased mobility
of R & D personnel in large companies, the most complex, hard-to-
learn skills (particularly those on which the competitiveness of the
Japanese economy depends) will continue to be the property of the
core of permanent workers in large firms. Indeed, some people argue
that such a trend towards employing highly trained core workers is

increasingly becoming apparent in older and hitherto more mobile
industrial societies like Britain.
Policies and prospects 173
It would be difficult to write with quite the same assurance today. Over the
last five years of recession, a recession caused partly by the accumulated
strength of the yen, combined with the aftermath of the collapse of the biggest
asset-price bubble in Japan’s history, what people say about employment,
careers, and training has changed significantly. What people do has changed
rather less.
The main factors causing the change in perceptions have been:
(a) A loss of national self-confidence. For every Japanese who, in 1990,
was convinced that the world was at Japan’s feet, and that, thanks to the
superiority of Japanese management and technology, it was only a matter of
time before Japan was Number One in practically everything, there are now
five Japanese wringing their hands and asking: ‘Where are our Bill Gates?
Why don’t we have a flourishing venture capital industry? How are we ever
going to survive in a competitive world economy with our rigid, creativity-
stifling, bureaucratic corporations?’
(b) As described in Chapters 4 and 5, slow growth has indeed stretched
the ‘lifetime employment guarantee’ to the limit, and many firms have
responded with voluntary and quasi-voluntary early retirement schemes, with
outposting and transfer of workers to other firms and so on. This has put a
premium on the mastery of some particular certifiable skill, and since a high
proportion of the early-retired are (the more expensive) white collar/
managerial workers, the courses they take (mostly by correspondence) are
predominantly non-manual. Accountancy, Expert in Labour Law and Health
and Safety Regulations, Business Health Diagnostician (consultant to small
firms) are the favourites which one sees most frequently advertised. They
are taken by middle-aged graduates uncertain of their future with their firm,
and also—the first two at least—by young people who catch the ‘no more

jobs for life’ mood and either ‘double-school’ (take a course leading to one
of these qualifications while attending university) or study in the early years
of their first job.
(c) As a consequence, as documented earlier in this book, there has been
a revival of the notion that what is universally seen as the American, or
sometimes ‘Western’, model of the fully flexible external labour market,
with frequent job changes in the course of one’s career, is what Japan ought
to aim for, and is in any case dictated by the logic of flexibility increasingly
imposed on Japan by competitive forces in world markets. There is much
discussion of the end of, or more commonly and cautiously the need for a
fundamental rethinking of, lifetime employment.
174 How the Japanes learn to work
The Ministry of Labour is, of course, always having to think of something
new, because the lifeblood of any Ministry comes from thinking up new and
attractive programmes that can serve to increase its clout with the Ministry
of Finance in the annual budget round. And attractive is generally deemed to
mean ‘in keeping with the journalistic consensus’. So its major recent initiative
has been its Business Career System promotion of white collar training
courses leading to certification which has some market value. But the
summary of trends in its 1996 White Paper is much less apocalyptic than
some of the statements of futurologist businessmen proclaiming the dawn of
a new age.

Hitherto, most off-the-job training has been done within the firm, and
most ‘self-enlightenment’ has been done at home. Henceforth, the
emphasis will shift from on- to off-the-job training, and while self-
study will continue to be important, a variety of training methods,
including the use of training institutions outside the firm, will become
necessary.
(RH 1996:295–9)

And the Ministry hopes that therein the beleaguered public training
institutions might find a new lease of life. The reasons for the change it
enumerates are: greater importance of information technology; the need for
more language training with internationalization; more rapid change,
therefore more midlife learning; and increasing need for R & D workers and
others with highly specialized knowledge. It points out that Japanese firms
have concentrated so exclusively on on-the-job learning that the need for
off-the-job training has been neglected after the initial induction of recruits.
But knowledge requirements become increasingly complex and more off-
the-job training is clearly necessary. As for self-study, it finds satisfaction in
its growing prevalence and cites surveys showing that half the working
population are engaged in it, but urges employers to give it more attention
and support—taking it into account more for promotions, etc. —and promises
to increase Ministry support for it too.
In this context it speaks of meeting the needs of people leaving or changing
their jobs, but does not actually assert that their number is increasing; it does
refer, however, to the increasing diversification of forms of employment—
meaning more part-time, temporary and despatched workers.
But it is clear that the Ministry is not expecting any very big change in the
overall pattern of Japanese vocational training with its dominant emphasis
on training in the enterprise. The resilience of the Japanese corporate system,
Policies and prospects 175
the sources of which, in manufacturing, have recently been analysed by
Berggren and Nomura (1997), may one day not be enough to deal with a
really deep crisis without radical change, but the longest post-war recession
of the last half-decade did not constitute such a crisis. To take a few random
statistics from the back of the 1996 White Paper: of the 5 million employees
in firms of more than 30 employees who left their jobs in the year, the
proportion who did so ‘at the employer’s convenience’ was 6.1 per cent in

1990, 7.5 per cent of an almost identical total in 1994. The proportion of all
employees who were part-time, temporary or despatched workers was 16
per cent in 1987 and 18.1 per cent in 1992. The average wage of male
university graduates was 31.9 per cent higher than that of middle school
graduates in 1990, 31.2 per cent higher in 1995. If one weights the wage by
(the inverse of) average age (the middle school-leavers are of course a good
deal older on average) the graduate premium increases to 67.7 per cent in
1990 and 69.9 per cent in 1995. Bonuses (average for all employees) were
3.3 times the monthly wage in 1990, 3.1 times the monthly wage in 1995. Of
all male employees aged over 55, 21.9 per cent were directors of the company
they worked for in 1987, 21.6 per cent in 1992. And, finally, an indication of
one source of flexibility: monthly hours worked were 171 in 1990 and 159
in 1995; in manufacturing hours were 174 and 164 respectively.
The contribution that this sort of system stability and predictability makes
to learning motivations should be fairly obvious.

Appendix


NOTES

The sums budgeted here provide a one-third subsidy for expenditures on
relevant items by local governments or private schools, and a 60 per cent
subsidy in the case of Okinawa.
This is the budget for expenditure over and above the basic salary, running
costs and capital costs which are provided on the same basis for vocational
high schools as for other high schools. The ¥16,824 million total represents
0.3 per cent of the total Ministry of Education budget (which covers the
universities, the science budget and museums and so on, as well as the school
system) and is approximately one-quarter of the sum provided for special

schools for the handicapped, and one-tenth of that provided for children
with special needs in regular schools.

1 Experimental equipment and consumables, including materials for schools
which make their own equipment.
2 Replacement of existing equipment.
3 Special increase occasioned by new regulation making domestic science
compulsory for boys as well as girls.
4 To improve the experimental facilities necessary for the new objective of
making it possible for pupils to acquire a qualified nursing certificate.
5 Boarding facilities to concentrate the scarce would-be farmers in special
agricultural schools.
6 Standard cost allowed (including the local two-thirds contribution) ranges
from ¥164,100 to ¥188,700 per square metre.
7 This is for special equipment which has to be built into new or renovated
buildings. Mostly to be used for the expanded domestic science facilities.
8 For purchase and preparation of farm land at ¥15.5 million per hectare.
9 Two large and one small boat.


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study course’), Mombu Jiho, 1422, June.

Senshu (1986) Zenkoku senshu, kakushu gakko annai, Showa-62-nen (1987 National
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Tokyo Prefecture (1989) Tokyotoritsu Rodo Kenkyusho, Senshu gakko (senmon gakko)
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Ability Development Matrix 76
ability distribution: high school pupils
26–30; university entrants 33–6
ability-labelling problem xv–xvi, 16–
17, 29, 33
academic attainment 8, 12, 16–17, 41
academic bias problem 15–17, 30–1,
33
access, open 156–8
accreditation of private sectortraining
74–5, 153
achievement levels 8, 12, 16–17, 41
Ad Hoc Committee on Educational
Reform 13–14, 140–1, 168
administrative initiatives 120–2, 145–
6
agricultural courses 44
alienation 8
Aluminium Association 137
Amano, I. 4, 19, 39, 59
architecture 143–4, 152
armed forces 80
assessment 52, 62; see also skill
testing
associations of employers 74–5, 138–
9
auxiliary nursing certificate 77

Berggren, C. 175
Beruf 97

Bhasanavich, D. 107, 111
bicycle maintenance 145–6
BMA 138
books 114
Bosch (Robert) 123
‘boy-scout-badge’ qualifications xvi–
xvii, 158
Britain xvii 66, 99, 150; qualification
system compared with Japan’s
158–60; skill testing 138, 139–40
budgets see public expenditure,
training budget
bullying 7
bureaucratic sectionalism 167–8
Business Career System 76, 94, 115,
174
business cycle 99
business-related courses 43–4

calligraphy 114–15
Cantor, L. 69
career orientation 88
central examination system 3–4, 13,
32
channelling/selection xviii, 15–41
clustering 132
coastguard service 80
College for Industrial Efficiency 118–
19
colleges, junior see junior colleges

colleges of technology 1, 27, 29, 56–
8, 164
commerce course 43–4
commercial high schools 26, 27, 46,
50–1, 53
commercial mock tests 14, 21–5, 32
commitment 125–8
competence xvi–xvii; see also skill
testing
competition 7–8, 13
competitiveness x, xvii–xviii
comprehensive practice 53
comprehensive vocational training
schools 69, 73
computer colleges 76
computers 53
Index
Bibliography 185
consortia, training 132
Construction Industry Law 152
construction sector 148, 151–2
consultation: policy making 169–71;
of unions by management 127–8
cooks 85–6
core skills xiii
core workers 172–3
correspondence courses 75–6, 109,
114–19; tests and qualifications
119–22
counselling 18

cram schools 6, 21, 24
creativity 13
curriculum: NEC school 103–5;
nursing schools 77, 78; primary
schools and junior high schools 5;
senior high schools 9, 10–11;
universities 9–12, 60–2; vocational
high schools 17–18, 45–6, 48–51

dealers 153
Dengyosha Pump Company 110,
112–13
Denso Corporation 123–5, 125–6, 134
dental hygienists/technicians 79
dieticians 85–6
disaffected students 18–19
diversification 96–7
Dore, R.P. 62, 65, 120
‘double-schooling’ 89, 154

earnings see lifetime earnings, pay
systems
economics 33, 35
education centres 53
education system xviii, 1–14, 168–9;
qualifications and 156–8
electricity managers 120–2
employers 19–20; associations of 74–
5, 138–9; attitudes to high school
graduates 22–3; see also enterprise

training, industry
Employment Promotion Corporation
(EPC) 69–72
Energy Conservation Centre 121
energy managers 120–2
engineering 95–6; university entry
33–6; university courses 59–66
passim
English romantic fiction, the art of
translating 115
enterprise-operated qualification
systems 122–5, 152–3
Enterprise Skill Development Plan
152
enterprise training xviii–xix, 93–133;
coverage 128–9; training budgets
98–101
entrance examination system 3–4, 13,
32
equality of opportunity 14, 40–1
equipment 52–3
expenditure on training: enterprises
98–101, 124–5, 130–1; parental
162–3; public expenditure see
public expenditure
experienced workers 109
external labour market 129, 130
external training xv, 101–8, 109, 131–
2, 174

factory certification 137
failure rates 62–3
fees, student 91, 92, 163
financial sector 36
firm size 151–2; enterprise training
129–32; wage differentials 39–40
fisheries courses 45
flexible worker development 111
foremen 108–9
foundations of industry 47
Fujitsu 107
Fukushima prefecture 26–30, 73–4

general high schools 1, 42; selection
system 21–30, 31
geographical location 85
gijutsushi qualification 155
grades of qualifications 143–5
graduate premium 37–10
graduate schools 2, 63–4
Grayson, L.P. 13, 65
grounding, depth of 95–6
groupishness 8, 13
Gumma College 58
186 Bibliography
HA/LA (high achiever/low achiever)
coefficient 36–7
hairdressing 85–6, 141–3
heat managers 120–2
hensachi slicing system 18, 21–30,

31, 32
high schools 1, 163, 163–4; entry to
special training schools 84–5;
general high schools see general
high schools; junior curriculum 5;
selection system 21–30, 31; senior
curriculum 9, 10–11; vocational
high schools see vocational high
schools; vocational streams 42–56
Higuchi, Y. 36–7, 40, 163
Hitachi Vocational Training Schools
74–5
home economics courses 45
hotel accommodation 100
human resources 168–9, 171–2

IBM 94
in-firm training schools 74–5, 102–6,
109
in-house qualifications 122–5, 152–3
incentives 125–6
induction training 102–7, 171
industrial mathematics 47
industry xiv; liaison with universities
64–6; sectoral distribution of
graduates 36–7; training within
xviii–xix, 93–133; see also
employers
initial training 102–7, 171
Institute of Vocational Training 69–72

integrated studies 17, 18, 19–20
internal labour market 129
involvement see participation
Ishida Hiroshi 40
Iwaki, H. 84–5
Iwaki City, Fukushima prefecture 26–30

Japan Centre for Vocational Education 119
Japan Efficiency Association (JEA) 170
Japan Grooming School 81
Japan Industrial and Vocational
Training Association 170
Japan Institute of Vocational Training
118
Japan Light Metal Welding and
Construction Association 135–7
Japan Management Association 119,
156
Japan Scholarship Foundation 91, 165
Japan Shorthand Writers’Association
118, 146
Japan Vocational Ability Development
Association (JVADA) 149
Japan Welding Engineering Society
135, 137
job placement services 90
job rotation 96, 106, 109, 110–11
junior colleges 1, 21, 24, 56–7, 58;
recognized 75, 102–6

kakushu gakko see miscellaneous
schools
kindergarten 1, 163
Kinmonth, E.H. 63, 65–6
Kodak 94
Komatsu 153
Komatsu Dealers’ Association 153
Kosugi, Reiko 87, 88
Kume, K. x
Kuramae Technical High School 46,
48–9, 56

labour market 129–30, 151–2, 173–4
large firms 129–32; see also firm size
legislation 120–2, 145; see also
Vocational Training Law
LETS campaign 55
levelling up 134
levels of qualifications 143–5
lifelong ability development 75–6,
168
lifetime earnings 37–40
lifetime employment 130, 172–4; and
training 93–7
listed factories 120–1
literacy 12, 98
local government 80
Lorriman, J. 110
machinery 52–3
Bibliography 187

management: cooperation with labour
127–8; training by managerial staff
109, 110, 112–13
manual skills tests 144–5
manufacturing sector 148
Maritime Association 137
Master’s degrees 96
Matsushita Electric 100; Technical
Junior College 75
McCormick, K. 107
meritocracy 3, 14
mid-career recruitment 97
mid-career training 107–8
middle schools 1, 90
Mimizuka, H. 84–5
Ministry of Education 146, 165;
budget 52–3, 176–7; Consultative
Committee for Scientific and
Vocational Education 170;
correspondence courses 118; fund
for equipment 52; post-secondary
non-university VET 67, 81–6, 91;
regulation of universities 60, 62;
research centres 170
Ministry of Health 67, 91; nursing
schools 77–9
Ministry of International Trade and
Industry (MITI) 65, 76, 167, 170;
bicycle maintenance 145–6;
energy managers 120, 121

Ministry of Labour 67, 91, 159, 169,
174–5; Business Career System
76, 94, 115, 174; Central
Consultative Committee 169–70;
correspondence courses 115–18;
firms’ internal skill testing 123,
152–3; job placement services 90;
post-secondary system 69–76;
research centres 170; skill testing
137, 145, 147–55; training budget
70–1
Ministry of Transport 80; Shipping
Bureau 137
miscellaneous schools 67, 68, 81; see
also special training schools
Mitsubishi Electric 110
mock tests 14, 21–5, 32
moral duty xii, 12
Moriyama, K. 41
motivation 46, 97–8
Muto, H. 62

national exams 3–4, 13, 32
National Institute for Educational
Research (NIER) 170
national nursing certificate 77
National Police Agency 146
national self-confidence 173
NEC 107; training school 102, 103–5,
106

Nihon Victor 89
Noguchi, Y. 41
Nomura, M. 175
Non-destructive Testing Association 137
non-formal in-firm training 108–14
non-manual skills tests 144–5
non-official qualifications 155–6
numeracy 12
nursing courses 45
nursing schools 77–9
NYK 39

off-the-job training xv, 101–8, 109,
131–2, 174
older, more experienced workers 109
open access 156–8
opportunistic training 106–7
options 45–6
own time 126, 127

parental aspirations 30
parental expenditure 162–3
parental income 40–1
participation 125–9
participation assumption 97–8
pay systems 125, 159–60; see also
lifetime earnings
peer approval 138
personnel placement services 90
PHP (peace, happiness, prosperity)

philosophy 101
policy xix, 167–75; budgets and
‘revealed priorities’ 163–6; co-
ordination 167–9; recent trends
171–5
polytech centres 69, 73
polytechnic colleges 72
188 Bibliography
post-secondary, non-university VET
xviii, 67–92
practical work 46–53; equipment and
machinery 52–3; teaching and
assessment 47–52
Prais, S. 12
preliminary certificates 54
pre-promotion courses 107
primary schools 1; curriculum 5
Private Educational Institutions Fund 91
private extra classes 6; cram schools
6, 21, 24
private schools 3, 28–9
private sector training: accreditation
of 74–5, 153
private training schools 81–92
private universities 3, 62, 65
professional trainers xiv-xv, 139–40
professors: cultivation of 65
promotion 96, 109, 125; pre-
promotion courses 107
public assistance 90–2; see also

subsidies
public corporations 80
public expenditure xix, 1, 161–6;
Ministry of Education budget 52–
3, 176–7; Ministry of Labour
training budget 70–1

qualifications xv–xvii, xix, 134–60;
correspondence courses 119–22;
enterprise-operated systems 122–
5, 152–3; examinations run by
central government 140–6; firms’
recognition of 125; health 77–9;
levels and grades 143–5; non-
official 155–6; preliminary grades
54; see also skill testing
Quality Circles 109, 111–14

Rawle, P.R. 66
recognized junior colleges 75, 102–6
recruitment 2, 98, 99; mid-career 97;
special training school graduates
86–8; university graduates 36–7,
63, 64, 65–6, 95–6
research: policy 169–71; scientific 64,
64–5
Research and Development Institute
of Vocational Training 170
retirement, voluntary 154–5, 169, 173
retraining 96, 169

retraining centres 73
revitalization of vocational schools
17–20, 54–6
reward systems 125, 159–60
Rohlen, T. 43, 106
rotation, job 96, 106, 109, 110–11

Sako, M. 130
Sakurai, O. 18, 19
Sanno Learning Society 118–19
science 95–6; university courses 59–
64 passim; university entry 31–6
passim
Science and Technology Agency 65
seamen’s schools 80
secondary schools see high schools
sectionalism, bureaucratic 167–8
selection/channelling xviii, 15–41
self-development, aid for 132
self-motivation 46
self-study 172, 174
self-teaching 98
senshu-gakko see special training
schools
separation rate 94
service sector 148
shopfloor workers 108–9
skill development centres 69, 73
skill testing xiv, xix, 54, 134, 135–40;
correspondence courses 119–22;

inhouse 122–5, 152–3; Ministry of
Labour 137, 145, 147–55; skill-
testing bodies 138–9; state role
xvi, 138–9; welding 135–7
slicing system 18, 21–30, 31, 32
Small Business Corporation 76
small firms 129–32, 151–2; see also
firm size
small group work 109, 111–14
social mobility 40–1
special training schools 67, 68, 81–
92; contribution to human capital
88–90; graduates 86–90; public
assistance 90–2; types of school
82–6
Bibliography 189
specialists in training xiv–xv, 139–40
specializations 43–5, 87
sponsorship 65
standards xix, 134–60; universities
compared with US and Britain 66;
see also qualifications, skill testing
state xi-xii, 90; functions in training
xiii-xiv; local government 80;
post-secondary VET provision 67–
80; public assistance for special
training schools 90–2;
qualifications controlled by 140–6;
role in testing competence xvi,
138–9; see also under individual

Ministries
State Scholarship Fund 91, 165
status 158–60
steel industry junior college 116, 119
streaming 8; see also selection
student fees 91, 92, 163
student grants 91, 165
sub-contractors 122–3, 153
subsidies 91–2, 115, 132, 165
supervisors 98, 109
supplier firms 130

Taira Commercial High School 46,
50–1
Takeuchi, Y 93
teachers 8–9, 72, 86
technical colleges 1, 27, 29, 56–8, 164
technical high schools 26, 27, 46–7,
164; curriculum 48–9
technical staff: training by 109, 110,
112–13
technician engineers 72
testing: commercial mock tests 14,
21–5, 32; skills see skill testing
thesis, graduating 64
time: own 126, 127; spent on study 6–
7, 63
Tokyo prefecture 30, 31
Tokyo University 31, 32–3
Toyota Technical College 75

trade unions 126, 127–8
Traffic Control Technology
Association (TCTA) 146
training budgets: enterprises 98–101;
Ministry of Education 52–3, 176–
7; Ministry of Labour 70–1; see
also expenditure, public
expenditure
training consortia 132
training guidance officers 116–18
training specialists xiv–xv, 139–40
transfer mechanisms 130
Trevor, M. 110
Tsukahara, S. 62

Udagawa, M. 114
unions 126, 127–8
Unisia Jex 153
United States (US) xvii, 60, 65, 66
universities 1, 16, 21, 24;
correspondence courses 119;
courses 59–64; curriculum 9–12,
60–2; entry 3–4, 30–7; entry from
vocational courses 20; fees 163;
graduate premium 37–40; liaison
with industry 64–6; nursing
courses 77; private 3, 62, 65;
public expenditure 164–5;
recruitment of graduates 36–7, 63,
64, 65–6, 95–6; social mobility 40;

standards 66; technical college
students 57–8
University of the Air 114
uplift courses 101–2

violence 7
vocational high schools 1, 42–56;
commercial high schools 26, 27,
46, 50–1, 53; problems of getting
able children into 15–17;
revitalization 17–20, 54–6;
selection system 21–30, 31;
technical high schools 26, 27, 46–
7, 48–9, 164
vocational streams xviii, 42–66
vocational training colleges 72
Vocational Training Law 115, 116,
123, 147, 169
vocational training schools 69, 73,
150–1
voluntary retirement 154–5, 169, 173
190 Bibliography
weekend courses 73–4
welding 135–7
White, M. 110
white collar workers 76; Business
Career System 76, 94, 115, 174;
popularity of qualifications 153–5
‘whole role’ qualifications xvi–xvii,
158–9

work ethic: resuscitation of 55
work experience 46, 57
workers: categories of and firms’
expenditure on training 102;
commitment 125–8; foremen 108–
9; involvement in training 125–9;
older, more experienced 109;
shopfloor workers 108–9;
supervisors 98, 109; training by
managerial and technical staff 109,
110, 112–13; white collar see
white collar workers
Workers’ Insurance Fund 69