New Upper Secondary School Education in Japan. NIER Occasional Paper 02/86.

The present upper secondary school system in Japan accommodates 94 percent of the corresponding age group population. This discussion of the new upper secondary schools of Japan begins with a brief survey of the history of the Japanese public education system from its inauguration in 1872 up to 1945. The next section describes the inauguration and development of the new postwar system of comprehensive upper secondary schools, citing changes in the curriculum after 1973 and the diversification of the school curriculum starting in 1982. The paper concludes with a description of two characteristic upper secondary schools: Ina Gakuen Prefectural Upper Secondary School in Saitama Prefecture and Tamano Kanon Prefectural Upper Secondary School in Okayama Prefecture. (TE)