Part 1 Chapter 3 Youth Education

Chapter 3 Youth Education

Section 1 School Education Population (Number of Young People in School Education)

(Population by Category)

As of May 1, 2004, the number of young people attending educational establishments from kindergarten to university level ("school education population"), was 20,514,000 (10,640,000 males and 9,873,000 females), representing 16.1% of the total population. (Table 6)

(1) Kindergarten Education
The number of kindergarteners in fiscal 2004 was 1,753,000 (889,000 males and 864,000 females) down 7,000 from the previous year.
(2) Compulsory Education
The number of elementary school children in fiscal 2004 was 7,201,000, down 26,000 from the previous year, recording the lowest level since the start of the Basic Survey on Schools (1948).
The number of junior high school students was 3,664,000, down by 85,000 from the previous year.
(3) Senior High School Education
The number of senior high school students in fiscal 2004 was 3,719,000 (1,885,000 males and 1,834,000 females), down 91,000 from the previous year
(4) Higher Education
The number of university students was 2,809,000 (1,708,000 males and 1,101,000 females), up 5,000 from the previous year, recording the highest level ever. The number of junior college students was 234,000 (30,000 males and 204,000 females), down 16,000 from the previous year.
The number of graduate school students was 163,000 master's students (115,000 males and 48,000 females), 73,000 students were in doctorate courses (52,000 males and 21,000 females), and 8,000 were professional degree students (6,000 males and 2,000 females).
The rate of advancement to junior colleges and universities (the ratio obtained by dividing the number of enrollments at university departments and regular classes at junior college in the current year by the number of junior school students who graduated three years earlier) was 49.9% in fiscal 2004. By gender, it was 51.1% for males (49.3% for university and 1.8% for junior college) and 48.7% for females (35.2% for university and 13.5% for junior college). The female advancement rate had exceeded that of males from 1989 to 1999, but fell below the male figure in 2000. (Figure 5)
(5) Education for handicapped children requiring special support
There are 99,000 handicapped children in the stage of kindergarten education, compulsory education or senior high school education who are enrolled at schools for the blind, the deaf or the disabled. There are 9,100 students enrolled in special classes for the handicapped in regular elementary or junior high schools. The number of handicapped children enrolled in correspondence courses is 36,000. The total of those three groups is 225,000, of which 179,000 children are in the stage of compulsory education. They account for 1.6% of the total juvenile population in the same stage.
(6) Specialized training colleges and miscellaneous schools
The number of students enrolled in specialized training colleges increased by 6,000 from the previous year to reach 792,000. Of those, 88.0% or 697,000 students are enrolled in special courses designed for those who graduated from senior high school or have an equal level of academic ability.
The number of students enrolled in miscellaneous schools decreased by 11,000 from the previous year to 178,000.

Table 6 Number of Schools and Students (As of May1, 2004)
Category	Number of Schools	Number of students at school
Category	Number of Schools	Total	Male	Female
Total	61,613	20,513,652	1,640,319	9,873,333
Kindergardens	14,061	1,753,393	889,315	864,078
Elementary schools	23,420	7,200,933	3,682,568	3,518,365
Junior high schools	11,102	3,663,513	1,872,596	1,790,917
Senior high schools	5,429	3,719,048	1,884,623	1,834,425
Secondary schools	18	6,051	3,421	2,630
Schools for the blind	71	3,870	2,499	1,371
Schools for the deaf	106	6,573	3,644	2,929
Schools for disabled children	822	88,353	57,087	31,266
Colleages of Technology	63	58,698	48,557	10,141
Junior colleges	508	233,754	29,291	204,463
Universities	709	2,809,295	1,708,456	1,100,839
Specialized Training Colleages	3,444	792,054	368,621	423,433
Miscellaneous schools	1,878	178,117	89,641	88,476

Note: 1. As for the "Number of pupils/students," the number of high school students includes students in regular, honors (senko ka) and special courses; the number of secondary school students includes students in both first and second courses; the number of students in schools for blind, deaf or disabled children includes students in kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school and senior high school; the number of university students includes undergraduates, as well as regular students, auditors and research students of graduate schools, honors courses and special courses; the number of junior college students includes regular course students, as well as students and auditors of honors and special courses; and the number of technical college students also includes students of honors courses.
2. Not including the number of schools that only have correspondence courses and their students

Source: "Basic Survey on Schools," Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

Figure 5 Rate of Advancement to Universities and Junior Colleges

Section 2 Improvement of School Education Conditions

(School Education Expenditure)

The total amount of education expenditure by national and local governments for school education and those by school founders such as school juridical organizations ("school education expenditure") in fiscal 2002 was 19.2932 trillion yen.
By category, elementary schools had the highest share with 34.2% (6.5888 trillion yen), followed by universities, junior colleges and colleges of technology (20.2%, 3.8876 trillion yen), junior high schools (19.4%, 3.7523 trillion yen), high schools (19.0%, 3.6692 trillion yen), schools for deaf, blind or disabled children (4.3%, 823.8 billion yen), kindergartens (2.6%, 496.0 billion yen), and specialized training colleges and miscellaneous schools (0.4%, 75.4 billion yen).