The Japanese education system is like any other, ripe with beneficial and detrimental points. I'm going to give my take on each side.
Beneficial points.
1. They have this thing called "Integrated course" (Best I can translate 総合) where they do all sorts of different things ranging from learning how to cook rice in aluminum cups to going out and assuming the roles of fire fighters, store clerks, elementary school teacher assistants, and so on. I love this aspect of the system because they get a very real taste of what the work force feels like. It's as real as it can get for junior high school students at least, and I feel is a very good addition to the education system.
2. Students clean their school. There is a "janitor" of sorts, but he doesn't clean the classrooms, the bathrooms, or anything else besides the staff room and some areas outside. The students clean their classrooms and their bathrooms and generally keep the school clean. This gives them a respect for their classroom (and ultimately a higher respect for things in general) that Western students don't have. Of course, a lot of students don't actually take the cleaning that seriously and the next morning dust bunnies can be found without much effort. Also, in elementary school, leaving cleaning the bathroom to 1st and 2nd graders is not a good idea. I know from walking past it multiple times. All this said, I'm glad I didn't have to do this during my middle school years!
3. Students don't cook their own lunch but they serve it to each other. At least in America, our lunch is handed to us by a lunch lady/guy if you buy it at school (in Japan there is a forced school lunch for elementary school and some middle schools. Possibly some high schools but that would be rare if there are any). Again this serves to the respect and autonomy of the students.
4. They have school trips for each grade, and big events like Culture Day (文化祭) and Sports Day (運動会). These make the students work together to feel a bigger sense of togetherness and sportsmanship. On top of all that, the students organize and plan everything, adding to their maturity and planning skills.
Detrimental Points
1. Club activities. In middle school, every student is forced into after school club activities. I'm not really sure where I stand on the whole after school club activities thing but I definitely feel this is the worse of two (or more) evils. I would have hated middle school if they forced me into a club, and I'm sure there are students here who feel similar. On top of that, many clubs force their students to go to tournaments and come in on Saturday and even Sunday to practice. Every weekend is too much and takes away from family time that they already don't have enough of. This also forces teachers to work often 7 days a week, and many of them already work 12+ hour days on school days already. Of course there are benefits to joining a club, but the way it's done here, I feel the disadvantages outweigh the benefits.
2. Cram schools. As if club activities don't already take a ton of time away from the students, a lot of them are going to cram schools after school, arriving home past 9 pm. When kids are kids they should be allowed to be kids! There will be plenty of time to study later, and it's not like they aren't already studying now in school. Some kids go to these in elementary school as well. Cram school in elementary school? Really?
3. The teaching system is a very one-way style of teaching and it's very formulaic. The teacher gives information, the students write it down and memorize it. You rarely, if ever, see students and teacher engaged in a discussion, where students are asking about points they don't understand, asking questions that demonstrate critical thinking, or even really thinking for themselves during a lesson. I remember trying to give a lesson where the students had to think a bit, and most couldn't do it because it was "too hard." They were right. Their critical thinking skills aren't like their Western counterparts and I should have rethought the lesson.
4. Obviously I'm going to write about the English classes since that is the bulk of my experience here in the Japanese education system. Again, English is presented in a very formulaic manner. This is fine as language has rules that you can learn and follow to use it to communicate, but the formulas are very fluid. Especially in English, where one sentence won't fit every situation that it looks like it could fit. Japanese is a very rigid language without much variety. One sentence works in a multitude of situations and it is rarely changed. This is difficult to teach because the students and teachers are so used to their native tongue. So when you teach them one sentence in English and ask them to change it, it takes them forever. They also never study true conversation in school. There are times where students can recite big chunks of text in front of the classroom, but it's never really conversation. They can't sit there and have a conversation despite studying the language for years. It's because they study strictly for entrance exams to high school or university. It makes sense to study for these, but in the process, students are seeing English as a tool to get into schools, instead of what it really is: a tool for conversation. I have English teachers that can't speak English. They mark things correct that are out of this world wrong (Engrish is not the correct spelling). They import us as assistant language teachers but to be honest, in the classroom, we don't do much. We are overpaid for the jobs we are allowed to do. The English teachers are only concerned with finishing the textbook and in order to do that they have to focus on it and we aren't allowed any time to teach conversation or anything about other cultures (to a large extent. Some of us may get a few classes a year, if that. This year I'm getting none). Also so far I haven't heard any teacher say that to learn a foreign language you have to learn about it's culture, and this is more important than I think most people realize. I'm flat out saying that the English education in Japan is not good. It's just not good.
I think Japan has some good points in its education system, but it does need an overhaul, like most countries' education system.
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