Schools in the Meiji & Heisei Periods:

A Critical Look at Their Differences & Similarities

By Alex Green

The Heisei PeriodThe Heisei Period

• The Heisei period is the period that we are living in now. The year is Heisei twelve, or twelve years after the Heisei period started. This means that the Heisei period started in the year 1989. It is a time of crisis in Japan. Their economy is not doing that well, and they don’t have that great of relations with other countries.

Heisei Period SchoolsHeisei Period Schools

• Education today is just as important as it was in the past. Although Japanese schools tend to be much more demanding now than in the past, the Japanese children are used to it.

Heisei Period SchoolsHeisei Period Schools

• The Heisei Period schools are very demanding, but they stress learning more than memorization, which I think is a very good thing.

• The stress of high school and middle school has made many people commit suicide. Japan has the highest suicide rate in the world.

The Meiji PeriodThe Meiji Period

• The Meiji Period lasted from the year 1868 AD to 1912 AD. It was a time of revolutionary change. Japan had just found out how “great” the government of the United States was, and started to completely westernize itself. I don’t think that the idea of complete westernization was a very good one, but we can’t change anything now.

Meiji Period SchoolsMeiji Period Schools

• The schools in the Meiji period were OK, but not that great. I think that Emperor Meiji tried to make the schools too harsh for the time. He should have introduced this “harshness” more gradually.

Meiji Period SchoolsMeiji Period Schools

• There were too many letters to learn in too short of a time, and that took the precious time that could have been used for more productive activities such as learning about Japan’s history, literature or language.

• Emperor Meiji tried to make a good education system, but I don’t think that it worked out that well.

ComparisonComparison

• Heisei period schools are very effective, but they cause a lot of stress in the teenage mind.

• Heisei period schools focus on learning the information more than memorizing it.

• Meiji period schools didn’t work out that well, but it was a good step to what present days schools are like.

• Meiji period schools focused too much on writing and memorizing letters.