A local elementary school is not the primary place of study for 11-year-old Risa Hishinuma of Tokyo's Taito Ward.

The public school lessons are too easy for her: In addition to going to a "juku" cram school, she takes advanced lessons from a private tutor in preparation for next year's tough entrance exam for a private junior high school. Her mother, Naoko, had a contract with a tutor-dispatching company last summer "to let her learn what she doesn't understand at the juku." Risa says she is studying so hard "because private school is better than public."

The Hishinumas pay a whopping 180,000 yen a month to the firm sending the professional tutor, who teaches Japanese and algebra twice a week for two hours each session. Private tutors for elementary school children like Risa are still a rarity, and there are contradicting signs over the future of tutor-dispatching businesses.