There's a debate going on in government and in the media about revising the Japanese system of education. The forces for change want to do away with rote, test-based instruction, which they blame for all the youth-related problems we read about now, and replace it with something more individual-oriented and flexible. The debate is important, but so far no one has mentioned one of the major reasons why the current system won't be easy to get rid of.

In Japan, a person's educational level is still considered the primary means of measuring that person's worth. This concept is so embedded into the country's collective consciousness that it has given rise to a sukima education industry -- meaning an education industry that occupies a "crevice" -- which would be seriously undermined if educational reform is actively pursued.

The centerpiece of this industry is the juku system, which includes so-called cram schools, prep schools (yobiko) and all the supplementary textbooks, educational aids and secondary educational personnel (such as foreign language teachers) that tag along. If the reforms now being discussed are put into practice, the juku system's reason for existence would vanish, since its sole purpose is to prepare young people for the tests they now have to take to advance up the educational ladder.