The permanent five-day school week that goes into effect this month has given rise to a great deal of discussion in the government and the media as to whether or not Japan can afford to cut back on classroom time. This discussion, however, has not addressed the question of what education is supposed to mean to young people themselves, beyond the hope of a good job.
While many students have responded to the lack of relevancy in their schoolwork with apathy and even violence, others have gone in completely the opposite direction. A friend of mine asked me to give advice to a young Japanese man who wants to become an English interpreter. The young man has already completed both university and graduate school. He wanted to know about schools overseas where he could sharpen his skills even more.
Things were easier, some commentators say, when Japan was still rebuilding after the war. There was a clear goal. Education had a purpose. This kind of thinking explains the huge popularity of NHK's "Project X" series, about the men and women who carried out the large-scale engineering and commercial projects that helped make Japan an economic powerhouse. If only we could instill that sense of purposefulness in today's young people, they always say.