Despite all the talk about the need for educational reforms, little serious attention is being paid to a fundamental way in which Japan's schoolchildren are being shortchanged. Except among the educators directly involved, few have expressed concern over the Education Ministry's announcement that libraries in elementary and junior high schools nationwide are lacking the astonishing total of more than 65 million books -- books they should have if they were following the new standards set by the ministry in 1993.

This means that, on average, each school is short 2,600 library books that could be providing a wide range of information and knowledge to the nation's children. The 1993 standards were intended to raise the number of books on school library shelves by 1.5 times, on the basis of the number of pupils enrolled. Yet fully 70 percent of the elementary schools and 80 percent of the junior high schools acknowledged in a survey conducted in May 1999 that they have fewer books on their shelves than are recommended. This is so even though the Education and Home Affairs ministries together have been allocating some 10 billion yen a year to municipalities to help them meet the new targets.

Too many schools are failing to do so, since some 14 percent of elementary school libraries and nearly 22 percent of junior high school libraries have fewer than half the books they should. The reason for this is not because enrollments are down, but because in the face of budget shortfalls some schools are using the funds for other purposes. Local school boards are entitled to do this, but it strongly suggests that the invaluable role school libraries can play in supplementing textbook education is still not sufficiently recognized or appreciated.