Tag - schools

 
 

SCHOOLS

Elementary school students take a nationwide achievement test in April. The education ministry has said such tests will go fully online in fiscal 2027.
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2024
Japan's nationwide school achievement tests to go fully online from fiscal '27
The education ministry will make an official decision as early as autumn after hearing opinions from schools and boards of education.
The government aims to increase the number of foreign students in Japan to 400,000 by 2033, despite a recent Justice Ministry ordinance that puts in place tougher rules on accepting overseas applicants.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 8, 2024
Can Japan boost its foreign student count to 400,000?
The government recently tightened rules for accepting overseas applicants, though it hasn't lost sight of its lofty goal of increasing foreign student numbers.
Nearly 90% of Japanese high schoolers who responded to a survey said their hobbies and interests had grown thanks to social media, with 55.9% also saying they now have a greater interest in society as well.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 3, 2024
Japanese high schoolers use social media mostly for hobbies, survey finds
Nearly 1 in 2 also make friends online, and many of them go on to meet up in person.
While the health ministry has been distributing educational material on blood donation to high school students since fiscal 1990, this will be the first time the campaign is extended to middle school students.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 2, 2024
Health ministry aims to educate middle schoolers in bid to raise blood donation rate
The ministry aims to have educational material on blood donation ready for middle schoolers in fiscal 2025 to encourage students to be future donors.
Occupational therapist Mitsuyoshi Okutsu interacts with children at Kamioka Elementary School in Hida, Gifu Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional voices: Chubu
Jul 1, 2024
Occupational therapists join the ranks of staff at Gifu schools
It is estimated that there are around 110,000 occupational therapists in Japan, working mainly at hospitals and welfare facilities.
Members of Onomichi High School's baseball team (back) have longer hair than members of teams that stick to traditional buzz cuts.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Jul 1, 2024
High school baseball gets a makeover as buzz cut rules are no more
What was once seen as a symbol of fighting spirit is getting a rethink as coaches try to be mindful of students' mental states and preferences.
Naoki Ogi (second from left), head of a committee set up by the city of Asahikawa, Hokkaido, to reinvestigate the death of a 14-year-old junior high school girl reports the results to Asahikawa Mayor Hirosuke Imazu (left) in Asahikawa on Sunday.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 1, 2024
Reinvestigation finds Hokkaido girl's suicide caused by bullying
The reinvestigation committee said the girl, who was found frozen at a park in Asahikawa in March 2021, developed post-traumatic stress disorder from the bullying.
A bus stop in Suzhou in China's Jiangsu Province where a Japanese woman and her child was believed to have been attacked
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2024
Suzhou knife attack shocks Japanese firms in China
The site of the attack is in an area where many Japanese live, and is close to a Japanese school.
A bill to require facilities for children to check whether workers have criminal records for sex crimes is approved unanimously at a plenary meeting of the Upper House on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 19, 2024
Bill enacted to create sex crime screening system for work involving children
Records that can be checked will include those on nonconsensual sexual intercourse and violations of prefectural ordinances banning molesting and voyeurism.
The education ministry in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki district
JAPAN / Society
Jun 19, 2024
Revised guidelines drafted for investigating serious cases of school bullying
The education ministry plans to seek public comments on the draft guidelines and finalize revisions in August, before notifying schools.
While the education ministry recently introduced a new subject called “logic and expression” in its new curriculum guidelines, experts say that many teachers, in practice, are still focusing on grammar acquisition.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 19, 2024
Japan study downplays complex grammar in improving English writing skills
English learners are better off focusing on making good arguments, according to the Kobe University research.
While the government aims to supply all public elementary school pupils with an electronic device for learning in school, communication between parents and teachers is still largely paper-based.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 17, 2024
Parents need digital tools to cope with 'first-grade barrier'
More flexibility and efficiency would lighten the load put on the families of public elementary school children, where paper-based communication is still too prevalent.
Takayuki Midorikawa stands in front of Ueda Junior High School in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jun 17, 2024
Fukushima schools open up to revising old rules
The prefecture has recently made some moves to accommodate a little more diversity in the classroom.
A "free school" in Tokyo's Kita Ward. In April, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government began providing subsidies to students attending free schools.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 14, 2024
Local subsidies for Japan's 'free schools' highlight regional inequality
Support groups are calling for uniform financial assistance nationwide for institutions aimed at those who have left mainstream schooling.
A survey has shown that 722 municipalities in Japan had made school lunch services free of charge as of September 2023. Of those, 547 provided such services at all elementary and junior high schools.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2024
Free school lunches offered in 40% of Japanese municipalities
Many places said that they wanted to reduce financial burdens on households through the initiative.
People wade through a flooded road in Balagtas, Bulacan province, Philippines, on July 29, 2023.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 12, 2024
Hell or high water: Filipino schools lashed by climate extremes
The state weather bureau has said the country is likely to experience more tropical cyclones in 2024 due to the potential return of the La Nina weather phenomenon.
An 84-year-old man has been arrested after missing a red light and hitting a girl with his car in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 5, 2024
Saitama police arrest elderly man after hitting first grader with car
Hideo Aoki, arrested on suspicion of negligent driving resulting in injury, has admitted to the charge, according to police.
A child holds a sign during a rally demanding the release of Israeli hostages outside the U.S. consulate in Tel Aviv on Monday.
WORLD
Jun 4, 2024
Back to class — or shelters? Next school year snags Israel's Lebanon strategy
Of 60,000 civilians relocated from northern Israel at the outset of the war, 14,600 are children, scattered in temporary kindergartens and schools.
The mother of a student killed in a 2017 avalanche prays for her son at her home in Nasushiobara, Tochigi Prefecture, earlier this month.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 30, 2024
Three sentenced to two years in prison over 2017 avalanche deaths
The defendants guilty of professional negligence resulting in death and injury.
Those who will be employed as teachers in Japan after completing graduate school will be exempt from repaying scholarship loans.
JAPAN / Society
May 29, 2024
Japan to waive graduate scholarship loan repayments for teachers
The policy will apply to those who pass the recruitment examinations in the current fiscal year ending in March 2025.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?