click the button to go back to the Heisei HomepageThe Heisei period started in 1989 and is still going. This year would be Heisei 14, the fourteenth year of the heisei period. The Heisei period is much different than the Meiji period was. The more modern Heisei period schools are teaching social studies, math, science, health, history, and other classes like those which we have in America. This might be because Japan has advanced greatly in science and technology, making the schools a mirror of the Japanese society.
Afterschool, there are clubs such as baseball, soccer, table tennis, and basketball for the students. This, along with the new curriculum, makes the students work later into the night and lose more sleep than before. Because there is a new curriculum, college entrance exams are a lot harder, because there is more to know. This makes the parents freak out more and send the kids to an afterschool study school called a juku. The juku prepares the kids for the college entrance exams. These jukus are usually about 2 or more hours long, and start right after school. This leaves less time for the kids to do their homework. Most Japanese students get about 5 or fewer hours of sleep every night. This would be very stressful. That is probably one of the reasons that there is a huge amount of suicide in Japan.
Japanese schools go for five days a week since 1989. This may have changed because they want to be more like the USA. Or it could have changed because of Japan's economy, to lighten the load of homework on the students, etc. During the Meiji Period, students went to school for six days a week. A big change, as any student would know.
click the button to go back to the Heisei Homepage
click the button to go back to the first page