Page 14 - Japanese Growth and Education: 演講人：Motohisa Kaneko教授

114 ᐿ࿲ၾආӉj઺ԃٙɢඎ

to higher levels of education.

Meanwhile, the dual structure of labor market formed in the prewar period
had remained in a slightly different form. With the expansion of the economy,
the business corporation grew and multiplied, to constitute a hierarchy with

respect to productivity and benefits for workers. This created a steep hierarchy
in the segments of the labor market. In order to get in the upper segments one
has to have higher credentials in education.

This made up strong motivation for the parents to send their children to
higher levels of education. As the economy grew rapidly in the 1960’s and the
family income levels rose rapidly, as much as ten percent per annum. It meant
that if a household maintained the same consumption level as the previous year,

it would have ten percent of extra savings that could be diverted to education.
Thus, upper secondary and higher education became affordable to the vast

majority of the population. That leaded into an explosive expansion of the
demands for upper-secondary and higher education.
From the perspective of individual families and children, it also meant that
one has to go through fierce competitions. For the reasons discussed below, the

business firms in the upper echelon of the hierarchy, preferred graduates from
more selective institutions with respect to admission of the students. In this

sense, the fact that the students were admitted to the institutions at higher tiers
in the hierarchy among higher education institutions had significant value. The
traditional commitment to education, and the fierce competition over entrance
to selective colleges had created pressure on students to devote many efforts to

mastering what they are taught at high schools.
In short, the whole process functioned as a system of motivating youths

for mastering basic academic capacity. It is important that the process worked
not only on the small proportion of children from middle classes, but also the