At one time, it was said, "if you study on four hours of sleep, you pass the university entrance exam, on five hours, you fail", and that intensely pressured situation has been compared to war. However, as Japan's lifetime employment system is beginning to collapse, one's academic background is no longer as important as in the past, and companies have emerged that are not asking about one's university in the interview for the company's entrance exam. Juken are still carried out in an atmosphere of fierce competition, but the fact is that the range of choices for the future is broadening.
These are private educational institutions that supplement regular school study. Because Japanese schools teach uniform contents at a fixed rate, students who are unable to follow the lessons and, conversely, students aiming for high-level schools find it necessary to study at juku and yobiko. There are numerous large-scale schools that have developed nationwide chains and they are building up a large business sector that features lessons using communications satellites. Juku and yobiko have now become indispensable as supplements to public education.
These are part-time schools at junior highs, high schools and universities for people who want to continue their learning while working, and they function as educational institutions for people in all sorts of situations. Take, for example, junior high night school. It offers retraining for people who were not able to receive sufficient education because of the Second World War. In addition, recently many repatriated orphans who had been left behind in China and Koreans living in Japan have studied Japanese in junior high night schools.
Daiken is an abbreviation of "The University Entrance Qualification Examination" and is carried out every year by the Ministry of Education. High school graduation is necessary as a requirement to enter university or junior college, but even those who did not graduate from high school can, by passing this exam, be recognized as having an equal qualification as high school graduation. In recent years, students who are unable to adjust to and are unsatisfied with the high school educational environment drop out, and instances of trying to open up the road to higher learning by taking daiken are increasing.
In Japan, eigo kyoiku begins in the first year of junior high and, until one graduates university, English is studied for at least 8 years--but not at all so that it can be spoken. One reason for this is that instruction focuses on the skill of reading. In addition, because Japanese and English belong to different families of languages with no commonalities neither in structure nor words. However, in recent years the necessity has increased to communicate in English as the international language and the ability to listen to and speak English is in demand. Accordingly, students and adults who study English conversation have increased rapidly, and private "English conversation schools" have become prominent. Junior highs, high schools and universities are also now putting strength into English-language education which is making communication its chief aim.