Japan2

Megan Anderson

Japan is one of the world leaders when it comes to educational achievement and literacy rate, and competes with North America and Western Europe on many levels. Overall the educational system is quite impressive, particularly with their high literacy rates, and the non-existent gap of illiteracy between males and females. From the statistics the same amount of females as males are enrolled in primary and secondary schooling. What surprised me most was that once these students reached the age to receive a tertiary education, where only 46% are female. Overall, I would say that Japan, along with North America and Western Europe is a world leader when it comes to literacy, school enrollment, and school spending.


 * __Primary Education__**: nearly 100% enrollment, slightly greater than North America 0% of students are not in a primary school.

__Secondary Education__: 2nd behind St. Kitts & Nevis with 99% of students enrolled in secondary education There are 0% of girls not at a secondary school.

__Tertiary Education__: Japan didn’t make the top 10, but about 25% of students 18-24 are enrolled in post-secondary schooling. A little surprising given the high percentages of primary and secondary school enrollment Japan is an exception in the area of women not in tertiary school, where 46% of tertiary students are female. They are an exception because where most girls receive equal secondary education (U.S. and Western Europe), usually more females than males are enrolled in tertiary education. Japan is 7th in world with 1.8% -a huge gap as compared to other advanced nations.

__Human and Financial Resources__: The average spending for primary education in Japan, North America and Western Europe is often much more than three times the spending in other regions. As far as primary educational spending is concerned, Japan spent more than N.America or Western Europe, almost $8,000 per child in 2001. With regard to secondary educational spending, i n Western Europe, North America, and Japan children get over five times the average secondary education spending than other countries. Japan's spending growth in this area is very low compared to Western Europe (~1/4 of their growth), but higher than that of North America. Japan was 3rd in the world behind North America and Western Europe for tertiary spending. Although Japan was relatively high in tertiary spending compared to the rest of the world, increases in spending per person in North America and Western Europe were still over 4 times those of Japan (the next highest region).