According to andyeducation, the Japanese education system was decisively restructured in 1947 under the leadership of the American occupation authorities and made an invaluable contribution to the country’s economic success by supplying a highly productive labor force to the labor market. The reform significantly weakened state control over the educational process, authorized the creation of autonomous private schools, transferred the compilation of textbooks to the competence of publishers (although permission from the Ministry of Education to allow textbooks to be used is still required), stimulated the development of the so-called. community education (under the 1949 Law, it is defined as “organized educational activities, including sports and recreation, which are not provided for by school programs”).
The current education system includes elementary schools (6-year course), secondary schools of the first stage (3-year course), secondary schools of the second stage (3-year course), universities (4-year course). In addition, there are kindergartens, technical colleges (5 years) for high school graduates and schools for the disabled. In addition to the schools listed, there are various vocational schools outside the formal education system. Education up to the level of secondary school of the first stage is compulsory. 95% of primary and secondary schools of the first stage are public. Private institutions account for 24% of upper secondary schools and 73% of universities. In 2002, Japan had 14.4 thousand kindergartens (106.1 thousand teachers, 1.8 million pupils), 23.6 thousand elementary schools (407.6 thousand teachers, 7.4 million students), 11.1 thousand secondary schools of the first stage (257.6 thousand teachers, 4.1 million students), 5.3 thousand secondary schools of the second stage (289.0 thousand teachers, 4.2 million students), 649 universities (150.6 thousand teachers, 2.7 million students). 97.8% of primary school graduates go on to secondary school at both levels and 40% of the latter go on to colleges and universities. The largest public universities: Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hokkaido, Tohoku. Among the private ones, the most famous are Nihon, Waseda, Keio, Chuo, Meiji, Tokai, Kansai.
Scientific development is carried out in Japan by specialized research institutions, private companies, as well as universities and other higher educational institutions. As of 2002, such developments were carried out in 19.4 thousand companies (606.9 thousand employed R&D, of which 436.2 thousand scientists, 66.9 thousand auxiliary scientific personnel and 62.0 thousand technical personnel ), in 1.3 thousand research institutions (respectively 107.5 thousand, 67.2 thousand, 7.9 thousand and 10.1 thousand) and in 2.9 thousand higher educational institutions (330.6 thousand, 281.4 thousand, 9.7 thousand and 12.3 thousand). The number of specialized research institutions includes departmental, municipal and private, as well as public corporations. The departmental ones are subordinate to the ministries and are financed by the state budget. Up to 80% of R&D carried out are fundamental and applied. Municipal research and development institutions (generally small) are supported by local budgets and are mainly engaged in applied (about 75%) and experimental design (about 35%) development. Private research institutions include nonprofit think tanks and research promotion associations. They are financed from their own funds or from sponsors, which are most often firms. Public corporations are research institutions with the status of special legal entities. They are created on the basis of parliamentary acts, are financed from the state budget and focus mainly on experimental design. A lot of research work is carried out by higher educational institutions, in the structure of which 60-70% falls on the share of fundamental and 30-40% – on applied development. In 2002, in total research spending (16.0 trillion yen), companies accounted for 10.6 trillion, scientific research institutions 2.2 trillion, and higher education institutions 3.2 trillion yen. The volume of spending on R&D in relation to GDP was 2.9%. The main scientific centers of Japan: Tsukuba, Nomura, Mitsubishi, Torey, Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya universities.
Japan is a country of ancient and constantly renewing culture, which has always absorbed foreign influences, adapting them to the local “picture” and not losing its own uniqueness. Japanese literature, starting from the annals of the Kojiki and Nihonshoki, invariably experiencing the strongest Chinese influence, relatively quickly reached a high degree of sophistication and sophistication, as evidenced by the five-line tanka genre, the poetry collections Manyoshu and Kokinshu, as well as the Tale about Genji” by Murasaki Shikibu and “Notes at the Headboard” by Sei Shonagon. Feudal wars of the 12th century. and a number of the following centuries gave rise to the genre of the military epic, the best representatives of which were the Tale of the Taira House and the Tale of the Great World. 16th and 17th centuries were the heyday of the literature of the merchants, whose works reflected the life of the cities of the developed Middle Ages (for example, “Five women who made love” by S. Ikhara). At the same time, the three-line haiku genre was immortalized with their masterpieces by Matsuo Basho, Yosa Buson, Kobayashi Issa. In the 18th and 19th centuries the genres of the didactic, everyday and picaresque novel were developed (“The Story of Eight Dogs” by Takizawa Bakin, “Modern Bathhouse” by Shikitei Samba, “Journey on Foot along the Tokaido Road” by Jippensha Ikku). The penetration of European literature into Japan after the Meiji Restoration marked the beginning of the process of the formation of new types and forms of artistic vision. In poetry, various shades of romanticism sounded in the poems of T. Shimazaki, B. Doi and A. Yosano. Through the efforts of writers B. Ueda, K. Nagai, O. Mori and others, Japan got acquainted with the work of Western symbolists, whose traditions were adopted by H. Kitahara and R. Miki. In 1910-20s. in Japanese prose, naturalism dominated, the outstanding representatives of which were S. Futabatei, R. Tokutomi, D. Kunikida, S. Natsume. Poets-naturalists (M. Senke, K. Ozaki, S. Sato) sang the creative activity of man – the true owner of all the riches of the earth. In the same years, neo-sensualism was born. Its heralds were Y. Kawabata, R. Yokomitsu, H. Sato, who sang the simplicity and naturalness of human relations, the merging of man with nature. Then R. Akutagawa also made deeply psychological novels. Reaction in the 1930s with their draconian censorship, it silenced many writers and poets, and some of them committed the so-called. turn, sliding down to participation in chauvinistic propaganda. After the war, Japanese literature entered a period of multifaceted pluralism. Next to the “democratic literary movement”, led by left-wing authors (Yu. Miyamoto, S. Tokunaga, S. Nakano), a centrist “post-war group” arose (H. Noma, S. Oka, R. Shiina), in whose work the main place was occupied by the struggle against totalitarianism and militarism, for basic human rights. Important social problems were raised in their novels by both the old recognized masters and the “young shoots” of writers (N. Shiga, J. Tanizaki, M. Ibuse, D. Gomikawa), who protested against any kind of violence. The period of the Cold War aroused nationalist sentiments among some writers and poets, for which Y. Mishima became especially famous. At the same time, a deep objective analysis of the diseases of modern Japanese society was carried out in the works of K. Abe (“Woman in the Sands”, “Alien Face”), T. Kaiko (“Japanese Threepenny Opera”, “Summer Darkness”) and K. Oe ( “Late Youth”, “The waters embraced me to my soul”). to them in the 1990s. such authors as R. Murakami, H. Murakami, K. Nakagami, Yu. Tsushima joined. J. Kawabata in 1968 and K. Oe in 1994 received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Over the centuries, a huge number of social, economic, political, cultural and environmental factors have influenced the development of Japanese art. The temperate climate and clearly distinguishable seasons have provided an abundance of seasonal symbols and motifs (plum, cherry, maple, chrysanthemum), which are played over and over again in the works of famous masters and obscure, but immensely talented masters. The love of the Japanese for nature, on the one hand, and high humidity, frequent earthquakes and typhoons, on the other, have found expression in the use of building materials such as lacquer, wood, bamboo and paper, i.e. easily replaceable and cheap, in traditional architecture. At the same time, Chinese art styles and various segments of Chinese culture had a comprehensive and strong influence on Japanese art. including Buddhist art. In the face of this influence, such a characteristic feature of Japanese art was revealed as the ability to absorb the achievements of continental civilization and “fuse” them with their own, creating a new aesthetic system. Up to the 2nd floor. 19th century Japanese art did not have a noticeable impact on Western culture. But then the European creative elite discovered its beauty and ignited a genuine passion for it. For example, Japanese ceramics and woodcuts played a significant role in the development of European artistic aesthetics and design. Contemporary figures of Japanese art are making an ever more tangible contribution to the progress of international art. Japanese temples, castles, museums store wall paintings, paintings, scrolls with sacred Buddhist texts and illustrations, sculptures of deities – defenders of the faith, multicolor engravings printed from wooden boards, paintings on screens and sliding partitions, etc. The giants of traditional Japanese fine arts are such masters as members of the Kano family (Eitoku, Sanraku, Tanyu), Ogata Korin, Yosa Buson, Suzuki Harunobu, Kitagawa Utamaro, Toshusai Syaraku, Katsushika Hokusai, Ando Hiroshige. The modern heirs of these unsurpassed idols, of course, are far from their predecessors, but they still managed to create memorable works of various directions (national, western, including realistic, surrealistic, fauvist, expressionist, abstractionist). In this regard, worthy of mention are Ts. Fujita, H. Tsuji, K. Kawaguchi, F. Kitaoka, M. Ueno, H. Fukuda, S. Asakura. Japanese applied arts (ceramics, porcelain, metal, lacquerware, fabric coloring, bamboo weaving, flower arranging, folding paper figures). The tea ceremony reached the level of high art. Japan is a real theatrical empire. Side by side with traditional theaters Noo, Kabuki and puppet Bunraku there are dozens of drama theaters with a modern repertoire, opera and ballet troupes, revue troupes. Japanese feature, animated and documentary films with a galaxy of talented directors and actors (A. Kurosawa, K. Shindo, Y. Yoshida, T. Mifune, Y. Ishihara, S. Hidari) enjoy unflagging popularity in the world.
