Overhauling Japan's High-Stakes University-Admission System
This weekend, more than 580,000 Japanese high-school seniors will take the country’s standardized university-entrance exam, known as the National Center Test for University Admissions. This test, commonly referred to simply as the “Center Test,” is the culmination of years of intense preparation that begins as early as kindergarten. Mothers pray in special Shinto shrines for their children’s success, and students buy daruma dolls, meant to keep evil spirits and demons away, to bring themselves good luck.
They need it. The stakes of the Center Test are so high that late winter in Japan is widely known as “examination hell.” Doing well on the test is key to gaining admission to a top-tier college, and attending such a college is key to securing one’s future. The education at these prestigious institutions is generally understood to be easy once a student enrolls, and when she graduates four years later she’ll have a very good chance of finding a well-paid job with a top-ranked corporation or government ministry.
“Anybody can get into a university in Japan at the moment,” said Greg Poole, a social-anthropology professor at the Institute for the Liberal Arts of Doshisha University in Kyoto. But in a like Japan, only the
