“Tokkatsu”, a programme which underpins the Japanese education

Introduction

Nowadays there has been internationally a growing interest in “Tokkatsu”, a course of national curriculum, which features Japanese education. This was so natural for the Japanese that few research was conducted up to today and it has rarely been introduced abroad. This task discusses it in terms of leading learners, from my five-year working experience as a public junior high school teacher at the center of Tokyo.

What is “Tokkatsu”?

Tokkatsu, the abbreviation of “Tokubetsu katsudo” has been stipulated in the national curriculum for more than half a century, though it has changed slightly according to the revisions of national curriculum. The goal is to develop well-balanced mind and body of individuality through participation in the group, which helps build personal relationship with others and nurture positive and active attitude toward improving life. It comprises mainly homeroom activities, student councils activities, and school events.  

Homeroom activities play the central part of elementary, junior high, and senior high schools of Japan. Homeroom has generally two roles, as a group of learning in collaboration and a group of living together. In my opinion, Japanese homeroom values the latter more. It includes morning activity such as reading, doing exercise, or lunchtime, and cleaning, etc. Everything related to life is connected with education in school. For instance, lunchtime is not only for having a meal, but also for learning. Students assigned to the school lunch duty, serve all students’ meal. It is difficult even for adults to distribute each food equally for 30 students and just, not to be leftover. Eating the same thing together in a group is important opportunity to learn good communication and strengthens the relationship. Teachers and students of school lunch duty don’t allow them to eat just food they like, in order to realize them the blessing of food and to show the gratitude toward the cooks. In my school, classes competed in the quantity of leftover. In addition, twice a year special lessons were held to teach them the importance of well-balanced nutritious food, inviting local professional Japanese food chefs and nutrition managers as guest speakers. Against the background of westernized food culture, the government has tried to reemphasise the value of Japanese traditional food with well-balanced nutrition, because it is definite that well-balanced meal makes people healthy and improve the quality of their life.   

The second item of Tokkatsu is school events. Every school has generally a sports day, culture festival, job experience or volunteer activities, and field trips. These are mainly organized by the student council members. They decide the theme of the each event and manage them by themselves as much as possible. Research suggest that when schools meet children’s basic psychological needs for autonomy, belonging, and competence, students develop an attachment to school (Lewis). In sports day, for example, almost all students are assigned to any role of the management of the event. Teams composed of different grade classes cooperate with each other and compete for the first prize. Older students learn how to take care of younger students and lead them. Though these events were formerly opened for the community, recent schools don’t open because of security and privacy. However, I think Tokkatsu also would be good occasion to make students feel the bond with the community

Though Tokkatsu, thus, contributes significantly to the development of Japanese students in terms of all-round education, two main problems are often raised recently. One is the problem of over-workload of teachers, which has been a serious issue these years especially in junior high public schools. While students are in school, it is thought to be natural for teachers to stay with the students all the time, and sometime discipline them and sometime play with them. It is only before students come to school or after they go home that teachers can do their own job such as preparation for lessons or paperwork. In addition, Japanese public schools have lots of school events, which are included in Tokkatsu. Teachers have always been overwhelmed with preparing for events following one after another. I agree that school events are definitely cornerstones of those schools education, but the responsibility teachers have to take was too much. The other problem is that because of these events, academic lessons are cut down. Though the numbers of each subject lesson a year is stipulated by the national curriculum, it was almost impossible for my school to follow the law unless we didn’t do lessons on holidays.

The Japanese education represented by Tokkatsu, focusing on all-around education has been sustained by well-motivated professional teachers’ culture. However, as the same as other countries, under the large influence of international tests and the economic situation, schools have been pressured to be more accountable. As a result, school events, whose effects on students are difficult to measure compared with academic scores, have been reduced in many schools. It is easy just to cut down some of Tokkatsu and increase academic lessons instead, but principals should consider well enough not to regret the decision.

In conclusion, though the outcome of Tokkatsu is difficult to measure unlike academic achievements, just reducing it might lead to the decrease in quality of learning. The government and hands-on teachers need to consider well-balanced education .