How the World Sees Japan No. 24

To Move Forward with a Self-Respecting View of History: Part 8

Germany
Heinrich Schliemann

Education is more widespread than in the civilized countries of Europe. While in other Asian countries, including China, women are left in complete ignorance, in Japan, both men and women can read and write using kana and kanji.

Schliemann was a German archaeologist and businessman who visited Japan at the end of the Edo period.
He wrote "Schliemann's Travelogue: Qing China and Japan," comparing Japan with the Qing dynasty he had visited previously, and the opening quote is from that work.

What surprised Schliemann the most was the high literacy rate in Japan.
At that time, the literacy rate in Japan was extremely high: nearly 100 percent for samurai, 70 to 80 percent or more in urban areas like Edo, and over 60 percent as a national average.
Considering that the literacy rate in British cities during the Industrial Revolution was 20 to 25 percent, and about 10 percent in Paris, France, it is clear just how phenomenal Japan's literacy rate was.
There is even an anecdote left by a foreigner who was astonished to learn that a maid at a local inn was exchanging letters with her parents back home; conversely, this implies that in the West at that time, maids were almost entirely illiterate (uneducated and unable to read or write).

So, why was such a high literacy rate maintained in Japan?
This was supported by the establishment of a sophisticated educational system: domain schools (hanko) for the education of samurai, and temple schools (terakoya) for commoners.
Furthermore, being able to read and write meant that the foundation for receiving knowledge was already in place, and combined with the abacus skills taught alongside it, the foundation for accepting a capitalist economy was already prepared.

However, because Japan had been following a policy of national isolation until then, the inflow of goods was restricted.
Nevertheless, books and information were constantly arriving via places like Dejima in Nagasaki, and Japanese intellectuals always kept their antennas tuned to what was at the cutting edge.
That is why, after opening the country, they were able to grow rapidly enough to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the West both economically and militarily in no time at all.
Truly, "education builds a nation."

Another point worth noting is that this high literacy rate was not limited to men.
As Schliemann's words suggest, the reality in Asian countries at the time was that women were "left in ignorance."
However, in Japan, at places like temple schools, both boys and girls were taught reading, writing, and the abacus with equal opportunity, without discrimination.

Currently in Japan, the term SDGs is prevalent,
gender equality and equal opportunity in education
are also being touted as goals to work toward, but these are things that Japan had been practicing since the Edo period, long ago.
Some intellectuals, perhaps unaware of (or ignoring) such historical facts, state that
the Edo period was a dark age for commoners
due to a harsh class society.
This can be called a narrow-minded view of history that cannot escape the position of completely denying pre-war values and culture due to a self-deprecating view of history.

The current Kumon method of learning is also based on techniques from the temple schools of the Edo period, such as
individualized learning tailored to each person's ability
and building basic skills through repetitive practice,
and it now contributes to the future of children around the world as
KUMON.