This is an interesting link, to a clutch of pieces complaining about the state of Japanese education. I don't know what the Daily Yomiuri is, but if these pieces are anything to go by, they have much the same worries about education in Japan as we do in England.

Children and young people in Japan increasingly lack an awareness of the concept of public spirit, a bond that connects people. This situation is worrying to many.

The academic abilities of our children have declined, and their zeal for study, both in school and out, is the lowest among the developed nations.

Bullying and truancy are still serious problems in schools. An emerging issue is the number of young people who do not work, either through disinclination or through an inability to find jobs.

They worry that their children are being stuffed with too many facts. So they relax. The children then misbehave or just arse about, and they now want to screw the lid back on.

Also, the government must inculcate patriotism into the next generation. The law must be changed!

In connection with the patriotism debate, there's also this observation:

Many Japanese believe that the historical period in Japan from the Meiji Restoration to our defeat in World War II was a terrible one. This is a result of the War Guilt Information Program carried out by the General Headquarters of Allied Powers during the postwar occupation period. The psychological damage resulting from that program lingers today.

Is it psychologically damaging to feel bad about the ghastly truth? Doesn't that just mean that your powers of moral criticism are in full working order? Would it be more healthy to imagine that nothing bad happened, so that they you would feel entirely good about your country?

One of the things I particularly like about the Internet is how you just never know who in the world – literally who in the world - might end up reading what you put. But this stuff reads like it was written for a strictly local Japanese readership. But was it? Question: did this material originate in English, or was it translated, and if so in what crcumstances, and for what purpose?

It's interesting what can turn up when I type "Education" into google, which I do from time to time. This was a particularly intriguing titbit.