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During Japan’s decades of rapid economic growth, when jobs for life were the norm, sending your son to juku to improve his chances of getting into a good high school and then a good university seemed like a good investment. But there are now more university places than applicants
in Japan, which means that almost anyone who wants to attend can. And a
university degree no longer guarantees students a job at graduation.
Lin Kobayashi, founder of a new boarding school
northwest of Tokyo that is slated to open in 2014, says typical
Japanese schools don’t teach kids how to identify problems, take risks
or “work alongside people with different values and backgrounds” — all
increasingly important skills as Japan’s population declines and its
companies are increasingly looking to expand abroad.