Japanese Schoolchildren: The World Doesn’t Need Wars, Nuclear Power, and Homework

As an American, I remember having lots of homework every day, and from what I see in newspapers occasionally, it seems that people are still complaining about there being too much homework in the US. I’m confident that a similar survey conducted in the United States would probably contain some complaints about homework.

I strongly doubt that American kids would make “war” their top choice.  The education system in Japan teaches almost blind rejection of the legitimacy of war, whereas the United States teaches a nationalist version of history that praises several past wars as necessary and good (we did win our freedom by fighting a war against the British, freed the slaves by war, and freed Europe and Asia by war).  The current war on terrorism is also often portrayed as a good war.   

Other things not on the Japanese list I’d expect American kids to mention: terrorism, drugs, racism.

Don’t get me wrong, though.  I don’t think a lot of homework is a good thing, and I think the popularity of cram schools is evidence that the education system in Japan has serious problems.  I just don’t think that this survey of elementary school kids is sending us a message about those problems, because cram schools until 10pm every night and long long hours of studying are something that usually comes with junior high and high school. 
Here’s an interesting, although old, article about how more homework doesn’t mean better scores:

many countries with the highest scoring students, such as Japan, the Czech Republic and Denmark, have teachers who give little homework. “At the other end of the spectrum, countries with very low average scores — Thailand, Greece, Iran — have teachers who assign a great deal of homework,” Baker noted. ”The United States is among the most homework-intensive countries in the world for seventh- and eighth-grade math classes. U.S. math teachers on average assigned more than two hours of mathematics homework per week in 1994-95,” said LeTendre. “Contrary to our expectations, one of the lowest levels was recorded in Japan — about one hour a week. These figures challenge previous stereotypes about the lackadaisical American teenager and his diligent peer in Japan.”

I think regarding the war % vote, it is a concept which many students in Japan don’t know much about. Japan has never been involved in a significant military conflict within their lifetime, so their everyday homework probably seems more annoying than a story about a past war.