Interview with Mr. T
"At home, my child still speaks some Chinese, but naturally Japanese is stronger—after all, it’s the environment he’s growing up in. Every year I send him back to China for a while to learn more Chinese, hoping he can at least keep the language alive. Beyond that, I don’t want to force my own ideas on him. I’m not a so-called “successful person,” so I can’t dictate his future. I just tell him: study hard, go to cram school if needed, and try to get into a better environment. The rest—his thoughts, his choices, his life—I’ll let him decide.
People often say Japan’s job market isn’t very competitive anymore, that nearly 95% of young people can find employment. But even so, education here is very intense, very “卷.” Why? Because even if you can find a job, how far you go depends on your education and skills. Every company has its hierarchy: regular staff, section chiefs, division managers, department heads. If you’ve built up knowledge and mental agility, you climb faster. Education is the foundation for that. So parents still push their kids hard.
The difference between public and private schools is striking. Public schools aim for the average, teaching at the level of the weakest students in the class. The result is that lessons are kept simple, and students may not be pushed very hard. Private schools, on the other hand, seek prestige. They hire stronger teachers—foreign teachers for languages, for example—so pronunciation and standards are higher. Their entrance exams are tougher, and the curriculum is more demanding.
And private schools don’t free kids from extra work; quite the opposite. Many private-school students still attend cram schools (补习班). Their parents are even more competitive. Cram school material is tougher than what they see at school, so when they return to regular classes, it feels easy. The cycle builds confidence, but also pressure.
This cycle doesn’t stop quickly. From the first grade of elementary school all the way to the end of high school, children prepare through cram schools, step by step: first to get into a good junior high, then a good high school, and finally to compete for places at universities like the University of Tokyo or Waseda. It’s not unlike China, where everything builds toward the college entrance exam, except here the competition stretches out over many years.
Of course, some families decide they can’t—or don’t want to—keep up with the grind. By high school, if the child is “burnt out” or if the parents have the means, they might choose overseas study instead. Some are drawn to Western culture, or to opportunities in the U.S. and Europe. If you like music, for example, maybe America feels like the right place to go deeper. So yes, many Japanese families do send their children abroad—sometimes because of opportunity, sometimes just to escape the endless “卷” at home."