Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology: "Social Consensus Needed to Implement September Semester"

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] The Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology expressed the position that a societal consensus must first be shared regarding the growing calls within Japan to adopt a September academic calendar. While the prolonged school closures due to the spread of COVID-19 have led to criticisms that school education is in disarray and the September academic calendar has been proposed as an alternative, concerns have also been raised about the significant social confusion that sudden changes to the academic calendar could cause.

According to local Japanese media such as NHK, on the 28th, Minister Koichi Hagiuda held a press conference stating, "Since the outbreak of COVID-19, we have been conducting simulations on various topics including the September academic calendar and have confirmed several advantages. However, changing the academic calendar is not an issue solely within the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology but requires coordination across various sectors, so the necessity of this must be shared and agreed upon by society as a whole."

This statement is interpreted as an acknowledgment of the increasing calls within Japan to change to a September academic calendar following the long-term school closures due to the COVID-19 crisis. The day before, Hirofumi Yoshimura, Governor of Osaka Prefecture, emphasized, "The government should take this opportunity to adopt the September academic calendar." Within Japan, there have been strong voices advocating for changing the current March academic calendar to a September one even before the COVID-19 crisis, and although there have been several attempts to make this change, all have failed.

Globally, only three countries?Japan, Korea, and Australia?are known to operate on a March academic calendar. Within Japan, as domestic education followed by studying abroad is becoming more active, there is growing support for changing to a September academic calendar to prevent time gaps caused by the March academic calendar.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.