Japan's 'exam hell' now reaches into preschool

The school's counsel reaches beyond the merely academic. In one corner of a classroom are enlarged photos of "winning" suits mothers wore to elementary school interviews and the names of the schools where their children were accepted. The mothers and children are clad in dark-colored garb, with what look like black Italian handbags and matching shoes. Fukuda says that many families custom order their suits so they won't look identical.

Hanako Yamashita, who is a paralegal, enrolled her daughter in an exclusive prep class that accepts students only through referrals. The girl enrolled before turning 3 and has spent a couple of hours every Saturday at the class for the past year.

Mrs. Yamashita's daughter, now 4, shakes her head when asked if she thought the exams were intimidating. "The snacks [my Saturday teacher gave us] were yummy," she says with a smile. "The classes were fun." And she got into Denenchofu Futaba Gakuen, the school of her choice – joining her older sister, a fourth-grader, as school opens this month.

To Yamashita, it was a huge relief – especially given the numbers of students applying. "Compared with three years ago with my older daughter, it felt like there were a lot more parents competing for a spot," she says. Her reasoning for the early start: By applying to a school that feeds into the next level, she spared her children having to take the "much more brutal" middle-school exams.

Education professor Hidenori Fuji­­ta, of the International Christian Univer­sity in Tokyo, points to another factor: middle-class parents trying to move their children up by way of schools for the rich. Still another is the popular perception of public schools. Concerns have risen about school violence, bullying, truancy, and juvenile crimes. Officials cut school hours about seven years ago to reduce stress. But half of private schools did not go along, boosting their popularity, Mr. Fujita says. The government has since decided to reverse course and increase public school hours by 2011.

But problems such as bullying have persisted. "In reality, private schools being better and safer is a myth," says Fujita, "but that's how it's been playing out."

Mr. Ogi speculates that many parents who choose ojuken have experienced a setback, such as not getting into the university of their dreams. "Parents are hoping to resolve their broken dream through their child," he says.

Yasuyoshi Kuno, a representative of Kogumakai, another popular Tokyo cram school, says the ojuken boom stems from Japan's play-based early education policy.

"[Supplemental] learning programs for the preschool set are big business," Mr. Kuno said. "This is in part because parents don't think Japan's play-based kindergarten and nursery school programs are doing enough."

Akiko Kawamoto, a housewife who went through the ojuken process with her now fourth-grade and sixth-grade boys, says it was worth it.

Both her sons did worksheets that, if piled up, would reach their height, she says. Ms. Kawamoto plunked down some $2,000 on workbooks alone. She knows mothers who bought home copying machines because of the volume of assignments.

"A lot of families around us – mothers and children – were stressed out," and it showed physically, says Kawamoto, whose children now attend an elite elementary school. "I'm glad it's over for us."

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