Tackling “Examination Hell” in Japan, 1920 to 1945

This essay examines attempts between 1920 and 1945 to tackle “examination hell,” meaning the pressures on children that resulted from competition to enter secondary school. Debates about “examination hell” centered on harm to children, to education, and ultimately to the nation. Arguments weighed issues of fair competition between individuals, alongside the needs of the state. From 1939, reforms to secondary entrance procedures manifested radical statism, in parallel with extensions of state control in other areas of national life. This wartime movement away from selectivity prepared the ground for postwar reforms, as well as later efforts to combat “examination hell.” In recent decades, however, such efforts have been eroded, leaving unresolved questions about the appropriate relationship between individual freedom and state control.