SUMMARY: Teachers in the US are poorly compensated for the work in comparison to teachers in Japan. Outside of the best public schools and elite private schools, students are educated to become loyal, obedient citizens with adequate job skills. This contrasts sharply with earlier educational goals in America.
(About an 8 minute read)
My second wife, Tomoko, spent her early years in Tokyo, Japan. She attended an elite school whose students were mainly the sons and daughters of government and corporate leaders.
Tomoko’s father, for instance, was an American on loan from Motorola to Sony who headed up Sony’s East Asian quality control during the years Japanese goods became synonymous with “quality”. Her cousin, who tutored her growing up, was at one point the head of North American sales for Toyota. His major accomplishment was taking Toyota products from about 6% of the car market in the US to over 22%.
