Are the time and money Japanese parents put into their children’s education cost-effective in terms of eventual salaries? An academic researcher crunches the numbers.
Are the time and money Japanese parents put into their children’s education cost-effective in terms of eventual salaries? An academic researcher crunches the numbers.
Guess it depends on who you compare them to, other Japanese? then yeah maybe. Foreigners? absolutely not. I went to high school here back in the day, and I don’t think I exaggerate when I say that they probably spent more time in the books studying that year then I have studied my whole life.
Was at a reunion 20 years later, some had gone to the top universities after that, Tokyo university, Keio, Kyoto university etc. And from our talks I was obviously making more than all of them. Honestly I think just putting all of that wasted time into getting good at English, then work abroad for a couple of years then coming back working for international companies would get them further ahead than any top university could.
The Japanese I know that are earning the most are either half Japanese with native English or fully Japanese with international background having gone to average universities or none at all.
#edit
One thing to add though is that the focus on the status of the company you work for is often seen as more important than what you earn here. Someone could earn double but still say they envy the person that works at one of the big ones. Banks and landlords rank you based on it as well. When I was working for an extremely well known Japanese company everyone was rolling out the red carpet, now earning 3 times more but running my own smaller business things are a lot harder.
AverageHobnailer on
The point of education isn’t to get better salaries, it’s to improve humanity. I really tire of this reductionist take.
No-Jackfruit3211 on
Then they become depressed salary man til they retire at 65.Its so depressing.
Quixote0630 on
Definitely not. It’s insane how much money some parents drop on juku to make up a gap that the schools should be fixing themselves. At times, I wonder if the schools and juku industry are in cahoots – customers in exchange for good grades. In the end most end up at mid-tier universities anyway.
maxweinhold123 on
From the study title, I understand salary is an accessible and simple indicator, but Japan especially is certainly realizing it is not the only indicator. If you want to make good research fine research, run some surveys on how those kids are doing when they find themselves in adulthood. Healthful and unwealthy? Wealthy, as long as you count more than that? Proxies only go so far in an economics of hearts.
5 Comments
Guess it depends on who you compare them to, other Japanese? then yeah maybe. Foreigners? absolutely not. I went to high school here back in the day, and I don’t think I exaggerate when I say that they probably spent more time in the books studying that year then I have studied my whole life.
Was at a reunion 20 years later, some had gone to the top universities after that, Tokyo university, Keio, Kyoto university etc. And from our talks I was obviously making more than all of them. Honestly I think just putting all of that wasted time into getting good at English, then work abroad for a couple of years then coming back working for international companies would get them further ahead than any top university could.
The Japanese I know that are earning the most are either half Japanese with native English or fully Japanese with international background having gone to average universities or none at all.
#edit
One thing to add though is that the focus on the status of the company you work for is often seen as more important than what you earn here. Someone could earn double but still say they envy the person that works at one of the big ones. Banks and landlords rank you based on it as well. When I was working for an extremely well known Japanese company everyone was rolling out the red carpet, now earning 3 times more but running my own smaller business things are a lot harder.
The point of education isn’t to get better salaries, it’s to improve humanity. I really tire of this reductionist take.
Then they become depressed salary man til they retire at 65.Its so depressing.
Definitely not. It’s insane how much money some parents drop on juku to make up a gap that the schools should be fixing themselves. At times, I wonder if the schools and juku industry are in cahoots – customers in exchange for good grades. In the end most end up at mid-tier universities anyway.
From the study title, I understand salary is an accessible and simple indicator, but Japan especially is certainly realizing it is not the only indicator. If you want to make good research fine research, run some surveys on how those kids are doing when they find themselves in adulthood. Healthful and unwealthy? Wealthy, as long as you count more than that? Proxies only go so far in an economics of hearts.