ABSTRACT
Japan's ethnic and social homogeneity is one of the features that most strikes the visitors: there is a virtual uniformity of skin and hair colour, for example, which is a marked contrast to the multi-ethnic societies of the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. In many paradoxical ways, Japanese society is both much more hierarchical and classless than those in the west. However, one of the less attractive features of Japanese society, to the western observer at least, is its domination by men and the relatively low priority which it accords to the education and training of women. From a governmental point of view, Japan, is, by British standards, a highly centralised society. Japanese schools have a very demanding curriculum, prescribed for them by the Ministry of Education, and in order to follow it they are required to operate an educational programme for at least 240 days each year.
