Gutek Japan

I originally thought that the Japanese system of education would be extremely similar to the Chinese system.  Both had a strong belief in Confucianism and both hold strong beliefs about honor and respect.  It was a surprise to find out how different they two systems were, and how easily Japan seemed to make the change into a modern country whereas China had so many problems with doing so.  I especially liked learning about education early on in Japan’s history and how they combined Confucianism with learning “military arts”. I guess that was a given since the first schools were meant to teach samurai how to function under the government.  What surprised me though was the fact that, later on, the government also supported school where commoners could attend, and how this influenced how the Japanese people saw and understood education. 

The reading also mentioned how the country of Japan is made up almost exclusively of natives of Japan, the text said 99 %, and how Confucianism has had a large influence on their country.  If that is the case why go outside of Japan for alternate and new forms of education? According to the text it was because they (the Japanese government) wanted to modernize Japan while keeping Japanese morals and beliefs as the core of any renovation/ revision it made in regards to education and other areas as well.  It is amazing how well they accomplished this.  I still want to know why this occurred. The text says that the reason the Japanese government pushed so hard to become modern was because of pressure from the Japanese merchant class, but could there have been another reason?