Japan: number of institutions for out-of-school learning by type 2022

In 2022, nearly six thousand supplementary tutorial schools or cram schools were registered in Japan. That year, those tutorial schools generated a sales revenue of more than 1.1 trillion Japanese yen. Apart from tutorial schools and their academic classes, other popular institutions were those offering arts, culture, and tech programs as well as sports and health instructions.

 Tutorial schools and entrance examinations

It is common for children in Japan to attend tutoring institutions, so-called juku, to attain better grades at schools or to prepare for entrance examinations for schools they wish to enroll in. Enrollment in any Japanese school (except for public elementary and secondary schools) is preceded by entrance examinations which usually take place in winter. Typically, subjects such as Japanese, English, math, history, and social studies are all covered in these tests. The number of Japanese students attending supplementary tutorial schools has been increasing throughout the past decade and has surpassed 14 million annually. Similarly, the number of instructors employed at tutorial schools in Japan exceeded 130 thousand and can be expected to rise further.

 The future of cram schools 

Despite declining birth rates in Japan and a thereby shrinking student body, entrance exams continue to become more difficult and competitive year by year. As seen above, the number of cram school attendees has also been on the rise, and cram schools continuously report increasing profits, since parents with fewer children are willing to invest even more in their child’s extracurricular education and additional classes. Even with the pressure concomitant with the expectations towards students, it is important to note that tutorial schools are also a place of community for many, especially children with parents working full-time, offering them a study environment among peers, as opposed to studying alone at home. 