After the defeat in World War II, the allied occupation government set an education reform as one of its primary goals, to eradicate militarist teachings and "democratize" Japan. The education system was rebuilt after the American model.
A number of reforms were carried out in the post-war period. They aimed at easing the burden of entrance examinations, promoting internationalisation and information technologies, diversifying education and supporting lifelong learning.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) is responsible for educational administration.
In successive international assessment tests, Japan's fourth- and eighth-grade students have consistently ranked in the top five globally in both mathematics and science (see TIMSS).[20][21][22] [23] [24][25][26][27][28][29]
Despite concerns that academic skills for Japanese students may have declined since the mid-1990s,[30] Japan's students showed a significant improvement in math and science scores in the 2011 TIMSS survey, compared to the 2007 scores