Japanese growth and the role of education Japan’s educational results have also been affirmed by international comparative studies on educational achievement. In international investigations such as those by the IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement), Japanese students have placedamong the highest ranked in the world in both mathematics and in science. There can be no doubt that education has provided the driving force for economic, social, and cultural development in Japan. Taken as a whole, Japanese education has produced a large number of people who have acquired the qualities demanded by the industrial world and Japanese society, Specifically, it has produced people who possess the basic knowledge and skills to respond to technical changes and innovations, who are disciplined, diligent, and constant and who have thecollaborative skills needed to work in a group.