The history of education in Japan dates back at least to the sixth century, when Chinese learning was introduced at the Yamato court. Foreign civilizations have often provided new ideas for the development of Japan's own culture.

6th to 15th century Chinese teachings and ideas flowed into Japan from the sixth to the ninth century. Along with the introduction of Buddhism came the Chinese system of writing and its literary tradition, and Confucianism.

By the ninth century, Heian-kyō (today's Kyoto), the imperial capital, had five institutions of higher learning, and during the remainder of the Heian period, other schools were established by the nobility and the imperial court. During the medieval period (1185–1600), Zen Buddhist monasteries were especially important centers of learning, and the Ashikaga School, Ashikaga Gakkō, flourished in the fifteenth century as a center of higher learning.

16th century In the sixteenth century Japan experienced intense contact with the major European powers. Jesuit missionaries, who accompanied Portuguese traders, preached Christianity and opened a number of religious schools. Japanese students thus began to study Latin and Western classical music, as well as their own language.

see: Nanban trade period

Edo period Japan was very unified by the Tokugawa regime (1600–1867); and the Neo-Confucian academy, the Yushima Seidō in Edo was the chief educational institution of the state. Its administrative head was called Daigaku-no-kami as head of the Tokugawa training school for shogunate bureaucrats.Kelly, Boyd. (1999). Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing, Vol. 1, p. 522.De Bary, William et al. (2005). Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vol. 2, p. 69.

When the Tokugawa period began, few common people in Japan could read or write. By the period's end, learning had become widespread. Tokugawa education left a valuable legacy: an increasingly literate populace, a meritocratic ideology, and an emphasis on discipline and competent performance. Under subsequent Meiji leadership, this foundation would facilitate Japan's rapid transition from feudal society country to a modernizing nation.R. P. Dore, The Legacy of Tokugawa Education", in Marius B. Jansen, ed., Changing Japanese attitudes toward modernization (1965) pp. 99–131.

During the Tokugawa period, the role of many of the bushi, or samurai, changed from warrior to government bureaucrat, and as a consequence, their formal education and their literacy increased proportionally. Samurai curricula stressed morality and included both military and literary studies. Confucian classics were memorized, and reading and reciting them were common methods of study. Arithmetic and calligraphy were also studied. Most samurai attended schools sponsored by their han (domains), and by the time of the Meiji Restoration of 1868, more than 200 of the 276 han had established schools. Some samurai and even commoners also attended private academies, which often specialized in particular Japanese subjects or in Western medicine, modern military science, gunnery, or Rangaku (Dutch studies), as European studies were called.

Education of commoners was generally practically oriented, providing basic training in reading, writing, and arithmetic, emphasizing calligraphy and use of the abacus. Much of this education was conducted in so-called temple schools (terakoya), derived from earlier Buddhist schools. These schools were no longer religious institutions, nor were they, by 1867, predominantly located in temples. By the end of the Tokugawa period, there were more than 11,000 such schools, attended by 750,000 students. Teaching techniques included reading from various textbooks, memorizing, abacus, and repeatedly copying Chinese characters and Japanese script.

Public education was provided for the samurai; ordinary people taught the rudiments to their own children or joined to hire a young teacher. By the 1860s, 40–50% of Japanese boys, and 15% of the girls, had some schooling outside the home. These rates were comparable to major European nations at the time (apart from Germany, which had compulsory schooling).

In 1858 Fukuzawa Yukichi founded a private school of Western studies which then became Keio University, known as a leading institute in Japanese higher education.

The educational infrastructure created by the state in the 7th–8th centuries underwent significant changes in its forms (state schools for officials, home education, schools at Buddhist temples, private schools, etc.). However, one thing remained unchanged: the prestige of the written word and its everyday functioning as a carrier of information necessary for the existence of society and culture. Even the first Christian missionaries who visited Japan in the 16th–17th centuries noted the extraordinary thirst for learning among the Japanese. Indeed, a huge number of written documents have survived from that time, including numerous agricultural treatises and diaries written by simple peasants. "Even though Latin is so unfamiliar to them... they are by nature so capable, skilled, teachable and diligent that it is surprising that even children sit in their seats for three or four hours in class without moving, just as if they were adults..." (missionary Alessandro Valignano, late 16th century). The fact that Japan had a fairly literate population during the Tokugawa era is confirmed by the fact that the country experienced a "book explosion" at that time. The poetry of Matsuo Basho, the dramas of Chikamatsu Monzaemon, and the prose of Ihara Saikaku marked the beginning of a new type of literature and occupied a special place in the cultural heritage of Japan. At the same time, a kind of guidebooks to the country appeared. Asai Ryoi's guide "Tokaido meiseoki" ("Notes on the Sights of the Tokaido Highway") was especially popular; it was even used as a teaching aid. The book boom had a great impact on the spread of education in the country, which in turn contributed to the increase in demand for all types of book products. Many specialized bookstores appeared, where a book could be borrowed for a quarter or a third of its price, as well as libraries "kashihonya", where a book could be borrowed for a while on a cash deposit. By the beginning of the 18th century, there were 656 such libraries in the city of Edo, where those who wanted to could get acquainted with new books if they did not have the opportunity to buy them. Since the Edo period saw rapid growth of the urban population, with Edo estimated to have a population of over one million by the early 18th century, making it the largest city in the world, and the literacy rate was so high that many commoners could read books, books were published in a wide variety of genres, including entertainment, such as cookery, gardening, travel guides, art books, bunraku (puppet theater) scripts, kibyoshi (satirical novels), sarebon (urban culture books), kokkeibon (humor books), ninjobon (romance novels), yomihon, and Kusazōshi. There were 600 to 800 rental bookstores in Edo, and people would rent or buy woodblock print books. The best-selling books during this period were Ihara Saikaku's Koshoku Ichidai Otoko (Life of a Man in Love), Kyokutei Bakini's Satomi and the Eight Dogs, and Jippensha Ikku's Walking the Tokaido Highway, and these books were reprinted many times.Edo Picture Books and the Edo Period. National Diet Library.第6回 和本の楽しみ方4 江戸の草紙 p.3.. Konosuke Hashiguchi. (2013) Seikei University.Nihonbashi. Mitsui Fudosan.Keizaburo Seimaru. (2017) 江戸のベストセラー. Yosensha. Education in the Tokugawa period was quite adequate to the needs of Japanese society at that time. The experience accumulated in this area at that time was used in the subsequent period. The decisive turn in the field of education in the Meiji period would not have been possible without the development of the school system in the bakumatsu period. The country had a large number of teachers with work experience, education was really accessible not only to the upper classes, but also to commoners. As a result, in 1870 the literacy rate in Japan was higher than in Europe, which served as a good basis for the successful industrialization of the country. In the first half of the 19th century, the literacy rate of the Japanese was one of the highest in the world at that time (40% among men and 15% among women), and a significant percentage of them were peasants. According to one estimate, by 1800 almost 100% of samurai and about 50-60% of chōnin (artisans and merchants) and nomin (peasants) were literate. Information processes were carried out in Japan with a high degree of intensity even before the arrival of Europeans. The high social status of knowledge was one of the key factors in the extremely rapid introduction of the Japanese to the achievements of the West. Many technical innovations in agriculture, which began to be systematically applied by peasants, led to the emergence of intensive farming. The level of agronomic knowledge is evidenced by the appearance of books on farming (nōsho) in the 17th century, which summarized previous experience and took into account local natural conditions. This indirectly indicated that the peasants were literate, otherwise it was impossible to become familiar with agronomic knowledge, to pass on accumulated experience from generation to generation. There were no books of this kind in Europe at that time. The widespread development of the school education system created a significant literate population in Japan, which subsequently had great significance for the successful implementation of the process of modernization of the country after the Meiji Restoration.

Meiji period

After 1868 new leadership set Japan on a rapid course of modernization. The Meiji leaders established a public education system to help Japan catch up with the West and form a modern nation. Missions like the Iwakura mission were sent abroad to study the education systems of leading Western countries. They returned with the ideas of decentralization, local school boards, and teacher autonomy. Such ideas and ambitious initial plans, however, proved very difficult to carry out. After some trial and error, a new national education system emerged. As an indication of its success, elementary school enrollments climbed from about 30% percent of the school-age population in the 1870s to more than 90 percent by 1900, despite strong public protest, especially against school fees.

A modern concept of childhood emerged in Japan after 1850 as part of its engagement with the West. Meiji era leaders decided the nation-state had the primary role in mobilizing individuals—and children—in service of the state. The Western-style school was introduced as the agent to reach that goal. By the 1890s, schools were generating new sensibilities regarding childhood.Brian Platt, "Japanese Childhood, Modern Childhood: The Nation-State, the School, and 19th-Century Globalization", Journal of Social History, Summer 2005, Vol. 38 Issuchese 4, pp 965–985 After 1890 Japan had numerous reformers, child experts, magazine editors, and well-educated mothers who bought into the new sensibility. They taught the upper middle class a model of childhood that included children having their own space where they read children's books, played with educational toys and, especially, devoted enormous time to school homework. These ideas rapidly disseminated through all social classes Kathleen S. Uno, Passages to Modernity: Motherhood, Childhood, and Social Reform in Early Twentieth Century Japan (1999)Mark Jones, Children as Treasures: Childhood and the Middle Class in Early Twentieth Century Japan (2010)