07 December 2016 (04:20 UTC-07 Tango 01) 17 Azar 1395/07 Rabi ‘al-Awwal 1438/09 Geng Zi 4714

Despite a reputation for high tech, and being the birth place of internationally popular Manga, Japanese high schoolers are increasingly dumbing down precisely because of their high tech infatuations!

A survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development shows that only 35% of teenagers in Japan like reading about science, and that’s the problem, fewer and fewer Japanese are actively reading.  High schoolers have dropped from an internationally OECD ranked 4th place to 8th place in reading.

NHK (Nippon Housou Kyoukai/Japan Broadcasting Corporation) interviewed several teachers who said the internet has made it so easy to find answers that, as one teacher said, students “don’t think” about the problems they’re answering.  Apparently students are allowed to access the internet when they take tests in Japanese schools.  NHK showed that most completed tests lacked required written responses, multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank answers were almost exclusively gleened from the internet.

However, Japan’s PISA ( Program for International Student Assessment) Reading Performance rating is still higher than that of the United States!