(1) Percentage of Compulsory School Graduates Entering Upper Secondary School
b. Comparison by Prefecture
The percentage of the compulsory school graduates entering upper
secondary schools in Japan has as a national trend been rising continuously year
after year, but the percentage varies considerably from prefecture to prefecture.
These differences result from various conditions, in particular, the structure
of industry, the level of inhabitants' income and interest education. Comparison
of the percentages of lower secondary school graduates entering upper secondary
schools among the prefectures, shows that the percentages are highest in the
prefectures, such as, Tokyo, Osaka and Nara, in which secondary and tertiary
industries are developed, and lowest in such prefectures as, Miyazaki, Aomori
and Nagasaki, in which primary industries predominate and industrialization is
less advanced- Also, the percentages are usually high in the prefectures of high
average income per capita and low in prefectures of low average income per capita.
Table 4. Prefecture of Compulsory School Graduates Entering
Upper Secondary School, Per Capita Prefectural Income, and of Total Employed
Population Engaged in Secondary and Tertiary Industries
Table 5. Percentage of Compulsory School Graduates Entering
Upper Secondary School, by Prefecture
In another comparison of the percentage of compulsory school
graduates entering higher schools in 1963 with that in 1958, the percentage in
each prefecture has risen, without exception, for the period of five years. Further,
in comparison of the differences among prefectures on these percentages in 1958
and 1963 respectively, variation coefficients of standard deviation changed from
15.8 per cent in 1958 to 12.5 per cent in 1963, indicating a sight narrowing
of the difference between the prefectures during this period.