European music is more relevant to contemporary Japanese life than Japanese classical music is. The sociocultural and economic reasons for the Japanese fondness for European culture and their active participation in European musical life are discussed. (AM)

Japanese children get 10 years of mandatory music studies, resulting in a population which can read music and appreciate it. History, theory, conducting, instrumental and choral performance, and reading and writing of music are taught. Japanese educators often criticize the approach as emphasizing the intellectual rather than the creative. (CS)