The educational systems and requirements of Japan and Kentucky are compared in seven different areas. The first area compares total instruction days and illustrates the differences with a chart. Kentucky requires 175 days of instruction while Japan requires 240 days. Because of this Japanese students spend 150 to 300 more hours per year in school…

This paper uses the case study method to describe the characteristics of Japanese school-based inservice teacher training programs, which are designed to help teachers improve their competence and the quality of their teaching activities. Data come from observations of and interviews with teachers in classrooms within 10 public elementary schools.…