Tokyo scraps gender quota for public high school admissions from 2024

Presumably both genders were on the form, so how difficult can it be? What you 'identify as' is irrelevant.

To be accurate, there are two biological sexes (as well as those born inter-sex due to genetic mutations). However, "gender" is the cultural interpretation of that biological state.

And while 99%+ clearly have the gender aligned to their sex, for a small number of people they have a different interpretation and feel that they don't identify with society's standard interpretation of gender.

As a result, it can be argued that gender is only about what you identify as because it is a social construct, unlike sex, which is biological.

You are a student, you are male or female.

Or "other"

You are not old enough to live on your own, you are a child

Somehow I get the feeling that you are speaking from experience here.

You are not old enough to live on your own, you are a child!

"Many students who were either transgender or nonbinary cited psychological distress when forced to specify a gender they did not identify with.

STUDENTS not adults

You are a student, you are male or female.

It would be really helpful for many families if a kid graduating from a public junior high could gain automatic admission to the nearest public high school to their home.

This would require complete revision of the basic tenets of Japanese education. Elementary school and junior high school comprise the compulsory education system. High school is not part of that. Entrance to high school is not automatic, and it is merit-based.

For kids who get into a good high school, this usually works out well. They are on track for university. They are challenged at a high level.

For middling kids, it’s a little harder—they go to “academic” high schools, but standards are often low. College options are fewer. Still, these kids can swim in a pool of like students, so they gain opportunities to shine and perform as leaders. Many go into jobs or two-year trade colleges upon graduation.

For the weakest students, it’s a good system. They don’t waste time on academic test prep for universities that they won’t attend anyway. They go to trade high schools and learn practical skills, which allow them to step into decent-paying jobs.

The current system has flaws and fails for many kids, but it works well for many, too. Send everyone automatically to a local high school, and those weakest kids will get lost and broken. Many of the strongest won’t be as well challenged.

So perhaps the article author purposely used "binary" to talk about the people which actually wanted to select both thus could feel distressed to not be allowed to.

Hard to say, the original Japanese Kyodo article does not contain that paragraph.

Curious…so was the Tokyo BOE decision made entirely separate from questions about transgenderism? If so, why are English editors adding this last paragraph into the translated article? Without any source to back up the assertion, this smacks of gross misreporting.

This will have long-term repercussions for Japan. Girls score higher on exams. They will begin to dominate too high schools, which means that they will also start to dominate universities. Within a decade or two, many top schools will have close to a 70-30 split. No school that doesn’t intentionally boost male admission will be nearer to parity than 60-40.

Why is this a problem? One reason is hypergamy—women are generally averse to marrying beneath themselves educationally and financially. The already late marriage and low birth rates will only get worse.

Another problem is economic productivity. Boys tend to score lower on exams, but they rise in productivity as they progress through adulthood, especially with marriage and children.

Biological reality is that girls mature slightly earlier than boys. Testing at 14 or 15 years old gives girls a massive advantage. From a societal perspective, it’s suicide to consign boys to second-class livelihoods because of a test or two administered in early puberty. Society needs to raise those boys up, not lock them out.

@Roy

the article's original error.

Is it ? I mean binary is used to talk about gender as in mean both in a system which has 2. Then we talk about non-binary people meaning they do not identify into either of the 2 part of the system. But someone which identify as the 2 part of the system should be called binary, is not it ? So it should be in gender system :

identify into male - 1 side of binary system

identify into female - 1 side of binary system

identify into neither male nor female - non binary

identify into both male and female - binary

So perhaps the article author purposely used "binary" to talk about the people which actually wanted to select both thus could feel distressed to not be allowed to.

Any system other than a merit based one is doomed to failure. The ‘equity’ brand applied to school enrollments ( in a time of chronically low numbers of kids nationwide!) is obviously flawed, and showcases a complete lack of judgement and understanding of reality by its perpetrators.

By their deeds ye shall know them!

Many students who were either transgender or binary cited psychological distress when forced to specify a gender they did not identify with.

Efforts backfiring , yet again , making things worse for those that they claim to be protecting. For those that draw their self esteem from being actively involved in the politics of victimhood, or the protection of those that they deem to be one, I’d recommend taking a real hard look at yourself in the mirror with regards to your true motives. Where do these instincts spring from? Are you sure that you know? The answers can be very confronting. The activist class in many cases unfortunately doesn’t seem to be capable of doing it. So full of emotional content that the head just stops working.

Reality, thankfully has a way of stepping back in to show us the way forward, as with the case in point of this article. Tread carefully good people because life is complicated and people are infinitely even more so! Making things better is harder than it looks, just try first not to do the opposite! Most of the time simply being kind to everyone you meet is plenty good!

Fully based on grade ranking? That won't work well, especially if really applied strictly. Nowadays it would then just lead to nearly empty high schools and the rest of capable students at a 80-20 ratio in favor for the girls / others. Tests usually always prefer people who don't need to think, analyze or understand much of the topics but simply have memorized all answers to potentially asked questions. Now guess which gender is good at that and miles ahead. But maybe that's the midterm intention when considering low births and needed workforce everywhere. Too bad for all the average boys, they are now early forced into industry, construction, behind truck and bus wheels or into JSD forces.

Gender quotas are fine when there is distinct bias between them. Now that the birth rate is so low I guess its not a sensible thing anymore. An interesting addition to this story is some schools are a bit off put by this because males are not testing nearly as well as females on average for the high school and university entrance exams, so the gender quotas helped balance them out… even if they were not as performant.

RoyToday  08:33 am JST

"Many students who were either transgender or binary" does not mean "many students were either transgender or binary".

Reading comprehension, so very important.

I think you are misreading ’binary’ for ‘non binary’, buddy?

Many here means ‘many’. As you state: reading comprehension is so very important indeed.

TT

Should be interesting.

I've been to (worked in) "academic" high schools in Japan.

Where the student body was usually 50/50 or 60(M)/40(F) in that general area.

And a majority of the boys (NOT ALL) were just complete morons.

Clearly some of them were legacy add ins or their parents paid their way in.

But academically, it's a wonder how any of them got in there.

Let's see how this plays out, Cotton.

It would be really helpful for many families if a kid graduating from a public junior high could gain automatic admission to the nearest public high school to their home.

Feels like the article is making it into something it's not about, isn't this in connection with that scandal about universities accepting male students when there was more female students with higher scores? and not about trans rights etc.

Will this force more boys into private High Schools?

By scrapping the system it just back to old system which is male dominance system.

actually from the grading fiasco of a couple years ago, women were on average grading higher than the men in these exams, their excuse for giving more men positions over women was that women on average quit their field of expertise when they have children.

yes the statistic clearly show women outperforming the men in these exams, but the men were giving lower pass scores compared to the women.

So basically they were placing positions on a cultural mindset based on gender, not the actual mental capacity of that gender

It's not necessarily the girls doing better in school, but the fact that they go through puberty much faster and mature faster at the same age. This is why many parents are starting to accept the idea of redshirting their sons to help them learn at the same rate they are developing:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/10/boys-delayed-entry-school-start-redshirting/671238/

https://bigthink.com/thinking/boys-graded-more-harshly-in-school/

Also an interesting video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBG1Wgg32Ok&t=18s

The idea that one sex is superior over the other is ridiculous and needs to stop. Both women and men contribute equally in society and both have their differences and complexities, it's what makes us imperfect without the other.

Many students who were either transgender or binary cited psychological distress when forced to specify a gender they did not identify with

But this a less than 1% of students I believe. The decision had nothing to do with that

Grade based ranking should always have been the way. Gender quota is just a sign of male superiority and segregation.

But specifying the gender on the papers must be kept for statistical purposes ( I guess data are in some computers anyway)

Many students who were either transgender or binary cited psychological distress when forced to specify a gender they did not identify with.

In this country, the adults don't even like being different from the other sheep. The bullying that goes on in schools would make it worse for any of these transgender types to come out. Journalism shouldn't be based on sweeping statements like this.

By scrapping the system it just back to old system which is male dominance system.

It's the girls doing better than the boys. The genda quota system worked in favour of boys.

Didn't know about this!? Welcome to the 21st century Tokyo! hard to believe that this existed but then again it shows how some backward analog mindsets still live among us.

Many students who were either transgender or binary cited psychological distress when forced to specify a gender they did not identify with.

Many? I doubt that very much.

Those few poor naïve deluded narcissists that have been duped into adopting the American ‘expressive individualism’ model, perhaps. But not ‘many’.

TT

All the this policy is going to do is to make things even more difficult for young men. As obladi says, girls tend do better than boys. So you are going to end up discouraging boys from going to school and make them feel even more inferior and awkward than they already are

Having a gender imbalance one way or the other is never a good thing. The march torward complete ostracism of men continues.

This is actually a huge win for women. Although the article above doesn't mention the fact (why?), girls do much better than boys on High School entrance tests, on average. From Mainichi Shimbun:

80% of schools had higher passing requirements for girls, internal education board documents show. In one case, an entrance exam with the perfect score set at 1,000 had a passing-grade discrepancy 243 points higher for girls, and in another 20 girls failed despite scoring higher than the lowest-scoring successful male applicant.

Good. Admissions based on grades and tests only are as it should be. Everyone wins.

Many students who were either transgender or binary.

Many? How many? Go on ...Give us the number. Tell the truth.

@sakura definitely don't need others

It should be simple Male, Female and others, just put quota on each.

By scrapping the system it just back to old system which is male dominance system.

Many students who were either transgender or binary cited psychological distress when forced to specify a gender they did not identify with.

How many is "many" here? Also how was the data collected regarding these individual students?

Knowing a bit about the "system" here, I find it hard to believe there is any accurate data available and that this information is based upon assumptions and conjecture.

Not specifying a sex is well and good, just dont make excuses as to why.