Letter: Letters: Literary fix

From J. W. BREEN

I was disappointed to see the myth of Japan supposedly having the world’s
highest literacy rate given another airing (Comment, 10 July), and amazed
to see it backdated 130 years, which would place it well before the introduction
of universal education in that country, to a time when education was confined
to the (male) nobility and a few merchants.

Like many other myths about Japan (low inflation, low unemployment,
lifetime jobs, excellent education system, etc.) the claims about the literacy
level derive from very selective use of statistics, and simply do not hold
up when subjected to careful scrutiny.

The last thorough investigation of literacy levels in Japan took place
over 40 years ago. It categorised the reading skills of the populace into
10 groups, the last of which, labelled ‘illiterate’, consisted of people
who could not identify more than a few simple characters in one of the syllabaries.
In an amazing sleight of hand, the Education Ministry (Monbusho) declared
everyone else to be ‘literate’, and has been claiming the highest literacy
rates in the world ever since. Journalists and academics have fallen for
this line without hesitation. (Perhaps Western countries could solve their
literacy problems in a similar fashion; simply redefine literacy to mean
recognising four or more letters of the alphabet, and, hey presto, the problem
is gone).

Many Japanese simply do not believe the claims. One has only to look
at the cooking instructions on food packets, which are invariably supplemented
by drawings and cartoon characters, to suspect that the level of illiteracy
might be rather high. I recently heard of some privately sponsored adult
literacy classes in Tokyo, which were developed because of what was seen
to be a real problem. Needless to say, the sponsors were subjected to obstruction
and harassment from the authorities. After all, when the country has claimed
the highest literacy levels in the world, it is rather unpatriotic to act
as though this were not the case.

J. W. Breen Monash University Clayton, Australia