I have been studying academic juku (for-profit supplementary schooling) for many years and have visited over 50 individually operated juku throughout Japan.
I have been thrilled by the dedication of charismatic educators, and dismayed by the relentless focus on standardized test results and by the lack of a diversity of offerings beyond the narrow confines of the curriculum in an era of hypereducation.
In January, thousands of students in Japan sat for the central university entrance examination (center shiken or center test). For ambitious students, the exam is merely a requirement to check off on their way to the entrance examinations for specific fields of study that follow later.