A Study of Career Guidance in Junior High Schools and Cram Schools in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area: Focusing on the Relationship between Localism and High School Choices

Abstract

This study addresses the issue that there is little research on junior high school students’ high school choices and career guidance in both junior high schools and cram schools. By analyzing the career guidance practices at junior high schools and cram schools, this research clarifies the relationship between career guidance in these institutions and junior high school students’ sense of localism in the Tokyo metropolitan area. In this analysis, the concept of localism was used as an analytical framework to capture individuals’ regional perceptions.

The analysis revealed the following findings. In junior high schools, career guidance that does not make active use of “hensachi” maintains or strengthens students’ localism. In contrast, in cram schools, career guidance that encourages students to aim for high schools with higher “hensachi” modifies their localism. Additionally, cases from cram schools suggest that when localism is modified, students’ range of high school choices expands. Based on these findings, we discussed the mechanisms of high school choice in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

The key insight is that different career guidance approaches—those that either maintain or modify localism—activate distinct logics for high school choice. In junior high schools, career guidance that does not actively use “hensachi” maintains or strengthens localism, leading students to choose local or in-prefecture high schools. In contrast, cram schools encourage students to aim for high schools with higher “hensachi,” modifying localism and expanding their view to include out-of-prefecture schools. By considering both junior high schools and cram schools, this study highlights potential mechanisms of high school choice in the Tokyo metropolitan area that have been overlooked in previous discussions.