Juku are paid evening classes after regular school, attended by a significant share of Japanese students. It is not one-on-one tutoring and not a hobby club, but a separate industry with its own chains, textbooks, and schedules that often run late into the evening.

How does juku differ from regular school?

Regular school provides a general curriculum according to the national standard, while juku is a paid supplement to it, aimed at a specific goal: reinforcing material or preparing for entrance exams. Students attend in the evening, after regular lessons, not instead of them.

From what age do students attend juku?

There are no formal age restrictions: juku exist for elementary school students and for school graduates. But the noticeable rise in attendance comes in the middle grades — according to a 2021 survey by Japan's Ministry of Education, 84% of ninth-graders in public schools attend juku, ahead of the high school entrance exam.

Juku: the second school a Japanese student attends after class

Juku are paid evening classes after regular school, attended by a significant share of Japanese students, and by most of them by the upper grades. According to Japan's Ministry of Education data for 2021, 84% of ninth-graders in public schools attend juku. It is not one-on-one tutoring and not a hobby club, but a separate industry with its own chains, textbooks, and schedules that often run late into the evening.

The word "juku" is translated as "cram school," but in scale and structure it is more like a second school system running parallel to the first. Let's look at why a Japanese student needs a second school after regular one, where the character 塾 itself came from, and how juku differs from yobiko — a similar institution for those who have already finished school.

A second school with an evening schedule

Juku are paid evening classes that most Japanese students attend after regular school. It is not one-on-one tutoring and not a hobby club, but a separate industry: large juku have branch networks across the country, their own textbooks, and schedules that often run late into the evening.

Academic juku and entrance-exam juku serve different purposes

Modern signs distinguish 学習塾 (gakushū-juku), "academic juku" for reinforcing the school curriculum, and 進学塾 (shingaku-juku), "entrance-exam juku," aimed specifically at entrance exams. The difference is in the goal: one helps students keep up with the curriculum, the other prepares them purposefully for competitive selection.

塾 — значение: cram school, tutoring school, private school (historical) — онъёми: ジュク — 14 штрих(ов). 塾 — on'yomi ジュク, no kun'yomi: the character is old, but the phenomenon is present-day. It was used to write private schools as far back as the Edo period, and today it names chains of commercial courses like 学習塾 and 進学塾.

Exams decide a lot, and regular school doesn't prepare for them

Juku on today's scale are a relatively recent phenomenon: the number of such schools grew sharply starting in the late 1960s. Japan's Ministry of Education long viewed them with caution, until in 1999 an advisory council to the minister proposed a course of coexistence between school and juku. The reason for this scale is admissions: exams for high school and university in Japan decide much about a person's later life, and the regular school curriculum is not built specifically around them.

How many students attend

According to a 2021 survey by Japan's Ministry of Education, among public school students, 57.8% of seventh-graders, 69.2% of eighth-graders, and 84% of ninth-graders attend juku. The share grows year by year as the high school entrance exam approaches. Because of evening classes, many students' schedules include a separate evening bus to juku and a konbini dinner on the way.

From terakoya to yobiko — juku's neighbors in time

The modern juku has a historical predecessor — terakoya (寺子屋): there, monks, samurai, Shinto priests, and doctors taught commoners' children reading, writing, and calculation on the abacus. The first examples date back to the Muromachi period, but real growth began after 1789, and by 1830–1844, according to dictionaries, about 15,000 such schools were operating in the country. With the spread of compulsory education after the Meiji Restoration, terakoya disappeared.

Juku and yobiko are different stages

Alongside juku there is yobiko (予備校) — a school for those who have already finished regular school and are preparing for university admission, often retaking after an unsuccessful attempt the year before. Juku runs parallel to regular school and is aimed at students of any age, while yobiko is a separate stage after graduation, specifically for the competitive university exam.

FAQ

What is juku?: Juku are paid evening classes after regular school, attended by a significant share of Japanese students. It is not one-on-one tutoring and not a hobby club, but a separate industry with its own chains, textbooks, and schedules that often run late into the evening.
How does juku differ from regular school?: Regular school provides a general curriculum according to the national standard, while juku is a paid supplement to it, aimed at a specific goal: reinforcing material or preparing for entrance exams. Students attend in the evening, after regular lessons, not instead of them.
From what age do students attend juku?: There are no formal age restrictions: juku exist for elementary school students and for school graduates. But the noticeable rise in attendance comes in the middle grades — according to a 2021 survey by Japan's Ministry of Education, 84% of ninth-graders in public schools attend juku, ahead of the high school entrance exam.
What is yobiko?: Yobiko (予備校) is a school for those who have already finished regular school and are preparing for university admission, often retaking after an unsuccessful attempt the year before. Unlike juku, which runs parallel to school for students of any age, yobiko is a separate stage after graduation.

Sources

Updated: 2026-09-21