Textbook Approval System and Geography Textbooks in Japan - Geography Education in Japan - page 48

5.3.1 Textbook Formats

At the elementary school level, geography is part of Social Studies. One set of Social
Studies textbooks (two volumes) are used in the third and fourth grades. In the fi fth
and sixth grades, one set of textbooks (two volumes) are provided for each year.
Social Studies (geography area) in junior high schools and Geography A and
Geography B in senior high schools require one textbook each. Book size in elemen-
tary schools is A4-size wide (210 mm) and B5-size long (257 mm). Since B5 size is
common in Japanese schools, there are many textbooks and handouts of this size.
Geography textbooks for secondary schools are also B5 size (182 × 257 mm).
The Volume One Social Studies textbook for the third and fourth grades is 108
pages in length and Volume Two is 162 pages. The fi fth grade Volume One is 100
pages, and Volume Two has 116 pages. The sixth grade textbooks are 152 pages for
Volume One and only 80 pages for Volume Two. The textbook in junior high school
is 280 pages, and those of Geography A and B are 214 and 342 pages, respectively
(Table 5.1 ). These textbooks are neither too large nor too heavy for students to carry
back and forth between school and home.
Figure 5.2 shows the covers of these textbooks. All books are printed in color
and include numerous maps, fi gures, and pictures. In addition to Social Studies

Table 5.1 Textbo ok formats at each school level
School
level

Junior
high school Elemen tary school Senior high school

Grade
(Age)

3 (9) 4 (10) 5 (11) 6 (12) 1-3 (13-15) 1-3 (16-18)

Subject Social Studies Social

Studies
(geography)

Geography
A

Geography
B

Vol. 1 Vol. 2 Vol. 1 Vol. 2 Vol. 1 Vol. 2

Size 210 × 257 mm 182 × 257 mm

Page 108 162 100 116 152 80 280 214 342

Fig. 5.2 Textbooks for geography in primary and secondary education (from left: Kita et al.
2012c ; Nakamura et al. 2012 ; Arai et al. 2013 and Katahira et al. 2013 )