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More students had access to education in Taishö era in Japan (1912-1926) than ever before. Primary school education through the sixth grade was mandatory for both sexes. Education officials demanded that eveiy city have a middle school, and the number of public and private universities increased dramatically.1 However, though the Taishö government required eveiy child to attend school at the primaiy level, it did not have the resources (or the desire) to educate all eligible children.2 Private schools, which had a long and distinguished history in the Edo (16031868) and Meiji (1868-1912) periods, retained their position of prominence.3 indeed, education authorities continued to depend on them. Women's education and early childhood education, however, were not a high government priority. It is in this realm that private schools came to play an increasingly important and innovative role. In this article, I will highlight the establishment of two private, non-traditional institutions, Seinan Jo Gakuin and Maizuru Kindergarten. These schools enriched the educational environment and provided opportunities for underrepresented segments of society.
Within the framework of private school life in post-Restoration Japan, there emerged a number of parochial schools that played an important role in the educational milieu of the nation. Some, such as Doshisha (associated with the Methodist Church) and Rikkyö (associated with the Anglican Church), were veiy influential and piloted curricula later adopted by government institutions. One of the parochial organizations that founded schools at all levels was the Southern Baptists. From 1911 to 1926, a period that almost corresponds to the Taishö era, Baptists opened several kindergartens, boys' and girls' schools, a college, a night school, and a seminary. Most of these institutions continue to educate students today and have thus had almost 90 years to have an impact on the communities in which they were established. Though conventional wisdom might suggest otherwise, Baptists have a long history of sponsoring excellent educational institutions around the world. The first to be established in the United States was Rhode Island College in 1764 (later renamed Brown University). Others Baptist-related institutions included Columbian College (later renamed George Washington University), Colgate, the University of Chicago, Temple, Bucknell, Vassar, Colby, Wake Forest and Baylor.4 In Japan, Southern Baptists formed Seinan Gakuin University in 1916 and later its attendant junior...