What Japan’s Education Has Lost and Gained After Almost Succeeding in Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 Infection and Guaranteeing Academic Achievement

In Japan, the first wave of the Covid19 pandemic began in the spring of 2020 and almost all schools were closed. Thereafter, vaccinations and infection prevention efforts progressed, and most schools did not close entirely after the second wave. Many schools shortened their summer vacations significantly and held classes, the MEXT distributed one information terminal to each elementary and junior high school student, and the MEXT opened the “Children’s Learning Support Website”. As a result, learning delays were almost recovered. On the other hand, the repeated waves of COVID-19, the prolonged wearing of masks, and the lack of normalization of relationships with friends had a significant negative impact on the mental health of junior and senior high school students. The silver lining of COVID-19 was the progress made in ICT in education, which had not been well spread.