The high abilities of Japanese people are well known from various international surveys. The OECD has published the results of the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). This survey covers 16-65 year olds from 31 countries and regions. PISA is a survey of abilities for 15 year olds. In a sense, it is a clue to know how the children measured by PISA have contributed to society. In PIAAC, Japan secured second place or higher in all three areas, including “reading comprehension”. In the first survey, “problem-solving ability according to changing circumstances” was ranked first along with Finland. This seems to be because high reading comprehension and numerical thinking skills are also linked to high problem-solving abilities.
On the other hand, there is something strange. Finland and other Nordic countries have good results in PIAAC, and at the same time, they also have very high labor productivity. Japan’s productivity is about half that of the Nordic countries, ranking 21st out of 37 countries. It is strange that Japan ranks the lowest in productivity among developed countries. Part of the reason for this seems to be that Japan is an early bloomer and Northern Europe is a late bloomer. The “numerical thinking ability” of Japanese people tends to decline steadily once they reach the age of 25 or older. On the other hand, in Northern Europe, numerical thinking ability continues to improve up to the 30s and 40s. In Finland, which ranked first, and Sweden, which ranked third, the 35-44 age group is the best performing. Northern Europe has a well-developed support system, such as risk-taking. Mathematics education in Japanese elementary and junior high schools places emphasis on efficiency. After that, it seems to be left to the individual.
The fact that Japan is an early bloomer and Northern Europe is a late bloomer can be considered from the example of ants. Ants are more efficient at carrying food if all of them make a diligent trip back and forth between the feeding area and the nest. From this perspective, the ants wandering around are a waste of time when it comes to transporting food from a certain feeding area. In reality, when ants are traveling back and forth between their feeding grounds and their nest, about 30% of them slack off in carrying food. Are these slacking ants wasting time? Well, they’re not wasting time at all. While wandering around outside, they may accidentally discover a new feeding ground. This is an advantageous situation from the perspective of the survival of the species. From the perspective of the survival of the entire nest, this wandering around is not a waste at all. I hope that this “waste” will be incorporated into Japanese education as well. I hope that the Japanese government will also incorporate waste into mathematics education and support the maintenance and improvement of the mathematical level of its citizens.
