Japanese Kindergarten

November 16, 1976

A commemorative postage stamp on the Centenary of Kindergarten in Japan :

Issued by Japan

Issued on Nov 16, 1976

Issued for : A special postage stamp was issued to commemorate the Centenary of Japanese Kindergarten. The first kindergarten in Japan was founded in 1876 as the institution attached to the Tokyo Girls’ Normal School (the predecessor of the present Ochanomizu University). Now in Japan, there are about 13,000 kindergartens and the attending children amount to about 2,300,000.

Design : Playing children of a kindergarten in the early Meiji era.

Designer : Mr. Minoru Hisano

Colour : Multicolour

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Denomination : 50 Yen

Stamp Size : 35.5 mm x 25.0 mm

Quantity Issued : 25,000,000 stamps

About :

The first kindergarten in the world was opened in 1840 in Germany by Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852). In Japan the first kindergarten was established on November 1876 attached to the Tokyo Women’s Normal School (now Ochano-mizu Women’s College). The educational system had then been in force only several years and the elementary school had only a few pupils. Under these circumstances it is worthy of note that the stress was put on the importance of the preschool education and that the educational facilities were installed for the preschool children. In the early days of the preschool education the kindergarten was monopolized by the children of the well-off families in the urban area. It is presumed that the preschool education may have been extended by degrees from the urban area to the rural district and the fishery villages. Especially in 1952 the kindergarten got rapidly popular among people and at present its number amounts to about 13,000 with about 2,300,000 kindergarteners which occupy approximately 64% of young children.