The ten things Japanese kindergartens and daycares aim for by age six

Japanese kindergartens (幼稚園, yōchien) and licensed daycare (保育所, hoikusho) work from national guidelines that share one list: 幼児期の終わりまでに育ってほしい姿 (yōjiki no owari made ni sodatte hoshii sugata, "how we hope children will be by the end of early childhood"). Teachers shorten it to 「10の姿」, the ten pictures. It is what the year's play and routines are aiming at, and it is the language the kindergarten uses in the record it sends to the elementary school.

The ten, in the guideline's terms

#	Japanese	In English	What the guideline describes
1	健康な心と体	Healthy mind and body	Throws mind and body into what they want to do, acts with a sense of what comes next, starts to keep themselves healthy and safe
2	自立心	Independence	Knows what has to be done, thinks it through, keeps going to the end, gains confidence
3	協同性	Cooperation	Shares ideas with friends and works with them toward a common aim
4	道徳性・規範意識の芽生え	Early sense of right and wrong, and of rules	Knows what is and is not OK, feels for friends, sees why rules matter, makes and keeps rules with others
5	社会生活との関わり	Connection with community life	Values family, meets local people, uses information, uses public places with care
6	思考力の芽生え	Early thinking	Notices how things work, predicts and tries, meets other ideas and rethinks
7	自然との関わり・生命尊重	Nature and respect for life	Is moved by nature, curious about it, cares for plants and animals as living things
8	数量や図形，標識や文字などへの関心・感覚	Interest in numbers, shapes, signs and letters	Meets them in play, notices what signs and letters are for, uses them when they need to
9	言葉による伝え合い	Communicating in words	Enjoys picture books and stories, tells what they did and thought, listens carefully
10	豊かな感性と表現	Rich feeling and expression	Notices materials and ways to express, expresses what they feel, enjoys making things with friends

The daycare guideline, 保育所保育指針 (hoikusho hoiku shishin), lists the same ten and calls them 子どもの小学校就学時の具体的な姿 (what a child looks like on starting school).

Where the ten come from

The guideline groups everything a kindergarten does into five areas (領域, ryōiki): health (健康), relationships (人間関係), surroundings (環境), words (言葉) and expression (表現). The ten are what those areas look like together at the end. A kindergarten year is at least 39 weeks, and the standard day is four hours:

幼稚園の１日の教育課程に係る教育時間は，４時間を標準とする。

Not a checklist

The ministry's commentary is direct. The ten are not targets to reach, are not taught one at a time, and will not look the same in every child:

「幼児期の終わりまでに育ってほしい姿」が到達すべき目標ではないことや，個別に取り出されて指導されるものではないことに十分留意する必要がある。

全ての幼児に同じように見られるものではないことに留意する必要がある。

The guideline also says a child's progress is not judged by comparison with other children or against a fixed standard:

他の幼児との比較や一定の基準に対する達成度についての評定によって捉えるものではない

What it means for your child's year

Class	Age in April	Where the ten fit
年少 (nenshō)	3	The commentary says work toward the ten starts here, not at five. The guideline asks for close contact with home on entry at three, with attention to daily rhythm and safety
年中 (nenchū)	4	Still the direction, not the goal. The guideline describes a path from playing alone on entry, to playing with other children, to working together as a class
年長 (nenchō)	5	The commentary says the ten are seen especially in the second half of this year (特に５歳児後半に見られるようになる姿); the final-year record to the school is written with them

The handover in the 年長 year is in the 年長 year: getting ready for grade 1.

What goes wrong

• Reading item 8 as a reading target. It asks for interest and a feel for numbers and letters in play. The elementary course of study teaches hiragana and katakana from grade 1.
• Reading item 9 as a Japanese test. The guideline describes enjoying talk and stories; it sets no vocabulary or level. A child who speaks another language at home is not behind on this list for that reason. On keeping the home language, see heritage language.
• Comparing with classmates. The guideline rules that out for the teachers; it is not a useful test at home either.
• Treating one missing item as a problem. The list describes the whole class's direction. If you are worried about development, the ward has a route: development support around age 3.

What to do now

1. At the individual meeting (個人面談), ask the teacher for one moment in play that shows how your child is growing, rather than a score.
2. Read the kindergarten's newsletter (園だより) with the table above: when an event or project is explained in these terms, the table tells you what it is for.
3. At home, follow the same pattern: picture books, talk about the day, time outside, small jobs your child finishes alone.
4. In 年長, ask what the kindergarten will write in the record it sends to the school.