What each elementary grade learns: the subjects, the hours, and when English and programming start

Every public elementary school in Japan teaches from one national document, the 学習指導要領 (gakushū shidō yōryō, course of study), and plans its year around a table of standard hours in a ministry ordinance, 学校教育法施行規則 別表第一. The table tells you which subjects your child has this year and how much time each gets. One lesson is 45 minutes: この表の授業時数の一単位時間は，四十五分とする。

The subjects and hours, grade by grade

Lessons per year, as the ordinance prints them. A blank means the subject is not taught in that grade.

Subject	小1	小2	小3	小4	小5	小6
Japanese (国語)	306	315	245	245	175	175
Social studies (社会)			70	90	100	105
Maths (算数)	136	175	175	175	175	175
Science (理科)			90	105	105	105
Life environment studies (生活)	102	105
Music (音楽)	68	70	60	60	50	50
Art and craft (図画工作)	68	70	60	60	50	50
Home economics (家庭)					60	55
PE (体育)	102	105	105	105	90	90
Foreign language (外国語)					70	70
Moral education (特別の教科 道徳)	34	35	35	35	35	35
Foreign-language activities (外国語活動)			35	35
Integrated study (総合的な学習の時間)			70	70	70	70
Class activities (特別活動)	34	35	35	35	35	35
Total	850	910	980	1,015	1,015	1,015

The course of study spreads lessons over at least 35 weeks, 34 in grade 1 (年間 35 週（第１学年については 34 週）以上). That works out at about 25 lessons a week in 小1, 26 in 小2, 28 in 小3 and 29 from 小4. These are standards (標準, hyōjun): a school may teach more.

What starts or changes in each grade

Grade	What is new this year
小1	生活 (seikatsu) instead of science and social studies; hiragana, katakana and the grade-1 kanji; Japanese is a larger share of the week than in any other grade
小2	The same subjects; Japanese peaks at 315 lessons
小3	The biggest change: 生活 ends, social studies and science start, 外国語活動 and integrated study begin, romaji is taught, and health (保健) appears inside PE
小4	Social studies moves from your town to your prefecture; the week reaches its full length
小5	English becomes a subject with reading and writing; home economics starts; social studies turns to Japan as a whole
小6	Social studies covers government and Japanese history; science includes using electricity, one of the programming examples

Social studies widens year by year: grade 3 studies 身近な地域や市区町村, grade 4 自分たちの都道府県, grade 5 我が国の国土の様子と国民生活, and grade 6 我が国の政治の働き and 我が国の歴史上の主な事象.

English: activities in 小3–4, a subject in 小5–6

In grades 3 and 4, 外国語活動 (gaikokugo katsudō, foreign-language activities) works on three areas only, listening and two kinds of speaking: 聞くこと，話すこと［やり取り］，話すこと［発表］の三つの領域

In grades 5 and 6, 外国語 (gaikokugo) becomes a subject with five areas, adding reading and writing, and a vocabulary of about 600 to 700 words including those met in grades 3 and 4 (600 〜 700 語程度の語). In both stages the language is English as a rule; for the subject the text reads

外国語科においては，英語を履修させることを原則とすること。

A child who already speaks English will hear words they know. The class is still where listening turns into reading and writing the alphabet, so tell the teacher what your child can already do.

Programming has no subject of its own

There is no "computing" column in the table. The course of study asks every school to plan typing and basic computer use, and activities in which children プログラミングを体験しながら，コンピュータに意図した処理を行わせるために必要な論理的思考力を身に付ける. It gives two examples: drawing regular polygons in grade-5 maths (正多角形の作図), and in grade-6 science, tools that use the properties of electricity. Expect programming inside other lessons, mostly in 小5 and 小6.

Japanese: kanji, writing and speaking

The rule for kanji is the same each year from grade 3: read all kanji up to this grade, write the previous grade's kanji, and start writing this grade's (当該学年に配当されている漢字を漸次書き). Writing trails reading by about a year by design. The course of study also sets time for writing: about 100 lessons a year in 小1–2, 85 in 小3–4 and 55 in 小5–6. Health inside PE is short: about 8 lessons over 小3–4 and 16 over 小5–6.

What goes wrong

• Arriving in 小3 or 小5. These are the years new subjects start. A child who joins mid-year from abroad meets social studies or English writing with no grade-2 or grade-4 groundwork in Japanese. Ask about Japanese-language support: Japanese support at school.
• Reading the hours as the timetable. The table is a yearly standard, not a fixed weekly grid. Ask the school for its own weekly timetable (時間割).
• Worrying about kanji writing. A 小4 child who reads grade-4 kanji but writes only grade-3 kanji is where the rule puts them.
• Expecting a mark for everything. How 外国語活動, integrated study and the 3-level and 5-level scales are recorded is in the report card.

What to do now

1. Find your child's column in the first table and the row for their grade in the second. Note the one subject that starts this year.
2. At the start of the year, keep the weekly timetable the class sends home and compare it with the table: the subjects should match.
3. Moving into 小3 or 小5? Ask the class teacher at the one-to-one conference how the new subject is assessed and what to do at home. The phrases are in home visits and parents' meetings.
4. For kanji, ask for the grade's list (学年別漢字配当表) and practise reading this year's and writing last year's. Which Kanji Kentei level matches which school year is in Kanken by school grade.