Overview
- The announcement confirms the School Basic Survey and 15 other official surveys handled special support schools inappropriately, with documentary evidence of exclusions dating to at least 1971.
- MEXT recompiled the School Basic Survey to include special support students, correcting university advancement rates and 11 other indicators, in some cases reaching back 48 years.
- The ministry published corrected 2025 figures for the School Basic Survey and said earlier calculations had treated the 18-year population by excluding students from special support middle schools.
- Other surveys also omitted these students, including the School Health Statistics Survey after fiscal 1974, a public school aging survey, and most items in the problem behavior and truancy survey except bullying counts.
- The review involved re-aggregation and interviews with about 40 past and current staff; officials denied finding evidence of discriminatory intent and outlined countermeasures such as disability-awareness training, an expert panel, external advisers, and stronger statistical operations.