<p>Demographic trends mean thousands fewer applicants for university in Japan, easing the legendary extreme pressure on high school students. If you get to the end of the story, families are now focusing on - guess what? - in their college searches: instead of <em>prestige</em>, it's now "fit."</p>
<p>Score one for the cc mantra.</p>
<p>My son noticed that when he was a high school exchange student in Japan for a month about four years ago. He was expecting to see all the students madly studying and doing cram school every weekend, but he didn't find it that bad. Of course, it could depend where in Japan, too. He was on the island of Hokkaido, rather than the main island.</p>