Provides an overview of inservice teacher training programs in Japan, which have few links to formal distance education programs. Teachers' growing use of computer communications networks is reviewed as a self-teaching method, and future directions are suggested. (Contains nine references.) (EAM)

This assessment of the status of computer assisted school automation (CASA) in Japan begins by describing the structure of the Japanese educational system and the roles of CASA in that system. Statistics on various aspects of computers in Japanese schools and the findings of several surveys are cited to report on the present state of educational…