Center Shiken: what is it, and why are people crazy about it?
Tanuki
I know that Center shiken is an exam for university entrance and it is held in January. I also know that it is very likely to have heavy snow on that day :-p. Snow or no snow, this is mentioned in the news every year.
But then, there are many universities in Japan and they seem to have different entrance exams. Why is this one considered more important? Do students need to pass both this one and individual entrance exams?
Center shiken is the main entrance examination for the 80-odd "public universities" in Japan. These include national universities like Tokyo University and Kyoto University, and also prefectural universities.
All these universities have much lower fees compared to private universities. Some of them are much more famous than private universities, as seen by the above names. So, there is high competition to enter them.
I attended a public university for my graduate studies. I could enter easily because it was for a graduate program and I had work experience and international exposure that could help me to get in. When I was a student, I tried to not mention my university unless really needed, because Japanese people will be like "wow, it is so hard to get in that one; you must be super intelligent", and I will be like "no no, I attend only the graduate program and ... :p".