In late May at Torikai Elementary School in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, Haruki Hirao, a 7-year-old second grader, was attending a math lesson in a classroom.

¡°I like studying. I enjoy mathematics the most,¡± he said with a gentle smile.

In his notebook, pages of double-digit additions he¡¯d written were filled with red circles indicating that the answers were correct.