<p>let me speak as a non US citizen (Syrian one).
first ,you can’t compare between Japan and US because if the US wants to build good high school in every single city >>the US is about 20 times bigger than Japan so that would cost millions.
eventually ,the higher education is more important than the secondary or high school.
the high school mission is not being like MIT ,its mission is to supply the students with a good background in Mathematics,physics,chemistry …etc and not making them geniuses in these subjects.
you can develop your self as much as you want/can when you go to college.
for example take the Medical schools in the US,they are incomparable>>>they are the best.
some people say that having a top institutions like MIT,GT,CalTech doesn’t mean the system is good>>>listen to this short story:
my uncle finished his 9th grade in Syria and went to the US ,he got a PhD form the university of Florida and then he got a training course for 2 years in Harvard ,now he is a professor at Case Western Reserve (his major is genetics science) ,so what I want to say is if you fail it is not the system fault >>IT IS YOURS.</p>
<p>THE CONCLUSION:
I guess countries like Germany,Japan,Finland … need years till they have higher education institutions like the ones in the US.
I won’t talk about companies like Lockheed Martin or Boeing so that these countries don’t be embarrassed. :D</p>