[As originally posted on Japanator]

Here's an article that highlights the gap between the US and Japanese DS market: about ten elementary and middle schools in Osaka are requiring their students to have a Nintendo DS. The school board will be distributing the systems starting in January, and the students will use a variety of software in order to aid their learning.

If you've ever looked at the Japanese DS library, there is a plethora of study games that help you learn any number of languages, help you improve your kanji (oh how I use those games), or even help you read books. On top of that, there's plenty in terms of science and math practice, and only a select few of those items have come over to the US. We're only seeing bits, from the My Japanese Coach and its ilk and Brain Age, which really doesn't even teach you anything.

I'm curious to see just how well this will work out. As it is, the Japanese school system encourages repitition to learn things, and so the DS will provide a somewhat different learning environment for the students, and I'm wondering how well they'll take to the whole change of situation.