The normal school order (師範学校令)
The normal school order was an imperial edict promulgated on April 10, 1886. No. 13 of the imperial edict in 1886. The edict stipulated matters regarding schools for teacher training.
A normal school is categorized into two groups, an ordinary normal school and an higher (female) normal school (Article 2), and the existing normal schools for elementary education, secondary education and tertiary education were incorporated into ordinary normal schools, and the Tokyo normal school and Tokyo Women's Normal School were incorporated into higher normal schools.
One higher normal school was set up in Tokyo and one ordinary normal school was created in each Prefecture (Article 3). The budget for the higher normal schools was burdened by the national treasury and the one for the ordinary normal schools used local tax (Article 4).
School expenses of students were paid by the school (Article 9). Therefore, those who wished to receive a higher education, but could not afford their school expenses chose a normal school instead of other ordinary schools which did not provide the school expenses of students.
In the novel of Soseki NATSUME, "bocchan" (literally, a son from a good family), students of a normal school fought against those of a junior high school. The novel says that "some students at the front were yelling, 'you, local-tax eaters, go home".
The normal school order was terminated after the education order was enacted in 1897.