This analysis originally prepared for the Japan Study Meeting, held November 1985, compares high school graduates in the United States and Japan who will not attend college, and includes directions of vocational training in both countries. Vocational training in the United States involves five areas: secondary schools, post-secondary schools, proprietary schools, formal apprenticeships, and employee training programs. Course areas divide into types of institutions, race, and sex. Females are represented most in office and health occupations. Males are over-represented in agriculture, technical trades, and industrial occupation training programs. Transition to the full-time labor force is discussed. Information on Japanese youth cites fewer public vocational opportunities and similar sex ratios in curriculum choices, but finds the employees to be the main source of vocational education rather than post-secondary training institutions, and mentions greater use of employment services to secure post-school employment. The report finds there is not a close relationship between types of training received and the occupation in which an individual is engaged. The report concludes with 19 tables of data and four pages of references. (CC)