Since the National Language Research Institute's (NLRI) investigation “Hiragana letters read and written by pre-school children,” in 1967, investigations of pre-school children's reading and writing ability conducted among regions have been nearly non -existent. Accordingly, the authors investigated the actual ability of 1, 202 pre-school children in Tokyo and Aichi Prefecture to read and write Hiragana letters. Results show that children's reading and writing ability has improved since the 1967 NLRI investigation. However, according to the Ministry of Education, only 10% of the kindergartens teach reading and writing. So we conclude that there has been intentional early education in institutions outside nursery schools, kindergartens and the home.