That article is titled "Why Do Americans Stink at Math?", but I have not seen evidence that this is the case when accounting for demographics. East Asians do well on international math comparisons, but children of East Asian parents in the U.S. also do well in math.
Joanne Jacobs
http://www.joannejacobs.com/2014/09/japanese-learn-math-in-cram-schools/ linked to a blog post by a Japanese writer
Big Doubts on the NY Times Article: "Why Do Americans Stink at Math?" who pointed out that a large fraction of Japanese children attend afterschool (juku) programs, so to the extent that the Japanese are good at math, we don't know if the schooling or the afterschooling should get the credit. And if the afterschooling used the same teaching methods as the schooling, parents would be less likely to pay for it.
