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Japan Education Reform
In spite of the admirable success of the education
system since
World War II, problems remained through the 1980s. Some of
these
difficulties as perceived by domestic and foreign
observers
included rigidity, excessive uniformity, lack of choices,
undesirable influences of the university examinations, and
overriding emphasis on formal educational credentials.
There was
also a belief that education was responsible for some
social
problems and for the general academic, behavioral, and
adjustment
problems of some students. There was great concern too
that
Japanese education be responsive to the new requirements
caused by
international challenges of the changing world in the
twenty-first
century.
Flexibility, creativity, internationalization
(kokusaika), individuality, and diversity thus
became the
watchwords of Japan's momentous education reform movement
of the
1980s, although they echoed themes heard earlier,
particularly in
the 1970s
(see Higher Education
, this ch.). The proposals
and
potential changes of the 1980s were so significant that
some
compared them to the educational changes that occurred
when Japan
opened to the West in the nineteenth century and to those
of the
occupation.
Concerns of the new reform movement were captured in a
series
of reports issued between 1985 and 1987 by the National
Council on
Educational Reform. The final report outlined basic
emphases in
response to the internationalization of education, new
information
technologies, and the media and emphases on individuality,
lifelong
learning, and adjustment to social change. To explore
these new
directions, the council suggested that eight specific
subjects be
considered: designing education for the twenty-first
century;
organizing a system of lifelong learning and reducing the
emphasis
on the educational background of individuals; improving
and
diversifying higher education; enriching and diversifying
elementary and secondary education; improving the quality
of
teachers; adapting to internationalization; adapting to
the
information age; and conducting a review of the
administration and
finance of education. These subjects reflected both
educational and
social aspects of the reform, in keeping with the Japanese
view
about the relationship of education to society. Even as
debate over
reform took place, the government quickly moved to begin
implementing changes in most of these eight areas.
Data as of January 1994
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