Education in Contemporary Japan
Inequality and Diversity

This book looks at schooling in Japan and considers the links between education and society.

Kaori Okano (Author), Motonori Tsuchiya (Author)

9780521622523, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 April 1999

288 pages, 14 b/w illus. 11 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.59 kg

'… a re-examination of Japan's education system is timely, and Ikano and Tsuchiya's book makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of this complex topic … One of the great strengths of this book is that it examines closely the ways in which various protagonists in the education process interact …'. JRAI

A balanced introduction to and examination of contemporary Japanese education. While the postwar system of schooling has provided valuable ingredients for economic success, it has been accompanied by unfavourable developments such as excessively competitive exams, stifling uniformity, bullying, and an undervaluing of non-Japanese ethnicity. This book offers up-to-date information and new perspectives on schooling in contemporary Japanese society, and uses detailed ethnographic studies and interviews with students and teachers. It examines the main developments of modern schooling in Japan, from the beginning of the Meiji era up to the present, and includes analysis of the most recent reforms. It develops a new picture of the role that schooling plays for individuals and the wider society. Essential reading for students and educators alike.

Introduction
1. Analytical frameworks: schooling and the society
2. Development of modern schooling
3. Students' experiences of schooling I: social groups
4. Students' experiences of schooling II: minorities
5. Teachers' experiences of schooling
6. Problems and reforms in the 1980s and 1990s
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Education [JN], Anthropology [JHM], Cultural studies [JFC]