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Education in Japan

A Comprehensive Analysis of Education Reforms and Practices

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

Editors:
  1. Yuto Kitamura

    1. Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

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  2. Toshiyuki Omomo

    1. Gakushuin Women’s College, Tokyo, Japan

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  3. Masaaki Katsuno

    1. Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

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  • Provides a comprehensive portrait of education in contemporary Japan
  • Illustrates the current status and problems regarding reforms and practices in the field of education in Japan
  • Provides responses to the global trends of educational reforms in the context of the knowledge-based society in the 21st century

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xii
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  2. Background and Context of Education System in Japan

    • Yuto Kitamura
    Pages 1-21

  3. The Education System in Japan

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 23-23
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    2. Primary and Secondary Education

      • Toshiyuki Omomo
      Pages 25-40

    3. Higher Education in Japan: Its Uniqueness and Historical Development

      • Hideto Fukudome
      Pages 41-51

    4. Restructuring of Social Education and Lifelong Learning and Community Governance

      • Jeongyun Lee
      Pages 53-65

    5. National and Local Educational Administration

      • Yusuke Murakami
      Pages 67-83

  4. Educational Issues in Japan

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 85-85
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    2. The Relationship Between Teachers’ Working Conditions and Teacher Quality

      • Masaaki Katsuno
      Pages 87-103

    3. Lesson Study

      • Yasuhiko Fujie
      Pages 105-123

    4. Teacher Narrative Description

      • Sachiko Asai
      Pages 125-141

    5. A History of Schools and Local Communities in Modern Japan

      • Yoshihiro Kokuni
      Pages 143-158

    6. Background of “Individualized Meritocracy” Among Japanese Youth: Social Circulation Model of Postwar Japan and Its Collapse

      • Yuki Honda
      Pages 159-176

    7. Discussing the “Multicultural” in Japanese Society

      • Ryoko Tsuneyoshi
      Pages 177-195

    8. Higher Education Reform: Focusing on National University Reform

      • Akiko Morozumi
      Pages 197-209

    9. English Language Teaching and Learning in Japan: History and Prospect

      • Yoshifumi Saito
      Pages 211-220

    10. Safety Education from the Perspective of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

      • Yuto Kitamura
      Pages 221-237

  5. Back Matter

    Pages 239-241
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Keywords

About this book

This book illustrates the nature of Japan’s education system and identifies its strengths and weaknesses, as well as the socioeconomic environment surrounding education in contemporary Japanese society. It describes the basic institutional structure of each educational stage, in an overview of today’s school education in Japan, while also analyzing the current implementation status of important policies and the progress of reform at each stage. The book also examines the status of and problems with various issues that are considered essential to education in Japan today. These include teachers, lesson studies, school and community, educational disparities, education and jobs, multiculturalism, university reforms, internationalization of education and English-language education, education for sustainable development, and others, covering a diverse range of fields. The book is unique in its attempt to comprehensively understand and analyze the educational field in Japan by drawing on theexpertise of various academic disciplines.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Yuto Kitamura, Masaaki Katsuno

  • Gakushuin Women’s College, Tokyo, Japan

    Toshiyuki Omomo

About the editors

Yuto Kitamura is an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Education, University of Tokyo. He received his Ph.D. in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is also an Associate Member of the Science Council of Japan and a Member of the Board of Education, Tokyo Metropolitan Government. He is specialized in comparative education and has conducted extensive research on the education policies of developing countries, particularly in Southeast Asia. His recent publications include: Emerging International Dimensions of East Asian Higher Education (co-editor, Springer, 2014) and The Political Economy of Schooling in Cambodia (co-editor, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).


Toshiyuki Omomo is a Professor at the Faculty of Intercultural Studies, Gakushuin Women’s College. He is also a Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo and at Tohoku University. Holding a Ph.D. in Education from Tohoku University, he is currently President of the Japan Educational Administration Society, and an Associate Member of the Science Council of Japan. He is specialized in educational administration, particularly educational reforms in Japan and the USA. His recent publications include: U.S. Education Reform at the Frontline: Race to the Top (co-editor, Tokyo: Gakujutu Shuppankai, 2012, in Japanese), and Education Reform at the Local Level (co-editor, Tokyo: Gakuji Shuppan, 2014, in Japanese).


Masaaki Katsuno is a Professor at the Graduate School of Education, University of Tokyo. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Waikato. He has been a member of the Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendations concerning Teaching Personnel since 2008. His research interest in changing teachers’ work and the ways national and local polices are being enacted at the school level is reflected in his latest book, entitled “Teacher evaluation policies and practices in Japan: The workings of performativity and micro-politics in Japanese schools” (Routledge 2016). 

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