Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > Japanese Government Policies in Education, Science, Sports and Culture 2000 > Trends in Educational Reform Section 1 3

The series of educational reforms currently being advanced has fundamentally been undertaken in accordance with the four reports of the National Council on Educational Reform (1984-1987) while responding flexibly to changes in society since then.

MESSC has continued to move forward with educational reform and is consistently making efforts to provide better education. However, needless to say, administrative efforts alone will not ensure the realization of educational reform. Reforms will not bear fruit unless we can conduct them together with a wide-range of entities involved in education, including schools, households, local communities and corporations.

Some problems require a change in awareness of each and every Japanese person. For example, concerning the relaxation of excessive examination competition, we must not only change entrance examination systems and operation methods, but we must also change Japanese people's awareness in this regard.

To this end, MESSC has made efforts to bring the various measures we are taking toward educational reform to a wider audience, such as by producing and publishing the Program for Educational Reform, which highlights the concrete themes and schedule for educational reform. ( The main points of these reforms can be found on the following )

Furthermore, in the government as a whole, educational reform has been placed as the most important priority for the Cabinet, and in March 2000, the National Conference on Educational Reform was established directly under the Prime Minister, in order to further advance discussions on the fundamentals of education, taking into account the views of a broad strata of society. This Commission is actively undertaking debate on educational reform issues as a whole. (As of September 2000)

As we head into the new century, in order to proceed with the educational reforms necessary to enable the enriched and robust growth of our children, who will be responsible for the future, it is necessary to understand the aims of educational reforms in the home, at a local level, and in a school environment, and for all these environments to concentrate their efforts as one.

MESSC for its part will continue to conduct debate on the national and international level and actively pursue educational reform.