Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > Japanese Government Policies in Education, Science, Sports and Culture 2000 > Trends in Educational Reform Section 2 Q1 Background

In April 2000, representatives from the G8 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States), the European Union (EU), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) gathered in Japan. The G8 Education Ministers' Meeting was held 1-2 April at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno, Tokyo, and the G8 Education Ministers' Forum was held on 3 April at the Okinawa Convention Center in Ginowan City, Okinawa.

This first meeting of this kind was held because the importance of education is stressed all over the world. Although summits have traditionally been the place to discuss economic, diplomatic and political issues, the subject of education became one of the major issues for the first time at the Cologne Summit held in 1999. This is because the leaders felt a need for people to acquire new knowledge and technologies in order for the world economy to develop in the future.

In 2000, Japan was also host of the G8 Summit. The Ministers in charge of education gathered to participate in concrete discussions on how to utilize the items discussed at the Cologne Summit for the benefit of future education.