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   Educational Reform for the 21st Century
AN INTRODUCTION   POSTWAR EDUCATIONAL REFORM IN RETROSPECT

It is often said, "education is a policy and foundation for the nation's next 100 years." At the outset of the 21st century, we need to boldly and steadily push ahead with reform to realize education befitting the new times.

The latest White Paper on Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is the first white paper to be published in the 21st century. It was designed to survey the course of education in years of the 20th century following the Second World War and to offer views on 21st century educational reform by looking at past reform attempts. Moreover, the paper intends to shed light on how the future course of educational reform should proceed and what changes will be actually brought about by educational reform through an examination of the past.

The National Council on Educational Reform has been formulating a basic plan for reforming Japan's education system. In doing so, it considered education reform in the postwar period by defining the promulgation of Japan's first modern school system in 1872 (the fifth year of the Meiji Era) as the "first educational reform" and educational reform in the postwar period as the "second educational reform."

The Council also highly rated Japan's postwar educational reform by characterizing it as the prime engine for the advancement of Japanese society and for remarkably spreading education under the fundamental philosophy of equal opportunity in education, which comes on the strength of Japan's national character of giving importance to education and rising the income level. However, the Council at the same time noted that postwar educational reform was still an extension of the catching-up education policy dating back to the Meiji period and led to a serious situation of educational decay, typified through acts such as bullying, refusal to attend school, school violence and juvenile delinquency and various problems regarding creativity, respect for individuality, higher education content and international awareness. Such problems led the Council to conclude that Japan's education is mired in a serious crisis.

The Introduction for Part 1 attempts to make a general survey of educational reform efforts following the Second World War along the lines of the National Council on Educational Reform discussions. In so doing, it divides the postwar years into four periods: (1) 1945-1952: the period of educational reform immediately following the war and featuring the enactment of Japan's new Constitution, the Fundamental Law of Education and the School Education Law; (2) 1952-1971: the period of quantitative expansion, popularization and institutional improvements of postwar education from the time of postwar economic revival through to the high growth era, and proceeding several institutional adjustments to the postwar educational system; (3) 1971-1984: the period during which the era of catching-up through high economic growth came to an end and Japan became a mature society, while trying to respond to the rise of different kinds of educational problems; and (4) the period from the establishment of the National Council on Educational Reform in 1984 to the inauguration of the National Commission on Educational Reform and its report of recommendations.


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