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In This Chapter
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Japanese modern educators
- Introductory outline of modern Japanese education: 1850–2000
- Timeline of Education in Japan (1850 to 2000)
- Closing era of Edo from 1850 to 1868
- Meiji era: 1868 to 1912 (Meiji Tenno’s reign)
- Taisho era 1912–1926 (Taisho Tenno’s reign)
- First Showa era 1926–1945 (Showa Tenno’s reign)
- Second Showa era 1945–1989 (Showa Tenno was symbol of national unity)
- Heisei era 1989–2000 (Heisei Tenno was symbol of national unity)
- Notes, references, and further readings
Abstract
In this chapter, in the first section (introduction), brief outlines of Japanese educational modernization are described in line with transitions of modern educational policies and dynamic phases of practical issues which responded to central policy choices and influences from abroad. Along with implementations of central government policies, internal conflicts surged into the popular consciousness, and this initiated various indigenous reactions to the central policies. The main discussion listed in the first section can be a good introduction to Japanese national education development from the mid-19th century to 1945. In the second section, a brief timeline of Japanese educational policy choices is given, covering the era before and after 1945, which is classified into four periods of reigns of four tenno (Emperors Meiji, Taisho, Showa, and Heisei). The timeline is rich in illustrations which may effectively suggest to readers some key issues which Japanese people confronted not only in education but in society. In the main part of this chapter, readers are introduced to 115 modern educators, along with their concerns with children, youth, women, the handicapped, farmers, workers, the indigenous race, industry, politics and educational ideals, pedagogies, and policies. Of 115 figures, 15 are female, most of whom were the founders of new schools or colleges for citizens and women. Together with descriptions in the introduction and the timeline, readers may gain a vivid image of those who struggled and coped with the urgent tasks of providing children and people with educational opportunities in the new sense of the word.
Japanese modern educators
Introductory outline of modern Japanese education: 1850–2000
For a long time, Japan remained in the culture of Hanji script. Trans-geopolitical communication with China and Korea from the 5th century (at the latest) onwards nurtured Japanese literacy in Hanji script. In the 7th century, Chinese astronomy and calendars, geography, papermaking, ink, and water-clocks were brought to Japan. It is said (but not yet confirmed as historical records) that in 687, the 44 volumes of new scripts (derived from Chinese letters) were edited. The physical basis of ancient Japanese literacy was thus prepared in the 7th century. Since then, Japan has advanced its own literacy system and various learning schemes. After accepting Confucian leaning and the Buddhist faith in the 6th century, Japan nurtured and completed its culture.
Between the last decade of the 16th century and the early 17th century, there emerged a short period of contacts with Spanish and Portuguese Christian missions, but Japan kept its doors closed to the outer world (except Holland) for more than 200 years (1639–1858). Anglo-American expansion reached Japan a little before the mid-19th century, and it brought with it stimulating knowledge, culture, and civilization together with threats of political combat. The then-central political organ, Tokugawa-Bakufu, made haste to cope with the issues. As to the solutions, the hottest disputes arose between the bakufu and the imperial court. The then-literati debated with one another. The disputes grew to Two Parties of Sabaku (佐幕: standing for the bakufu) and Kinnou (勤皇: standing for the imperial court), both of whom became antagonistic towards each other. Betwixt and between uncompromising standpoints, there emerged divergent opinions among those who had been, if only partially, acquainted with western knowledge and the imperial colonialism of the day spreading over China and Southeast Asia. The Meiji Revolution occurred in 1868, and the new government introduced modern schemes for the national state, one of which was the radical nationalization of popular education. The gakusei (学制), introduced in 1872, was such a symbolic system that could pave the way for modern development of educational schemes, from preschooling to tertiary, and educational culture. The timeline of education shows a phase of marked expansion. The quantitative and qualitative development of compulsory schooling, from 6 to 14, reached 92.4% by 1917 for both genders. The Japanese imperialistic and militant political regimes from the 1890s to the mid-1940s resulted in the death of many citizens and in bringing tremendous disasters to many East and Southeast Asian peoples. Internally, Japanese education was crushed and destroyed in its systems and contents, especially by the war-oriented mobilization policies from 1938/1939 to the end of the Pacific War.
In 1946, the New Japanese Constitution made education a fundamental right of the Japanese people. In the following year, 1947, the Fundamental Law of Education and the School Education Act were brought into force. Compulsory education was made 9 years, from ages 6 to 15 upon the basis of co-education. School articulation was placed on the 6 + 3+3 scheme: 6 years primary school, 3 years junior secondary school, and a non-compulsory 3-year high school (senior secondary school). The post-secondary education system was wholly reorganized into a linear scheme, consisting of junior college (2-year course) and university (4-year course). The former imperial universities became state universities, and the former colleges and advanced colleges were reorganized or amalgamated regionally (from local authority to authority) into a new scheme of state or public universities.
The school population increased year after year, and by 1950, nearly all the age cohorts were in compulsory attendance. Nominal equal opportunity for all schoolchildren and youth was completed by 2000. Japanese school education, nowadays, has diverse educational issues, which could be discussed elsewhere. One thing that cannot be left untouched is the demographic decrease of the number of children. Before and after 2000, there have been recurrent reports of school-phobia, bullying, and child abuse. Highly centralized demographic distributions have also brought up the rather serious problem of urban alienation from the nature of the younger generations and the disruption of local communities.
We may historically observe some characteristics of modern Japanese education. Militarism in compulsory education was one of these. Dr. Mori Arinori , the first minister of education, introduced militaristic physical education to the elementary school curriculum, and the doctrine was reinforced during the wartime period of the 1930s. The second was the human resources policy which was maintained and developed through the whole era from 1868 to 2000. The third is the moral war, as it were, about Japanese national identity. This can be read in the disputes on Meiji-Tenno’s Rescript on Education (教育勅語: kyoiku-chokugo) issued in 1890 and in the Fundamental Law of Education enacted in 1946 and revised in 2006. The fourth is state intervention in national education. For example, before 1945, several imperial state university professors were expelled because of their academic works that publicly criticized the then-government policies, and the indigenous school teacher movement toward scientific, rational, and creative teaching was oppressed by the then-government. After 1945, governmental intervention survived in the domain of school curricula. The fifth was the voluntarism of private persons and sectors who devoted themselves to developing educational services in many fields, from practice to theory, from liberal to vocational, nursery to higher education, and various forms of mass learning.
Against such common courses of educational history, several particularities of Japanese education from an historical perspective can be seen.
- Locally, many people devoted themselves to developing and enhancing school and social/community education. A historiographic survey may illustrate enthusiasm shared by leaders and followers. The topics they touched on represented diverse “localities” in Japan and were wide enough to embrace almost all human activities. They may suggest even today how different the ideas of “locality” can be. This may highlight that educational processes historically developed may defy a simplified framework of general educational policy choices and their statistical expression. Such dynamic diversities are worthy of careful attention and reappraisal.
- Some industrialists were positive agents for developing a modern educational system. There have been three types: (a) those who devoted themselves to enlightening conventional merchants in adopting Euro-American management ideas and systems into the market or those who established learning institutes for merchants, (b) those who provided schools to disseminate a new spirit and ethos toward the evolving industry-trade complex, and (c) figures who participated as representatives of the industrial circle in politics so that national economic policies might deal fully with the tasks of modern industrialization of Japanese society. Shibusawa Eiichi belonged to all three types.
- Educational administration in modern Japan grew and came to bureaucratic maturity as one of the key centres of modern Japan as a nation-state. Before institutionalizing the cabinet system in 1885, several steps were taken from 1867 to 1884: (a) setting up a bureaucratic mechanism in the centre; (b) introducing the gakusei, which implemented an educational system with its administration; and (c) bringing up new bureaucrats by sending them abroad for studies. After 1885, the Ministry of Education had able ministers who enthusiastically guided the centralized administration in line with the national policy of a “wealthy and strong nation”. Along this line, more mature, learned, and professionally trained administrators implemented the national policies. Through the decades, Japanese modern educational administration became highly centralized. Despite the decentralization drives from 1946 to 1950 and the upsurge of deregulation reforms in the mid-1980s, educational administration remains centralized.
- Before 1868, women were strictly asked to accept “three-obeisance”: obey parents, obey husbands, and obey children. These were the Confucian doctrines of the household. These notorious doctrines were criticized bitterly after the Meiji Restoration, but they persisted. The New era of Meiji was a significant time for girls’ education. The leaders accepted offering opportunities for girls to learn. The beginning was the influence given by Christian missions. Some enlightened politicians like Ito Hirobumi also argued for the positive consequences of educating girls. Female leaders could be classified into two groups: (a) those close to the imperial court or the newly institutionalized nobles, or those inclined to enlighten more girls in the liberal tradition of Euro-American culture, and (b) those who thought highly of traditional visions and wisdom of womanhood. Mr. Naruse Jinzo was a distinguished explorer amongst innovators of girls’ education. Girls’ education was more often initiated by women ( Tsuda, Yoshioka , for example).
- Along with authorized advancement of modern school education, a tide of new education surged during the Taisho era. Against dominant Herbartian instruction, the idea of spontaneous learning as self-activity was advocated by Higuchi Kanjiro. The 20th century brought Japan democratic and individualized doctrines of education. At the same time, some Japanese social philosophers addressed self-determining democracy. Ellen Kay was introduced. The new education movement was represented in three ways: (a) Sawayanagi opened his school Seijo-Shogakko (Seijo Elementary School), and Noguchi opened Jido-no-Mura Shogakko (Children’s Village School) under the influence of foreign movements like the Dalton Plan; (b) relatively personal and indigenous educational thoughts were represented in Eight Leading Pedagogues; and (c) experimental lessons were made in some of the Affiliated Schools of the Normal Schools. On principle, Japanese new education vindicated child- or learner-centred approaches to school education.
- Defining social education as spontaneous learning activities, Japanese social education may look ambiguous. From 1867 to 1937, the central government kept the initiative in controlling popular culture and public opinion. In the earlier days of the 1870s, the government was willing to activate popular learning. However, by wartime during the 1930s, all popular groups of diverse origins were totally reorganized into the Central League of Mobilizing National Spirit initiated in 1937. In 1929, the government introduced the nationwide Campaign for Mobilizing Instructions of the People. This turned all activities into social education state-based indoctrination of state policies and their political ideals. Popular conscience was politically mobilized, leaving no space for freedom of thought. Theatres, museums, cinemas, journals, and magazines were mobilized toward governmental policy implementation. Protests surged but were suppressed politically.
- In the darkest militant totalitarian days of the 1930s, and the days of economic depression in the 1920s which attacked poor farmers and labourers, Japanese public schoolteachers fought against monolithic state doctrines of schooling, saved poor children from famine, and created alternative new education. There were two movements to be included. (a) 生活綴方運動 (seikatsu-tsudurikata undo; movement of children’s essay writing) was not unanimous at the first stage but was gradually organized after 1929 when the journal 綴方生活 (tsudurikata seikatsu: Life in Essay-Writing) was published. The editors asserted the importance of life for children. The movement spread nationally. There were several leading journals, each of which had many schoolteachers as subscribers. 北方教育 (hoppo kyoiku, Northern Education) was famous for its keen attention to educational welfare for children from poor farming families. (b) In 1930, when worldwide economic depression affected people, many schoolchildren were forced to live stringent lives. Schoolteachers organized the Japanese Union of Educational Labourers in 1930 and established in the same year an Institute for Education based on social scientific and historical criticism of Japanese liberal capitalism. The Institute had 12 subresearch committees where academic professors, teachers, and university students met together to talk about building proletarian educational systems in Japan. Both movements were fiercely suppressed by the Home Office Police, and many teachers were arrested and jailed in 1934. Although suppressed politically, the movement was the first union organized by teachers to tackle the grave issues of racial inequality and imperialism in Japan.
- Concurrently with, if not opposing, teachers’ unionism, there emerged a series of 郷土教育 (kyodo-kyoiku: local community studies) under the influence of Heimatkunde and Arbeitschule in Germany. The strand could be traced back to the Meiji era, but it spread over the local communities in the early Showa era (the beginning of the 1930s). The Ministry of Education took initiatives to disseminate the ideas of local studies into normal schools’ curricula from 1930 on. The policy affected not only local normal schools but elementary and secondary schools. The documents entitled Home Country Observed, or Collected Resources of Home Country, mimeographed by schoolteachers, became the symbols of the movement. The aims of such a new curriculum were dual in the sense that they intended to cultivate both sympathetic psychology, if not artistic and poetic imaginations, to traditional emotional patterns and moral attitudes and values enshrined in 修身 (shushin: moral and ethical study) approved by the minister of education. Pedagogically, Kyodo-Kyoiku was a type of Gesamtuntericht consisting of history, geography, and the 3 Rs. However, the movement was finally absorbed into the mobilizing policy over social education in the 1930s.
- Corresponding to the changing Zeitgeist of each era (Meiji, Taisho, Showa), several types of juvenile magazines were published appealing to the interests of the child and the youth. Historically, such magazines or journals can be traced back to 1875, when 新聞小学 (shinbun-shogaku: News for Elementary Children) was first launched. Such magazines following the first were merely collections of notes written by schoolchildren. In 1888, a new journal, 少年園 (shonen-en: Garden for Young Boys), was published to inform children of more cultural lessons. Since then, juvenile journals became increasingly dense in content and diverse in styles. Diversity in juvenile journalism suggests that by 1900, children’s literacy had advanced and matured enough to require juvenile literature and to form a market for the journals. State education had produced a literate young generation. In 1917, 赤い鳥 (akai-tori: Birds in Red) appeared. This was prepared and published by Suzuki Mielichi . This journal was path-breaking in attuning to the new education movement and democratic tide and wave of the days. New journals were edited following Akai-Tori, and they supplied children with essays and tales written by the eminent authors of the day. In the early Showa era, juvenile magazines became nationalistic. According to research analysis of the contents of 少年倶楽部 (shonen-kurabu: Boys’ Club), issued from 1914 to 1945 by Kodan-Sha (a publisher in Tokyo), 20% of the content was stories, 15% cultural (intellectual) notes, 11% military stories, 10% foreign news, 8% juvenile tales, 6% adventure, 5% great men’s stories, 4% tales for children, 2% on sports, and the rest other. After 1945, most juvenile journals tried to concentrate on pastimes and manga, which may suggest an alternating mode of literacy among succeeding generations of younger people.
- One feature of Japanese modern education was theoretical borrowing from the Western culture. Many professors of modern disciplines, including education and higher ranks of civil and military servants studied abroad either in Europe or in America. They brought back knowledge, skills, and technology to Japan. It was in the earliest period of the Meiji era when many foreign scholars were often employed at schools, colleges, universities, and governmental agencies. Gradually, Japanese scholars grew in number in the field of education, and after the 1930s, scholars and practitioners began to develop their own theories and frameworks of teaching and guiding pupils. From 1945, Japanese university teachers have developed theoretical enquiries in line with Dewey’s pragmatism and Marxism on the one hand and positivist philosophy on the other. Main schools of European philosophies reached educational theory circles in Japan. Historical studies in education were kept alive. Indigenous trials had also been made, referring to accumulated knowledge and research frameworks which had been developed by Japanese cultural anthropologists and ethnologists. Progressivism in pre-war Japanese educational circles also revived.
- Japan owed much to foreign advisers. They were invited by the Japanese government. They taught at schools, colleges, and universities; supported civic and military servants; and encouraged private enterprises. The total number of foreign advisers who visited Japan between 1868 and 1889 reached 2299 (English, 928; American, 374; French, 259; Qing Chinese, 253; German, 175; Dutch, 87; Austrian, 21; Danish, 21; Italian, 18; Russian, 16; Swedish, 9; Portuguese, 6; and others). As for academic scholars who visited Japan during the Meiji era (1868–1912) and taught either at state universities or at state higher colleges and private educational institutions, the total number was about 170 (German, 63; English, 38; American, 34; French, 23), 142 of whom stayed in the first half of the Meiji era. (Ogata, H, 1952, 1961; Umetani, 2007). Of those who contributed to Japanese modernization, Guid Hermn Fridolin Verbeck (1830–98) is important. He taught Okuma Shigenobu at Nagasaki and submitted his Brief Plan to Okuma while teaching at Kaisei-Gakko at Tokyo. Okuma translated it into Japanese and sent it to Iwakura Tomomi. The Plan realized the Iwakura Embassy (1871–73) to the United States of America and Europe ( Tanaka Fujimaro and Kume Kunitake ). Their reports instructed learned bureaucrats and illustrated to the reading public what western civilization was. Japanese modern academism was opened to a new horizon by the foreign academic advisers. In the field of education, foreign influences were wide and profound. To mention a few of the names of persons in history, Pestalozzi, Spencer, Dilthey, Dewey, Natorp, Herbart, Kershcensteiner, Rousseau, Krupskaya, Makarenko, and Neill are illustrative examples. What kind of academic acquisitions Japanese scholars had is another critical topic for investigation.
Summing up, the history of Japanese education reflects dilemmas of national modernization. When modernization meant Europeanization, Americanization, or westernization, the notion of nation or “being Japanese” might easily conflict with any such notion. In order to protect Japanese polity against European powers, which were not always collaborative with Japanese political authorities – bakufu and the imperial court, Japan made haste in resetting indigenous educational systems so that they might adapt to the urgent needs of industrialization, internationalization and political cum administrative resetting of internal politics. Japanese education reached maturity through its institutional diversity and in classical pedagogy. Although the traditional school curriculum was based on Japanese and Chinese classics, on Buddhist stories, on merchants’ ethics, and on the rudimentary 3 Rs, Japanese literacy was not low. Against such a cultural background, educational resetting was successful to an extent in technological and industrial adaptation. However, it remains a historically interesting question how far Japanese educational adjustment could have been pragmatically flexible enough to adapt to the required individuation of people’s attitudes to the new world from their own perspectives. Japan has left untouched the issues of internalized ethnic and political minorities. A historically structured question remains unsolved; that is, the artificial idiosyncrasy of “Japaneseness” enshrined politically with State Shintoism in the Meiji era has been haunting educational policy choices for far more than a century.
Timeline of Education in Japan (1850 to 2000)
Closing era of Edo from 1850 to 1868
185016 years before the Meiji Restoration: big fire at Edo; translation of foreign books was strictly limited by Edo Bakufu; British vessels visited northern islands.
1851Manjiro Nakahama, a fisherman, was sent back home by an American ship.
His knowledge and experiences of Europe and America became enlightening to some of the learned samurai and chonin (dwellers in towns). Bakufu established 洋学所 (yogakusho; library of western books).
1852Director of the Dutch Trade Office informed Tokugawa Bakufu of a possible American officer visit to Edo the next year; a Russian vessel visited Shimoda, bringing back Japanese afloat.
1853Captain Perrly, American Fleet, required Tokugawa (Edo) Bakufu to sign a peace and trade treaty with the United States.
1854The bakufu signed the treaty, which caused political unrest with Komei Tenno; big fires at Kyoto and Fukui; big earthquake and tsunami on the east coast of Honshu (main island).
1855The bakufu signed peace and trade treaties with Britain, France, and Russia; Yogaku-Sho (洋学所; library of western books) was built. Fukuzawa entered Tekijuku (適塾, see Ogata Ko’an ).
1856Yogakusho was renamed Bansho-shirabesho (蕃書調所); Yoshida Shoin opened his juku.
1857Bansho-shirabesho opened its lecture courses; Nishi Amane helped with the courses; 仏蘭西詞林 (furansu-sirin; French-Japanese words) was completed.
1859Yoshida Shoin was sentenced to death.
1861Japanese delegation to the United States sets sail and Fukuzawa accompanied.
1862Bansho-shirabesho was reorganized as Yosho-shirabesho (洋書調所; library of books overseas), which had a publishing division.
1863Ito Hirobumi and a few others were sent to London to study jurisprudence: Yosho-shirabesho grew to Kaisei-jo (開成所; school for English, French, Dutch, German, and Russian languages, the office of learning).
1864Niijma Joe got illegally out of Japan to America.
1865Mori Arinori and 13 other youths were sent by Satsuma-han to Britain.
1866Kikuchi Dairoku and Toyama Masakazu were sent by bakufu to Britain.
1867Japan participated in the Paris International Exhibition.
Meiji era: 1868 to 1912 (Meiji Tenno’s reign)
1868Meiji Revolution/Restoration: Sovereignty was restored to Tenno Meiji; the imperial court was at Kyoto; at Tokyo, 医学所 (iagakusho, school of western medicine) and 開成所 (kaiseijo, foreign language institute) were recovered; at Osaka, a chemical institute was placed; at Kyoto, 漢学所 (kangakusho; Chinese Study centre) was created.
1869The government encouraged all local authorities to establish their 小学校 (shou gakko, equivalent to elementary school); 大学校 (daigakkou; highest college) was established, amalgamating 昌平黌 (shoheiko), 医学校 (igakko; medical college), and 開成学校 (kaiseigakko); 大学校 was re-institutionalized as 大学 (daigaku), 開成学校 as 大学南校 (daigaku-nankou; south branch of Daigaku), and 医学校 as 大学東校 (daigaku-toukou: east branch of Daigaku), but soon, this amalgam was dissolved into 大学 (daigaku, centred at Shoheiko), 大学南校 (daigaku-nanko, centred at Kaiseigakko), and 大学東校 (daigaku-toko, centred at Igakko).
1870Codes of 大学, 中学 (chugaku, equivalent to middle school) and 小学 were made public; it was announced that six 小学 and one 中学 would be built in Tokyo; the Naval Academy opened at Tokyo and the Military Academy at Osaka; the Mainichi Press issued its paper at Yokohama; Kikuchi Dairoku revisited Cambridge University; Mori Arinori worked in Washington D.C.
1871The Ministry of Education (MoE) settled a survey unit consisting of 11 members over schooling systems abroad; the Iwakura Embassy set sail to America and Europe: Tsuda Umeko and four girls accompanied the group.
1872被仰出書 (oose-idasareshino-sho; orders prescribed in the name of Meiji Tenno on national education), normally known as gakusei (学制: state school system, following the French administration model) was promulgated. A new national modern school system from elementary to university was first ordered by the Meiji government; Normal School was opened at Tokyo; Motoda Nagazane was invited to the imperial household and served Meiji Tenno as his tutor; the Iwakura Embassy came back home.
1873Elementary textbooks in six subjects were published by Normal School; the elementary school attached to Normal School started teaching; a technology school was built in Technology College affiliated with the Technology Department (government); a portrait of Meiji Tenno was granted to Nara-Ken. Portraits were granted to all Kens thereafter.
1874Meirokusha (明六社; Meiji 6 Club), the first academic club, was established by Mori Arnori, Nishimura Shigeki , and others; Nakae Chomin opened the French Studies Institute; the Yomiuri Press started; Girls’ Normal School came into being at Tokyo; Fukuzawa established 慶應義塾 (keio-gijyuku; a complex of academic college and educational schools); Izawa Shuji was appointed the Principal of Aichi Normal School; Taisodenshujo (体操伝習所; Institute of Physical Exercise), a training school for teachers of physical exercise, was established at Tokyo.
1875Schooling age was defined from 6 to 14; Deaf and Dumb School opened at Kyoto; local mayors were afforded the legal power to approve local elementary schools; Tsuda Sen established Gakuno-sha (学農社: college of agriculture); Doshisha-English School opened by Niijima Joe ; Izawa was sent to America; Mori established the Institute of Commerce and Trade.
1876The Mitsubishi Bank opened; the Home Office held its Industrial Unit; Sapporo Gakko (Sapporo School, later Sapporo College of Agriculture) opened; a kindergarten was affiliated with Tokyo Girls’ Normal School; Ueno Park opened.
1877Tokyo University, combining Kaisei Gakkou and medical school, embarked on teaching; Gakushuin (学習院: school for the court nobles established at Kyoto in 1848) moved and reopened at Tokyo; Kikuchi was appointed professor of mathematics at the Imperial University of Tokyo.
1878State Normal Schools at Osaka, Nagasaki, and Miyagi were abolished; University of Technology opened; MoE submitted 日本教育令 (nihon-kyoiku-rei: Ordinance of Japanese Education), which was revised by Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi ; local mayors were legally afforded approving power for elementary school provisions; Tokyo Komaba Agricultural School (later Department of Agriculture, Imperial University of Tokyo) was established; Kume published the Report of Iwakura Embassy.
1879Meiji Tenno granted his 教学聖旨 (kyo-gaku seishi: My Views on National Education); Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi submitted 教育議 (kyoiku-gi: Doctrines of National Education) to Meiji Tenno; MoE organized a survey unit over music education, 学制 (gakusei, school district system; see 1872) was replaced by 教育令 (kyoiku rei, Ordinance of Education), which reorganized school matriculations (see Tanaka ).
1880MoE established a unit for pedagogy improvement; the Japanese version of the New Testament was published; Nishimura Shigeki edited 小学修身訓 (shogaku shuhin kun: elementary instructions on moral education), and MoE published it; MoE prohibited 27 elementary school textbooks; Tokyo Law School (later Hosei University) opened; Senshu-Gakko (now Senshu University) opened; Meiji Law School (now Meiji University) opened.
1881MoE defined Principles of Elementary School Education; Standard Code of Practice for Elementary School Teachers came into force; Sansei-Do Publishing Co. started; Tokyo Mechanics Institute was institutionalized; Tokyo Institute of Physics (now Tokyo University of Natural Sciences) opened. Requirements of teaching certificates were issued; school facilities became off limits to non-official activities.
1882Tokyo Senmon Gakko (東京専門学校; now Waseda University) opened (see Okuma ), Meiji Tenno granted 幼学綱要 (yogaku-kouyou: on rudimental education) to all local mayors; Jingu-Kogaku-Kan (神宮皇学館: Institute for Imperial Shinto-Theology) opened; all branches of Shinto schools were approved by the government; Kano Jigoro founded Kodo-Kan at Tokyo.
1883Codes of Agricultural School came into force; Dai-Nippon Kyoiku Kai (大日本教育会: Japanese Association of Education) was organized; Tokyo Eiwa Gakko (東京英和学校: Tokyo School of English and Japanese, now Aoyama-Gakuin University) opened; official approval system of textbooks for elementary, secondary, and normal schools was institutionalized.
1884Several school codes on middle and commerce schools were enacted; encouraging settling kindergartens, MoE prohibited admitting pre-school-age infants to elementary schools; 桜井女学校 (sakurai jogakkou, Sakurai Girls’ School) opened a nursery course (the first trial).
1885School of English Law (now Chuo University) opened; Mori was appointed the first minister of education; an association for Romanization of Japanese scripts was created; Ordinance of Education was revised: schooling years (from 6 to 14) were fixed.
1886Kyoritu Women’s Vocational School started; government ratified the Metre Treaty; Tokyo Normal School became Tokyo Higher Normal School; the 1st and 3rd Higher Secondary Schools (高等中学校; koto-chugakko) were placed at Tokyo and Osaka; Kansai Law School (now Kansai University) was opened; Yajima Kajiko established the Women’s Reforming Association; Hani Motoko joined the Hochi Shinbun (Press) at Tokyo; Code of School Textbook Censorship was published. The Code of Imperial University, codes of primary and secondary schools, and teachers’ certification system were introduced.
1887German scholar Haus Knecht arrived at Tokyo University; the 2nd and 4th Higher Secondary Schools were placed at Sendai and Kanazawa; the 5th Higher Secondary School was placed at Kumamoto; the Junior Military Academy opened: Inoue Enryo opened Institute of Philosophy (哲学館: tetsugaku-kan, now Toyo University); ordinance on academic degrees was published; Governmental Units for Fine Arts and Music were elevated to Fine Arts College and Music College; portraits of Meiji Tenno and Kogo (empress) were granted to Okinawa Normal School.
1888The Asahi Press was established at Tokyo; the first “degree of doctor” was granted to 25 persons, including Kato Hiroyuki ; Tokyo Astronomical Observatory was established.
1889The Constitution of Imperial Japan was made public; a 6-month probation system was introduced to Normal School graduates; schoolteachers and students were prohibited to debate politics in public.
1890教育勅語(kyoiku-chokgo; Meiji Tenno’s Rescript on Education) was granted, and official copies were circulated to all schools; Keio University started; Girls’ Higher Normal School was established; Japanese School of Law (now Nihon University) opened; Ishikawa Kuraji completed Japanese Braille.
1893Rich local authorities (Mura, Machi, Shi) were obliged to provide free elementary education; MoE codified school songs for ceremony on national holidays.
1894A state grant support system for vocational schools was enacted; High School Code was enacted, replacing Higher Secondary Schools (prep to university).
1895Girls’ Secondary School Code was announced; a standard of girls’ secondary school textbooks censorship was introduced.
1896A state system of schools maintained by the Taiwan government-general was announced (beginning of Japanese colonial education).
1897Imperial University of Kyoto was re-established: MoE institutionalized the doctrine of non-coeducation.
1898Abe Isoo, Kotoku Shusui, et al. organized the Socialism Studies Institute; Okakura Tenshin built 日本美術院 (nihon bijyutsu in: Institute of Japanese Fine Arts); Kikuchi assumed the presidency of Imperial University of Tokyo; MoE decided to invite medical doctors to public schools; a revised code of degrees was enacted.
1899Revised Codes of Secondary Schools and Code of Vocational Schools were enacted; Code of Girls’ Secondary School and Code of Private Schools were enacted.
1900Bill of Local Elementary School Provisional Finance was enacted; Tsuda Umeko opened Girls’ College of English Studies (now Tsuda-Juku University); Yoshioka Yayoi opened Tokyo Girls’ Medical School (private college).
1901日本女子大学 (nihon joshi daigaku: Japan Women’s University) opened.
1902Higher Normal School was placed at Hiroshima; Kobe Higher Commerce School opened. Tokyo Senmon Gakko changed its title to Waseda University.
1903Makiguchi Tunesaburo published the book on geography for human life; Code on College Education (professional) was enacted.
1906The Imperial Library (national) opened at Ueno.
1907Tohoku Imperial University opened at Sendai; Revised Code on Elementary School was enacted (compulsory schooling years were changed to 6); MoE advised elementary schools attached to normal schools to set classes for disabled children.
1908Nara Girls’ Higher Normal School was established; MoE introduced school inspectorate systems; Tokyo Public Library opened at Hibiya.
1909MoE established Tokyo School for the Blind; Kyoto local government established Higher College of Fine Arts.
1910Kyushu Imperial University was established at Fukuoka; Katagami Noboru visited Russian universities in Petrograd.
1911Hiratsuka Raicho published the journal Seito (Blue Stockings).
Taisho era 1912–1926 (Taisho Tenno’s reign)
1912Meiji Tenno passed away; Taisho Tenno was crowned.
1914Irisawa Soju was appointed associate professor at Imperial University of Tokyo; Kohno Kiyomaru published an introductory book to Montessori.
1915Haruyama returned home from abroad.
1917The Imperial Association of Education held first conference of Women Teachers (one-third of teachers were women).
1918Sapporo Agricultural College grew to Hokkaido Imperial University; Tokyo Women’s University opened; New Code of University introduced departmental systems into all imperial universities; Revised Code of High School was enacted.
1919Abe Shigetaka and Haruyama Sakuki moved as teaching staff to the Imperial University of Tokyo; Higuchi Choichi was appointed as a professor at Tokyo Higher Normal School; Kinoshita Takeji became principal of Nara Girls’ Higher Normal School.
1920Keio University and Waseda University were formally approved as private universities; Tokyo Higher College of Commerce became University of Commerce and Trade; The Capital by Marx was published in a Japanese version; 東京労働講習所 (Tokyo rodo koshu sho: Institute of Technology and Skill for Labourors) was established as a school; Akita Ujaku started privately tutoring his daughters; Hiratsuka Raicho organized New Women’s Association.
1921自由学園 (jiyu gakuen: Liberal College) opened by Hani Motoko ; 信濃自由大学 (shinano jiyu daigaku: Shinano College for Farmers’ Liberal Studies) started; Japan Workers School was organized by Suzuki Bunji and others; Japan Communist Party Organizing Committee came into being. 日本青年館 (nihon seinen kan: Japanese Youth Institute) was established. Ashida went to Korea; eight educationists gave lectures at the Hall of Tokyo Higher Normal School, where Chiba, Higuchi, Inage, Katagami, Kohno, Obara, Oikawa, and Tezuka were invited.
1922全国水平社 (zenkoku suihei-sha: People’s Institute of Levelers) was established; National Union of Students was organized; Japan Farmers Union was organized; Einstein visited Japan.
1923Japanese Union of Communist Students was organized; League of Normal School Reformists came into being; Japan Social Scientist Union of Students was united; National Students’ Union developed anti-military training movements; Akai invited Helen Parkhurst to Japan. Inage Kinshichi went to Germany to study abroad.
1924The National Women Teachers’ Union was organized; the Japanese Fabian Society was built; Students’ Association of Social Sciences formed; Girl-Students Unions came to function at Waseda and Keio; Akai opened 明星学園 (Myojo gakuen); Jodai Tano visited Cambridge University; Parkhurst visited Nara College; Mineji Mitsushige joined Ikebukuro Children’s Village.
1925治安維持法 (chian-iki-hou; Maintenance of the Public Oder Act: MPOA) was enacted; 陸軍現役将校学校配属令 (rikugun-gen’ekishoko-gakkou-haizoku-rei: the Code of Military Officers Attached to Schools) came into effect; JOAK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation’ s Tokyo Studio) started broadcasting.
First Showa era 1926–1945 (Showa Tenno’s reign)
1926Taisho-Tenno passed away and Showa-Tenno was crowned; Elementary School Code (School Subject) was revised to change Japanese History to Nation’s History; under the agrarian disputes for 4 years from 1922 at Kizaki-Mura, Niigata-Ken, schoolchildren avoided attending school and tenant-farmers built the Poor Man’s School; Minister of Education Okada Ryohei ordered disbanding all social science studies at higher education institutions; university students at Imperial University of Tokyo, Waseda University, and others created the Union for Freedom of Thought.
1927Girl-Students Union for Advancing Social Science Studies began. Inage came back from Germany to Waseda as a professor; Kato Kanji was appointed principal of Japan National High School; Kilpatrick visited Nara College.
1928MoE laid an order to settle students’ moral or social scientific attitudes in line with national principles and to enhance national spirit; MoE held its first Meeting on Students’ Ideological Strands; MoE built the Unit on Students’ Unrest. Kanto Federation of Students for Freedom of Thought held its first meeting against MoE policy.
1929MoE upgraded Unit on Students’ Unrest to the Department of Students’ Affairs and expanded to include Office of Social Education to control popular movements on freedom and liberty; Jumonji Kotoko attended the 3rd World Education Conference at Geneva; Washburn visited Nara College.
1930Taniguchi Masharu founded and started teaching on 生長の家 (seicho-no-ie; literally, house of faith and growth, a religio-moral commune for living a genuine life on new principles and anti-radicalism); 新興教育研究所 (shinko-kyoiku-kenkyusho: Institute of Education Renewal) was established by Yamashita Tokuji ; Japanese Union of Educational Workers was founded.
1931The Schedules of Secondary School Act was revised to make 剣道 (ken-do: Japanese swordsmanship) and 柔道 (Judo) compulsory for all students; MoE created Enquiry Commission of Students’ Affairs (= Ideologies).
1932MoE announced the number of village children in strict famine (200,000); Harold Rugg visited Nara College.
1933MoE circulated to all schools a pamphlet entitled “Emergency Time and Nation’s Preparedness”; Prevention of Child Cruelty Act came into force. School teachers’ Red Purge in Nagano-Ken (138 teachers from 65 schools were arrested). MoE circulated a pamphlet entitled “People Prepared for Emergency”.
1934MoE assembled 35,000 elementary school teachers in front of the tenno’s palace and required them to rethink the importance of the decree of the pamphlet circulated the previous year; owing to colder weather, covenant farmers in northern Honshu (the main island) fell into such extreme poverty that they committed human trafficking of their children.
1935New Law of Youth’s School was enacted to combine youth vocational and skill training institutions with courses for the elementary school leavers.
1936The 2–26 Coup d’état occurred and militarism surged to suppress civil rights and public administration; scholars sympathetic to Marxism and communisim and liberal cum radical intellectuals were all arrested; Makiguchi and his colleagues established Soka-Gakkai.
1937The Center of National Mobilization of Japanese Spirit was formed; 文教審議会 (bun-kyo shingi-kai: Commission of Education) was organized; MoE edited and circulated to all schools an issue entitled 国体の本義 (kokutai-no-hongi: The Essence of Japanese Tenno-Polity); Helen Keller visited Nara College.
1938National Mobilization Act came into effect; 満蒙開拓青少年義勇軍 (manmo-kaitaku-seishonen-giyuugun: Youth Force for Plantation Development in Manchuria and Mongolia) was announced (see Kato Kanji ).
1939昭和研究会 (showa-kenkyu-kai: Forum for Showa era) published 新日本の思想原理 (shin-nippon-no-shiso-genri: Philosophical Principles of New Japan); developing new ideologies on Japan as polity was aggressively pursued; schooling to 青年学校 (seinen-gakko: Youth’s School) was made compulsory for young persons aged 14–19; martial arts were made compulsory for the upper graders of elementary schools; MoE abolished written papers of secondary entrance examinations.
1940大政翼賛会 (taisei-yokusan-kai: the Imperial Rule Assistance Association) was formed; 300 or more schoolteachers were arrested who advocated 生活綴方 (seikatsu-tsuzurikata: pupils’ writing on their everyday lives); all political parties were dissolved; national provisions for primary school techers’ salary scale was enacted (50–50 principle between central government and local governments on School Teachers Payment Fund).
1941The government decided new policies (New Order in greater Asia) and advanced an armed polity; 国民学校令 (kokumin-gakko-rei: Oder of National Schools) was enacted; higher education institutions, including universities, shortened heir course terms from 4 to 3 years; 国民勤労協力令 (kokuin-kinro-kyoryoku-rei: Order of National Coaction Enforcement) required all males 14–40 and females 14–25 to join the national work force; Japan initiated the Pacific War on 8 December.
1942School students’ enrolment in munitions industries started.
1943Secondary schools and high schools (prep for university) shortened 1 year of each course term; girls below 25 formed voluntary corps for munitions industry; MoE announced school pupils’ evacuation from urbanized zones.
1944Emergency Plans of Students’ Volunteer Corp for Munition Industry were accepted to enact the Orders of Students’ Corp for Munition Service; military training at universities and colleges was accelerated; MoE started lunch service to schoolchildren in big cities owing to keen shortage of food in wartime.
Second Showa era 1945–1989 (Showa Tenno was symbol of national unity)
1945Japan surrendered to Allied Forces, and Showa Tenno declared Japan’s defeat;
ABefore surrender: Emergency Policy of School Education stopped schooling at nation’s schools except elementary division; many secondary school girls, serving as emergency nurses, committed suicide in the hardest combat at Okinawa; Education Code for War Time introduced student corps at schools and working fields, firms, and so forth.
BAfter surrender: General Headquarters (GHQ) required to democratize Japanese politics and administration (separation between Shinto and politics, freedom of thought and expression, liberation of women, encouragement of trade unionism, democratization of school education, liberalization of legal systems).
1946Toda Seijo restarted Soka-Gakkai; Waseda University approved the right of self-government of student union; New Japanese Constitution was publicly announced. Harada Minoru came to Waseda University as a professor of education; Miki Yasumasa entered MoE as school inspector.
1947Fundamental Law of Education and Law of School Education with its Schedules were officially announced in March; new school system 6–3–3 (primary schooling for 6 years, junior secondary 3 years, and senior secondary school 3 years) started in April; Child Welfare Act was issued; MoE announced 学習指導要領 (gakushu sido yoryo: Guidelines of School Curriculum Development) as a guide book; Kaigo Tokiomi became professor of education, University of Tokyo.
1948Law of Local Education Committees was issued; New High School (senior secondary school) came into force and former middle schools were reformed to high schools on the principle of co-education and comprehensive course development; the Japanese Academy Act was issued; a five-grade assessment framework was introduced to primary schools; Kurahashi Sozo established Japan Society for Early Childhood Care and Education.
1949Law of Private Schools and Law of Social Education were issued. Textbooks approved by MoE were adopted by schools; Miki established Federation of Special Education Research; Miyahara came to Tokyo University as professor.
1950The cabinet of the government decided to introduce “Red Purge”; Japanese Academy, and Association of University Professors announced their statements against Red Purge; Minister of Education Amano Teiyu suggested revival of moral education in the name of 修身 (shu-shin: literally, enlightenment of mind and body: moral instruction); Ishiyama Shuhei , as dean, came to Tokyo University of Education.
1951Japan joined UNESCO and ILO; Japanese Teachers’ Union adopted Don’t Send Children to Battlefield Campaign; Miki moved to Tokyo University.
1952Japan joined the World Bank and International Monetary Fund: Central Advisory Council on Education was institutionalized; education committees were set at each city, town, and village; Japanese industrial circle required to strengthen vocational education.
1954Government introduced a bill of political neutrality of school education.
1956Japan was approved to join the United Nations; Education Committee in Ehime-Ken decided to introduce assessment of schoolteachers; Jodai Tano assumed the presidency of Nihon Joshi Daigaku (Japan Women’s University).
1957MoE explained the importance and relevance of assessment of schoolteachers; Japanese Teachers Union criticized MoE’s efficiency rating scheme over schoolteachers and school management.
1958MoE revised the School Curriculum Development Guides; Japanese Council of Trade Unions criticized MoE’s policy choice toward assessing schoolteachers; Japanese University Students Union built a Communist Unit.
1962Inatomi and others established Japanese Society of Educational Philosophy.
1965The Central Advisory Council on Education published its Report on Ideal Types of Humans; Ienaga Saburo instituted a suit against the MoE’s censor over the school textbook which he edited.
1966Students’ strike against raising tuition fees at Chuo University.
1967University campus unrest surged nationwide.
1968Students of Medical School of Tokyo University went on strike for an indefinite period; university students, national and private, committed to organizing “in the campus-based student union” against university-student relationship control and against the Vietnam War; Tokyo University and Tokyo University of Education cancelled the 1969 entrance examinations owing to campus unrest. Waseda University was occupied by students.
1969University unrest at Tokyo University came to a solution and riot police removed students who occupied Yasuda Hall of the university; other universities followed the same line to solve campus unrest by way of riot police involvement; the entrance examinations of national universities were carried out under the riot police’s safeguard; the Central Advisory Council issued an interim report on the students and university management; the Temporary Act of University Management was enacted, and it ceased more university unrest against the fact that a national league of nonsectarian radical students groups was organized.
1971The Central Advisory Council issued its final report on future school matriculation with proposals such as reorganizing the primary and secondary school matriculation to a “4–4–6” system (4 years primary, 4 years middle, and 6 years high school) together with diversification of tertiary/higher education into six categories.
1972Association of National Universities proposed altering the university entrance examinations.
1973Tsukuba University came into effect on the new management doctrines, of which President Kato Ichiro of Tokyo University, the chair of the Association of National Universities, was critical.
1974Teaching Personal Development Law was enacted.
1975Tokyo High Court decided partially that it will be illegal for MoE to censor schoolbooks.
1977MoE issued the Revised Courses of Studies for Primary and Junior Secondary Schools.
1979The first Preliminary Standard of College & University Entrance Examination was brought into effect.
1981The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department discussed school violence and vandalism for the first time; the On-Air University Act was enacted.
1983Prime Minister Nakasone informally invited a Consultative Committee on Education and Culture, and committee members discussed deregulation of school administration and parental choice for educational opportunity.
1984Prime Minister Nakasone formally invited an Ad Hoc Council on Educational Reform.
1985Ad Hoc Council on Educational Reform issued its first report and urged Individualization of Education; Association of National Universities suggested diversifying entrance examinations.
1986Shikaga Takeshi, a schoolboy at Fujimi Junior High School, committed suicide because of hard bullying.
1987Advisory Council on Curriculum proposed to minster of education to divide social studies into history and geography in the frame of senior high schools’ course of studies; Ad Hoc Council on Educational Reform published its final report, in which it stressed individuation of school education and life-long learning systems for the future.
Heisei era 1989–2000 (Heisei Tenno was symbol of national unity)
1989Showa-Tenno passed away, and Heisei-Tenno came to the throne.
1991日の丸 (hinomaru: national flag) and 君が代 (kimiga-yo: national anthem) became hot topics around school curricula; improvement of senior high school entrance examinations and selection was laid on the discussion table.
1992Newly approved junior secondary school textbooks on social studies featured stressing Japanese self-defence policies.
1993Under-secretary of MoE required local education authorities to get rid of all tests provided by private organs, companies, and institutions.
1994Japan ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
1995Japanese Union of Teachers changed its policy against the governmental course of studies and accepted it (a big change); an earthquake hit Kobe and the Kansai area.
1997The Supreme Court accepted it was legally allowable for the MoE to pre-examine school textbook manuscripts.
1998Advisory Council on School Curriculum asserted hinomaru (national flag) and kimigayo (national anthem) should rightly be in the course of studies.
1999MoE announced to the Association of National Universities a new policy of changing all national universities to quasi-independent administrative agencies; Law of National Flag (Hinomaru) and Anthem (Kimigayo) was enacted.
2000教育改革国民会議 (kyoiku-kaikaku kokumin-kaigi: National Council for Educational Reforms) published its final report, which argued for practical services for social welfare for primary pupils and secondary students. (S. Suzuki)
Notes, references, and further readings
Notes on introduction
General reference on Japanese history of education
General references on timeline
Further readings on Japanese education
Related chapters
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