Educational Policies and Politics in Japan



The politics of a government naturally permeates every aspect of education. As stated on Marie B Jansen on Education, Value and Politics in Japan the debate over educational policy is one of the most important and least publicized struggles in contemporary Japan, and the controversy furnishes an excellent opportunity for judging the nature of change in Japanese politics and society. One of the issue is the controversy of textbook. The content in Japan’s textbooks are often the central issue in diplomatic spats (between China and Japan or between Korea and Japan).
Another issues in politics as reflected on education is Prime Minister Shinzo Abe policies. In 2006 Abe revised the Fundamental Law of Education, which was brought into force during the U.S. Occupation and was aimed at “democratizing” the educational system based on a report by the U.S. educational mission. Thus in 2012 Abe instructed schools to clearly teach for the first time that the Senkaku Islands are Japanese territory. And in 2015 local government heads are being given more authority over education, with the intention of reforming the postwar board of education system, which was designed to maintain political neutrality on schools and minimize political intervention and influence. It means the positions of head of the board of education and superintendent into a new superintendent position in charge of education administration. It would also give mayors the authority to appoint and remove this superintendent, weakening the position’s independence. Abe’s policies inevitably aim to add a required course on ethics that would seek to increase students’ sense of patriotism.