Japanese Education Reforms of the 1960s : An Alternative View of Meritocratic Education

TSUDA, Masahiro

Many opinion leaders suggest that Japanese adults are in the critical situation where they are losing intellectual ability. This paper explores possible reasons for this tendency, especially focusing on the era of the 1960's, when the adult currently in their 40's and 50's were schooled in secondary education. First, we review the process and mechanism how meritocratic education was realized as a governmental policy. We found that all three parties, including business circle, the education authority and general public wanted strong economic growth and agreed on the necessity of meritocratic education for economic development. This means that meritocratic education was not for students needs nor for essential purpose of education. It was for economic development Second, we examine the nature of the meritocratic education. While business circle wanted to introduce Westernized pluralistic meritocratic, the education authority employed a unified one because of cultural reason. The unified meritocratic education was characterized by a tendency to rank students hierarchically. Students had to memorize textbooks and learn how to answer questions in short time. It means that students of that era did not have enough time to think or consider issues and matters. We conclude that the policy of leaders, especially of the education authority in I960's failed to have students get profound ability to think and consider issues and to lead to good decisions.

Japanese Education Reforms of the 1960s : An Alternative View of Meritocratic Education

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