Who Are“ Non-Compulsory School Leavers”? ：Focusing on an Analysis of the Results of the Last Graduating School Survey in the 2020 Census

This paper discusses the identity of “non-compulsory school leavers”（persons who have not completed compulsory education）, focusing on the results of a survey on the last graduating school in the 2020 census. According to the survey, there were 94,455 people who had not yet graduated from elementary school, and 804,293 people whose last school was elementary school, drawing attention to the fact that there were approximately 900,000 “non-compulsory school leavers.” In particular, as the establishment and expansion of evening junior high schools where“ non-compulsory school leavers” can study becomes a social issue, it is expected that the results of this survey will be used in various regions to find “non-compulsory school leavers” and link this to the guarantee of educational opportunities at evening junior high schools and other such learning institutions. 　However, the definition of “non-compulsory school leavers” has not been established. This is due to several factors, including the fact that compulsory education was generally for six years under the old prewar school system, that the compulsory education system was not enforced in former Japanese colonies such as Korea and Taiwan, and that even after the war, the Ministry of Education interpreted foreigners as exempt from the obligation to attend school. 　This paper traces the context in which the concept of “non-compulsory school leavers” emerged and clarifies the process of its popularization as a term for those who have exceeded school age without graduating from junior high school and the efforts made to estimate it, as a result of issues raised by those involved in evening junior high schools since the 1970s. In addition, it was pointed out that the concept of“ non-compulsory school leavers” has been interpreted flexibly in the field of evening junior high school, in a way that it could include those who were subject to the old school system and foreign people.