<p>This paper aims to analyze the discourse on “making things by hand” (Monodukuri) and explore the meaning/value given to it in industrial high schools in Japan.<BR><BR>A survey conducted by Hida (2008) reveals that technical high schools tend to set “making things by hand” as an educational target. In addition, JIL (The Japan Institute for Labor Policy and Training) reports that “Monodukuri” education serves to increase the number of skilled workers (2008). Today, numerous teachers at technical high schools place a high premium on “Monodukuri.” It is significant, then,that they used to criticize “Monodukuri” education as skill-centered training. Why has the situation changed? This paper examines the time when “Monodukuri” became popular in industrial high schools and the factor that totally changed teachersʼ attitudes to the issue.<BR><BR>In the 1970s and 1980s, Japanese technical high schools lost prestige, and highly specialized education was challenged. The uniqueness of the system of engineering education was lost. However, teachers continued to focus on the promotion of “scientific/critical” capability, but they did not accept “skill-centered education.”<BR><BR>The high school reforms after the late 1980s further diminished the value of the unique characteristics of engineering education. In this context, the Japan Teachers Union started a discussion about whether it was right to carry out vocational education in upper secondary education. This indicates how many teachers had lost confidence in teaching in the unique style of engineering education.<BR><BR>The teachers then sought the collaboration of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SEMs) in their local areas in order to revisit the meaning of engineering education. In the second half of the 1990s, as the present paper shows, they became active in this way. Since the 2000s, teachers have placed a positive meaning and value on “Monodukuri,” and their approach has become popular nationwide. As a result, the prestige of a specialized engineering education has been restored. It can be said, then, that the effect of educational programs on “Monodukuri” began to be self-evident at technical high schools after the gradual granting of “educational” value to “Monodukuri” through the discourse about it.<BR><BR>Based on these findings, it may be argued that the characteristics of the local labor market (e. g. how many SEMs are concentrated in the area) affects how “Monodukuri” becomes a self-evident virtue within engineering education.</p>