Introduction

This chapter begins with two primary propositions. First, contrary to myth, Japan is not a single, monolithic culture persistently characterized by harmony and consensus—a misunderstanding that still forms one of the most pernicious obstacles to understanding both past and present. Second, nowhere is this past better seen than in the repeated controversies about schooling over the past 150 years. One of the swiftest entrees to understanding any modern society is through listening to political discourse about education. Japanese commentators today often speak of three educational revolutions. Historians of education in Europe and North America have demonstrated that what is novel about the modern period is the emergence of institutionalized schooling as the dominant means of training and enculturating youth. The generalization may be for industrial technology or military weaponry, in the sphere of modern schooling it is important to remember just how new a phenomenon modern educational systems were in Western Europe and North America.