Introduction

Japan amongst countries in East Asia was the first to adopt industrialisation and western modernisation, towards the end of the nineteenth century, taking an intense interest in western philosophy, culture and educational systems. Revealing the evidence of educational progressivism, cultural encounters, and reform in Japan is a much-needed corrective to simplistic and contested representations. Social and educational reforms that introduced democracy in Japan, inspired by progressive ideas from the west, were proposed by intellectuals and scholars. Voices calling for 'New Education' after the end of the First World War became stronger amongst scholars and educators through establishment of private 'New Schools' in Japan. The promotion of New Education from the late nineteenth century to the 1930s was through the Japanese New Education movement or the 'movement of education for liberty in the Taisho era'. Joyce Goodman's study of Yoshi Kasuya highlights the significance of gender in relation to the concept of cultural encounters.