ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how, despite a large following with energy and enthusiasm, the concept of new education could be ambiguous and even contradictory. Tatsukichi Minobe's organ emperor theory provided grounding for Taisho democracy, and its reception by the New Education movement maintained a thread between this theory and the concept of a 'constitutional school'. On the other hand, military forces also increased. Prime Minister Tsuyosi Inukai's struggle with the military ended with his assassination on 15 May 1932, marking the end of civilian political control and of the era of party government. Alongside ever increasing militarism in the 1930s, new schools was forced to compromise with the political situation and to acknowledge in 1935 the Declaration of Clear Evidence of the National Polity, which critiqued Minobe's political principle. Social and political factors constrained progressive education in Japan, despite progressive ideas of freedom, liberty, self-government, and pedagogies of experience that had been a significant current underlying educational philosophy and practice.
