ABSTRACT
This chapter describes Japanese conceptions of giftedness and gifted education, with its history and present status and current issues. Despite retaining much of its original culture, Japan is recognized as both an economic and technological power. The only language used in daily life and at school is Japanese. Japanese has many dialects, and the common language is that made in the Meiji era from the Tokyo dialect. An official system of gifted education existed in Japan before World War II, which was called early admission or skipping grades. The images that Japanese people generally hold giftedness are described. There are several general terms that represent giftedness, ability, and a gifted person in Japanese. Their subtle nuances are hard to describe in English, but the ideas have been defined by the dictionary. It can be said that there is no single word in Japanese that corresponds to the term giftedness in English in the broad sense.
