ABSTRACT
A country’s education system reflects its historical and societal concerns. In the case of Japan, we see the arrival in the sixth century of Confucian ideas that influence how education and society are structured. These ideas change as they are adapted to the Japanese context but remain powerful into Japan’s modern history. At the end of the Tokugawa period, the time with which most of the reading passages in this chapter are concerned, Confucian ideas of what it meant to be a learned man were still strong but were beginning to be challenged, in particular, by younger samurai who had been engaged in Western (Dutch and then English) learning. With the Meiji Restoration (1868), Japan turned to Europe and the USA for new educational models. Today, Japan - like many other countries - is asking itself what skills education needs to give its young people for the best possible future for them and the country. The first and second reading passages in this chapter are concerned with Tokugawa and Meiji developments in education while the third looks at current issues.
