Introduction

In Japan, as elsewhere, national education policy cannot be simply implemented in schools. Rather, teachers enact policy as they make sense of it and ‘translate’ it into practice. This study follows the 2015 moral education reform, from its genesis in central government, through the Ministry of Education to its enactment by local government and schools. It looks beyond written policies, curricula, and textbooks to examine how teachers, school administrators, and other actors translate policy into practice. Whilst doing so, it provides the first methodical examination of moral education practice in Japan’s schools, in either English or Japanese. More importantly, the case of moral education is leveraged to shed light on the micro-processes of education policy enactment in Japan. The primary audience of this book will be scholars of education policymaking and educational administration, in the Japanese and comparative contexts. It examines (1) how moral education has changed in practice in reference to the intentions of national policy, (2) how teachers and school administrators in Japan make sense of and enact moral education reform in the local context, (3) what other actors are involved in translating curriculum policy into practice and how they operate, and (4) the implications for understanding processes of policy enactment, in reference to the Japanese education system. The study fills in some of the gaps between policy and practice, illustrating the contributions of actors who are often overlooked and the interactions between them. It aims to provide a more thorough account of how policy is enacted between state policymaking and school practice through the case of moral education reform.