ABSTRACT
Research on contemporary moral education in Japan has presented ostensibly contradictory findings. On the one hand, journalism and research on high-level policymaking have exposed nationalistic motives with direct antecedents in pre-Pacific War imperialistic indoctrination. On the other hand, planned moral education contributes to the experience and character formation of all Japanese children through every grade of compulsory education. Teachers and school administrators are unlikely to be willing agents of mass-indoctrination, nor are they ignorant of debates critical of moral education. The majority of research has emphasized the former perspective, using document analysis to build knowledge on the policy intentions of ‘the government’ and particular politicians, along selected themes. In doing so, the experiences, everyday practice, and policy work of practitioners are often overlooked. This chapter considers the research questions and related methodological approaches of previous literature that sought to characterize moral education in Japan based on documentary study. It makes the case, less importantly, for a re-examination of contemporary textbook content and, more importantly, for studying moral education and its reform in practice.
