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This paper reveals the historical background to the word and concepts of 'shido' and considers the social meanings that the word and concepts of 'shido' have expressed in the context of the wartime period, especially by extracting and analyzing the discourses dealing with the word and concepts of 'shido' in educational discourses from the Meiji period to the period immediately after the war. The idea exists that school education in our country had distinct pre-war and post- war periods due to educational reforms in the occupation period, and we have often seen assumptions based such periodization in this field of studies. However, in the overemphasis on the self-evident view that there was a 'break' between pre-war education and post-war education, we have overlooked events in the educational history of our country. This paper has therefore picked up the word and concepts of 'shido' among the educational phenomena of Japan. The paper's objective is to demonstrate the historical background (origin and spread) of 'shido' and to analyze the social meanings (status and function) that the word and concepts of 'shido' have been given by Japan society, especially in the wartime context. I believe this paper has obtained the following conclusions (1) and hypothesis (2): (1) The word 'shido' goes back to the Meiji period, and the 'shido' paradigm, as a recognition framework understood by the word and concepts of 'shido,' was established in the wartime period. (2) The 'shido' paradigm has conditioned education and society in Japan, since, as norms themselves, attitude requests included in 'shido' elicit response practice to 'shido,' i.e. as an 'increase in educational response' to an 'increase in educational attitude.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Japanese high school students' adjustment to school using data from the "Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)" conducted by the OECD in 2003. The indicator of student adjustment is composed of their attitudes toward education and behaviors in daily life - the sense of belonging to school and the frequency of late arrival at school. The effects of individual level and school population characteristics on student adjustment are estimated by applying a hierarchical linear model. In particular, this paper focused on the effect of the diversity of student socio-cultural background and relative student academic position within a high school on their adjustment. The main results are follows. First, student background certainly does affect the extent of adjustment to school, though it differs depending on which indicators and independent variables are used. Generally, students who have a higher socio-economic and cultural background adjust to school better than those who have a lower socio-cultural background. Second, it is confirmed that student attitudes and behaviors differ greatly between schools - many more students from schools with lower academic ranking are likely to be late for school and have a negative sense of belonging to the school. This result is consistent with "the students' status frustration hypothesis," which postulates that student frustration regarding anticipated educational and status attainment leads to anti-school attitudes and behaviors. Third, students' relative position of academic achievement and educational expectation within their high school has an effect on the extent of their adjustment to school. Students with relatively higher educational expectation within their high school have a good feeling about their school, and their educational expectations and academic achievement correlate negatively with the number of times the students arrive late for school. Fourth, dissatisfaction derived from their relative academic position is stronger in schools with a higher academic ranking. This suggests that students from schools with an upper academic ranking perceive pressure to achieve and attain higher educational attainments. On the other hand, what frustrates students from a high school with a lower academic ranking is not relative academic achievement within their high school, but the position of their high school in the academic ranking. Fifth, we found that students' socio-cultural composition has an effect on student adjustment in school - the sociocultural diversity of a school has a negative effect on the sense of belonging and a positive effect on the number of times students arrive late. This result implies that a school's socio-cultural composition is important for interaction between students and the formation of informal student groups, which directly affects student adjustment to school. These results indicate that both individual student and school population variables have effects on students' daily behavior and attitudes toward school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author examines how teacher preparation programs have changed since 1990 in relation to the reform of higher education in Japan. In the previous literature, studies on teacher preparation programs have been conducted separately from those on higher education, despite the fact that K-12 teachers are trained at the post-secondary level in Japan. As a result, the impact of recent reforms of higher education on teacher preparation programs has been overlooked. First, the author identifies the impacts of recent higher education reforms on teacher preparation programs. The marketization of higher education led to a deterioration in relations between teacher preparation colleges and local boards of education. As a result, the contents of the programs came to be increasingly influenced by non-academic ideology and the administrative policies of each local government, rather than by scholarly research and critical inquiries. Second, the author examines the impacts of recent reforms targeting teacher preparation itself, Through an analysis of reports on reform of the Ministry of Education, the author finds that the policy of reform changed around 2000. The Law on Teachers' Licensure was revised toward a standardization of the teacher preparation curriculum, which had once been deregulated in the 1990s. Therefore, the author argues that both higher education reform and teacher preparation reform deprived many colleges and universities of their autonomy in the area of teacher education programs. As unintended results, the teacher education colleges have been transformed from "educational institutions" which support students with appropriate career guidance, into "institutions of teacher supply" which shape people into teachers in order to guarantee the survival of their own organizations. The author also cites the necessity of interdisciplinary research to create a bridge between higher education and teacher preparation. For example, this article stresses the need to reconsider the definition of the two key phrases that have been used as the main principles in preceding researches on teacher education since World War II: "Teacher preparation in college" and "openness of teacher preparation." On the basis of recent research on higher education, as shown in this paper, there does not appear to be a consensus today on the two phrases. For example, the fact that the commonsense definition of "what is college?" has already been lost compels us to re-examine what kind of content is required for maintaining the quality of teacher preparation programs at the college level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the recent vigorous debate concerning the necessity for further increases in educational expenditure, the basic questions "Is Japan's spending on education really low?" and "Does money matter?" have never been examined analytically in Japan. The main purpose of this paper is to carry out a quantitative analysis of the effect and efficiency of educational expenditure in Japan and other developed countries. The paper consists of two parts. Firstly, using OECD expenditure data, I examine the conventional indices concerning educational expenditure and compare Japan and other developed countries using an alternative index. Secondly, I evaluate the effect of expenditures on secondary education and the inefficiencies of OECD countries by employing a stochastic frontier model. The following are the main results of the analyses. As to the comparison, there are some problems with the conventional macro indices such as educational expenditure per student, the educational expenditure- GDP ratio and the educational public expenditure-general public expenditure ratio. I employ the alternative index of Ram (1995) using the residuals of simple linear regression and compare the level of educational expenditures in OECD countries. In terms of primary and secondary education, the level of educational expenditure in Japan is close to the average of developed countries, and is therefore not much inferior to that of other developed countries, contrary to the recent claims concerning public education. The productivity of educational expenditure is evaluated in the light of two points: mean level and equity. The output indices of mean level and equity are estimated by the fixed-coefficient regression of the PISA data. The main analyses are conducted using a Bayesian semi-parametric stochastic frontier model which assumes no particular functional form concerning the effect of expenditures and the particular distribution concerning the inefficiencies. In terms of the mean level, an increase in educational expenditures has some positive effect. However, the production function is concave, and therefore there is a tendency for the effect of additional units of expenditure to diminish. The effect of educational expenditure on equity is neither monotonous nor strong. The estimated inefficiencies of each country tell us that there is a considerable gap between best practices and educational practices in many countries, and that the Japanese educational system is relatively efficient in mean level output and inefficient in equity output. These results imply that increasing educational expenditure requires further careful examination and discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores school effects in Japan, using a Multilevel Model Analysis. "School Effects" consider how schools can affect children's learning outputs. This is one of the important subjects in the sociology of education. Since the Coleman Reports of the 1960s, there has been much research investigating school effects all over the world. This is termed "School Effectiveness Research" (SER). Recently, SER researchers are planning comparative studies within countries, and this research has considerable attraction. Unfortunately, very few researchers in Japan knew about SER until 2000. Pioneers in SER in Japan are Nabeshima and Shimizu. They investigated school effects using the concept of "Effective Schools" conceived by Edmonds, one of the most famous early SER researchers. Japanese SER researchers argue that "Effective Schools" are characterized by "teacher cooperation," "leadership," and "good classroom climates." Finally, they conclude, "If all schools had these characteristics, social disadvantage would be less than at present." However, the concept of "Effective Schools" in Japan is problematic, and thus we need to reanalyze carefully the conclusions of pioneer SER research in Japan. In this paper, I firstly point out the lack of the concept of "Effective Schools" and propose a Multilevel Model Analysis (Hierarchical Linear Modeling) to analyze school effects. Secondly, I investigate school effects in Japan using the Multilevel Model Analysis, and analyze academic achievement tests at 5th grade conducted in Z City in the district of Kansai. The sample size is 3,366 children from 43 schools and explanatory variables are achievement score at 4th grade, children's gender, and children's cultural social class. The findings are as follows. Firstly, almost all the variance in academic achievements at 5th grade exists within schools. There is small variance between schools. Variance between schools is less than 5 percent. Secondly, the most important explanatory variable affecting achievement at 5th grade is achievement at 4th grade. The most explanatory variables following this are children's gender and cultural social class. Thirdly, although the variance between schools is very small, there is a score gap of 5 to 6 points between "the most effective school" and "the most ineffective school." Thus, there are very small score gaps between schools, but this does not mean that schools have no effect on the alleviation of social disadvantage caused by gender or social class. We draw the following conclusions from this analysis. First, junior high schools in Japan have very similar learning environments, and so there are only small score gaps between schools. Secondly, the prior achievement score has a very strong effect on achievement score at the 5th grade level. Investigating school outcomes without taking prior achievement scores into account is therefore very problematic. In Japan, few argue the importance of prior achievement tests, but this is a critical point for the analysis of achievement scores. Thirdly, it is important that researchers of SER in Japan understand that there is only small variance between Japanese schools and argue seriously about "what schools can and cannot do." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines and presents the characteristics of the "emotional labor" of teachers by analyzing interviews with ten elementary teachers. Moreover, it discusses the notion that the emotional labor of teachers is a teacher strategy. The concept of emotional labor, introduced by Hochschild (1983), contends that the emotion of workers becomes commoditized when these acts are sold for a salary and thereby estranged from the individual. Although Hochschild emphasizes the negative aspects of emotional labor, I contend here that the emotional labor of teachers may have strategic aspects even if it is compulsory. The differences between Hochschild's argument and that put forward by this author arise from two points. The first depends on the autonomy of work. The second depends on the aspect of emotional labor as a means by which teachers carry out their core classroom purposes. In this paper, I present a concrete analysis of the latter point. In Hochschild's argument, the commercialization of feelings and their instrumentality are dealt with as identical things, but the two aspects should be distinguished. I insist that the emotional labor of teachers has an instrumental aspect rather than one of commercialization. That is to say, for emotional labor in teaching it is important to consider how teachers manage pupils' emotions. Japanese teachers hope that pupils will grow up not only academically but also emotionally. In addition, a teacher's instruction is based on working on pupils' feelings. Thus teachers need to manage both pupil's feelings and their own in order to build relationships in which the parties are linked together by emotional bonds in order to enable teachers to control classrooms. Because of this, teachers are required to carry out emotion management of their work, and in this sense they constrain their emotional labor. However they carry out emotional labor strategically by changing the meaning of heteronomous emotion rules into valuable instruments for their pedagogical purposes. This strategic aspect of the emotional labor of teachers is a skill acquired in the process of socialization as teachers. Thus negative aspects do not reside in the characteristics of the emotional labor of teachers, but are caused by aspects (compulsory/strategic) which are emphasized when a teacher carries out emotional labor. However, as Hochschild shows, emotional labor becomes negative and draining when poor working conditions make it impossible for teachers to perform their work well. Accordingly, it is necessary to conduct further studies concerning the emotional labor of teachers in relation to the circumstances surrounding the teacher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to apply text theory to the reading of documents and to show an example Of how the theory is applied. In the field of cultural studies, there has been an accumulation of attempts to read texts. Among texts, a document is a special text, since it is written to be read from the beginning and therefore requires a particular way of reading. One method of analysis is to locate a document in different discourses in which some words gain meanings and others lose them. This paper examines a judicial ruling as an example of a document and attempts to show how to read it. The judicial ruling taken here is a decision on a lawsuit seeking compensation for a suicide caused by bullying in Iwaki City (1990). The victim was a third-year male junior high school student. It attracted considerable attention because it was the first case in Japan in which a court accepted professional negligence by school teachers as the cause for the suicide of a student. Three different meanings in three different discourses, that is, judicial, sociological, and educational radiate from this decision. First, in the judicial discourse, it is seen as quite senseless since it accepts the negligence of school teachers who could not foresee the suicide of the victim. This senseless decision, however, may be understandable in a sociological discourse. For, as Durkheim states in The Suicide, people tend to commit suicide for reasons of trifling matters when they cannot feel any bond with their society. If people accept the thought that ijime bullying breaks the feelings of a bond with society, and if they recognize the maliciousness of this, school officials can be seen as responsible for preventing the worst possible outcome, even if the particular direct causes of a suicide are not necessarily identified. This is the logic of the ruling. At the same time, the ruling placed 40 percent of the negligence on the victim himself. This 40 percent acknowledges his will and reason, in other, words, his personality until immediately before death. This indicates that other people can work with a victim as long as he is alive. There is no education without a personality. This is none other than to read the ruling as an educational discourse. As I have shown in the example above, reading a document in different discourses gives us opportunities to consider the many possible issues it potentially entails. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japan, the period from the early 1990s to the early 2000s is known as the lost decade. It is said that the economic recession, aging of society, declining birth rate, downsizing of enterprises and new gender role attitudes changed the patterns of one's life. During that period, women born in the early 1970s, who belong to the second generation of the postwar Baby Boomers, completed their education and entered into the labor market. Using work history data from SSM surveys, this paper clarifies how Japanese women's life course has changed from the cohort born in 1970-74. Although the M-shaped pattern of women's labor force participation still characterizes women's life course, the work life patterns of women in their twenties and early thirties has changed from the 1970-74 birth cohort. Fulltime employment is declining and the number of part-time and other irregular employees is growing. Mobility between workplaces has become increasingly frequent. Few women follow the pattern of transition from clerical workers to homemakers. The link between university education and work careers for women has strengthened. Using a graphic presentation, this paper demonstrates the differentiation of women's life courses in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With globalization, the number of people migrating internationally has increased considerably. This phenomenon is also evident in Japan. For example, in the past five to six years the number of newcomer migrants to areas such as Aichi prefecture has surpassed the number of foreign residents living in areas such as Osaka that have long traditions of attracting migrants. These changes in migration patterns have created new challenges for Japan's education system. This paper considers these challenges by addressing the following questions: Has the Japanese Ministry of Education developed an adequate education policy to accommodate children of different ethnic backgrounds? While it appears evident that the Fundamental Law of Education must be revised, does the Japanese government comprehend the changes that have occurred in local environments, the household, and schools to the extent needed to enact useful change? In this paper, the author addresses these issues by considering various educational challenges that global migration has brought to Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As we look into the future of Japan from the viewpoint of education policy, one critical issue is the changing composition of the country's population. The advent of an aging society combined with a low birthrate has had a prolonged and serious impact on Japan's entire education system. This paper, based on a full reflection on the history of the reorganization of school districts carried out throughout Japan in the postwar period, aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between education policy and the population issue. The main body of this paper consists of the following five parts. The first introduces the background of the study. The second depicts changes in the school-age population and projections into the future. The three phases of the reorganization of school districts, namely the municipal reorganization (cho-son gappei) phase, the phase of extreme population decline (kasoka) and the low birthrate phase, are described, and detailed analyses are conducted regarding these three phases. The fourth part, using Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo as an example, analyzes conflicts concerning the reorganization of school districts in central urban areas. The fifth part is an analysis of the "school selection system" and school districts. Based on the analyses, the following conclusions are drawn. The school institution, as one of the most popular and high-quality forms of social capital, has since the Meiji era become a symbol connecting individual residents living in local communities. However, many school districts have been destroyed during the process of reorganization and the only criteria for closing a particular school is the lack of financial efficiency. The education policy and population issue are closely interrelated, and the decision to close schools has caused great damage to local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines trends in regional gaps in higher educational opportunities after the High Growth Period and the effects of structural factors. In the 1970s, educational policies were put in place with the aim to promote equal opportunity. Currently, regional gaps in higher educational opportunity are increasing. The purpose of this paper is to provide basic findings and knowledge on present conditions to contribute to the debate on educational opportunities. As an index of educational opportunity, we use capacity and college and university entrance rates. The findings are as follows: (1) in the 1975-1990 period, under the educational policy that aimed to spread education, gaps decreased in both indices of educational opportunity; (2) however, this decrease was the result of shrinking gaps in the three large metropolises of Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, and educational opportunities were not necessarily expanding in the regions with the least educational opportunities; (3) after 1990, regional gaps began to increase again, due to rises in the three metropolises; (4) today, there are noticeable gaps not only among males but also among females by region; (5) the effects of socioeconomic conditions and school conditions on educational opportunities are increasing year by year. Today's regional inequalities are nearly equal to those in the 1970s when the educational policies were adopted, there is a possibility that equality of opportunities for education may become a political issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to clarify what are crucial issues for contemporary sociology of education, referring to papers contributed from abroad to this Journal and reviewing recent contributions from Japanese researchers of sociology of education. The author found out following topics which are most frequently discussed by researchers in and out of Japan. "education in postmodern society". "marketization of education", "polarization in equalized society", "self responsibility in postmodern society". "education as tool for risk management". Iwaki Hideo discusses a new type of meritocracy is appearing," global meritocracy". He argues that along with emerging web economy, symbol analysts are becoming a new main stream workers, they are making career beyond boundary of nation state in contrast with traditional meritocracy which tries to make success within a country. HONDA Yuki draws up a chart of human abilities required in modern and post modern society. According this chart, human capabilities required in post modern society are composed with characteristics like diversity, originality. aggressiveness, creativity, positive mind, network-friendliness. As for the topic of marketization of education, the author pointed out from on-going discussion on pro and con of free choice at compulsory school by parents and students. Among Japanese sociologists of education, there are two groups, proponents and opponents concerning this issue. Opponents are afraid of distractive effect to community solidarity., because compulsory school is deeply embedded in neighborhood community, and has close tie with community. Against that, there are opinions which expect that school choice system encourages innovation at school base. In the part, "Education as tool for risk management", which discusses mainly the education after 18 years old, a new concept of education is emerging. People consider themselves as an object of investment, and they make up self made career plan of learning and earning In unstable society of post modem time, people consider education as a tool of risk management of their own life time career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine the concept of "local pedagogy" in two middle schools in relation to the socioeconomic background of their school districts. Further, it aims to clarify the impact of social class culture on the "consummatorization of schooling." I selected two middle schools located in a single city, and continued fieldwork research for two years in the first school, which I have called Kitachu. and for four years in the second, Nanchu. There is a relatively large number of middle-class students at Kitachu. and Nanchu has a large number of working-class students. At each school, the teachers understand that their students and their parents have special characteristics. Students of Kitachu are careful about human relationships and often negotiate with the teachers, and the requirements of their parents toward the school are sometimes stiff. At Nanchu, the students are friendly, honest and compliant toward authority, and their parents' demands for accountability are not strict. Based on teachers' understanding of their students and parents, the teachers construct a different "local pedagogy" in each school. In, Kitachu, the teacher-student relationships are not close and teachers avoid coercing students or giving them orders. By contrast, in Nanchu. the teachers tend to take the initiative and teacher-student relationships are very close. In other words, a "consummatorization of schooling" is taking place in Kitachu, but not in Nanchu. These differences can be understood as follows. First, post-modern changes such as marketization and contemporary rules about human relationships began to spread especially among middle-class people. As a result, there are differences between social classes regarding how they bring those values into schools. Second, "local pedagogy" in Japanese school is constructed through compromises between teachers and their students' class cultures, thereby facilitating the "consummatorization of schooling." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, images of teachers are clarified using novels, movies and comics published after World War II in Japan. The complex views of teachers described by the term "enthusiastic teachers" are discussed. Even today, stereotypical images of "enthusiastic teachers" appear in TV dramas in Japan. This image depicts trust and expectations toward teachers. However. it is also easy to find criticisms of teachers in the media. In this article, we examine how these complicated views of teachers have been constructed and how the stereotypical images have changed over time. The idea of "enthusiastic teachers" emerged in the novel Seishun towa nanda (What is adolescence?) by Shintaro Ishihara. The characteristics of "enthusiastic teachers" are as follows: (1) Enthusiasm toward education, (2) Lack of teacher-like behavior, (3) Ideal human type, (4) An emphasis on the relationship with students, (5) Involvement in problems going into areas of privacy such as family and friends, These stereotypes of teachers evolved from actual Japanese teachers, who had strong relationships with the families of students. On the other hand, since the 1980s, "enthusiastic teachers" have disappeared while "delinquent teachers" have emerged in Japanese comics. These "delinquent teachers" never concern themselves with problems that infringe upon the privacy of students. This shows that since the 1980s, actual teachers have not been able to involve themselves in such areas. Nevertheless, teachers are still expected to act like "enthusiastic teachers" and to deal with the private matters of their students. Therefore, teachers do not fulfill the social expectations, as it is impossible for actual teachers to do so in contemporary situations. One of the reasons for the distrust toward teachers is such stereotypical images. There is a need to examine these stereotypical images of teachers and introduce various images of individual teachers in the real world. This is an important task for researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wave of neo-liberalism and marketization that has swept through the field of education in the last 30 years has also led to changes in teacher environments. This paper describes four viewpoints concerning the ways in which teacher environments have changed due to neo-liberalist policies. The first concerns teacher specialization. With the advance of marketization, teacher de-specialization has progressed and a trend towards the teaching profession becoming more like a service provider has occurred. This has resulted in a loss of authority on the part of teachers. At the same time. as seen in the establishment of graduate schools for teacher education, there are also moves to raise the level of specialization in the teaching profession. The characteristics of teacher policy in recent years show ambivalent movements towards both specialization and de-specialization. The second concerns the emphasis on teacher performance and teacher evaluation. A teacher performance evaluation system was introduced in the Tokyo Metropolitan area in 2000, and has since spread nationwide. The purpose of the system is to build a framework within which the motivation and efforts of teachers can be appraised and reported, but the appraisal of teaching work from its outward forms is fraught with difficulties. There is also the danger that it will, to the contrary, lower teacher motivation. The third concerns the trend towards the teaching profession becoming a service provider and teacher overload. Marketization has resulted in the voices of guardians, students, companies, and so on becoming more influential, increasing teacher workloads as they attempt to accommodate these voices, and bringing about an increase in the numbers of teachers taking leave of absence due to mental stress. This teacher overload has an impact on the quality of education in schools and the need to cope with this work overload has surfaced as a new task for schools. The fourth concerns the decline in teacher collegiality. Teacher collegiality enlivens day-to-day communications in schools, and assists in improving the efficiency of competence formation in teachers. However. the advance of bureaucratization in the school organization, and the privatization of the teacher environment have led to an erosion of collegiality in the teaching milieu. The Democratic Party of Japan was elected to power in the general election of August 2009. In its election manifesto, the Democratic Party stated that it would work for improvement in teacher capability and carry out a drastic review of the teachers' licensing system. How these election promises will be borne out in terms of policies is still unknown, but it is necessary to reject the notion that market principles are omnipotent and rebuild teaching as an attractive profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to clarify changes over time of images of working women during the prewar period following World War I in Japan. I investigated a major women's magazine (Fujin Kurabu). And, I examined how "ideal image of working women" described in the magazine had changed over time and how the images of working women were affected by the "good wife and wise mother" norm, which was prevailing before then. Working women at that time can be divided into two different types. One is "traditional working women" who were highly educated or skilled. They included teachers, doctors, and nurses. The other is "modern working women" who worked in the tertiary industry that had developed after World War I. and which did not require a highly educated or skilled labor force. The number of modern working women increased dramatically from the 1920s, and become the dominant pattern among working women. Many of these women, however, worked at low pay and had little chance of career promotions. At first, the modern working women were seen as second class workers in contrast to the traditional working women, who were seen as first class. The image of the traditional working women, who gained high status and fame, constituted the "ideal image of working women" in the early 1920s. The social trend toward the idea of women's liberation encouraged this image. The relationship between the working women and the norm of "good wife and wise mother" was actively discussed in the magazine. On the other hand, it was considered ideal for modern working women, who could not be like the traditional working women, to achieve social promotion not through their jobs but through their job environment. That is, the modern working women gained increased opportunities for marriage in the workplace. Modern working women came to be seen as potential "good wives and wise mothers" and were comparable as an ideal with women who married after graduating from school without ever working. The idea also supported a continuous quantitative expansion of modern working women from the 1920s. As modern women came to occupy the majority of working women in the 1930s, the "ideal image of working women" in the magazine gradually changed from the traditional working woman to the modern working woman. The image of the modern working woman became incorporated into the norm of "good wife and wise mother." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to review the qualitative researches that have been carried out in the last decade, in the field of sociology of education. First, we explore the studies in the new field of "sociology of education", which focus on the educational processes in school where students assimilate cultures under social control. These studies reveal demonstratively, for example, how a 'macro-level' educational idea takes shape in a 'micro-lever classroom, or how a change in the 'macro-lever educational situation is related to a change in the 'micro-lever classroom. Then, we examine the studies of education for the new comers, which area of study has been expanding and deepening recently. The new-comer students in Japan have been treated as minority, and researchers have applied the qualitative methods to look into the reality of the situation. Empirical researches, as well as critical ones, have led to the new studies which evaluate the educational practice theoretically. It must be noted that constructionism has played an important role on the development of qualitative researches. Social constructionists deal with educational discourse, deviant behavior and social problems, adopting observations of participants, interviews, and/or ethnographies. And, they apply the methodology to the problems specific to educational practice. Lastly, we consider relationship between the researcher and the subject, and raise a question how to describe the relationship in the articles. Qualitative researchers often interact face to face with their subjects, communicating with each other in the process of field work However, it all depends on the researcher to analyze the data and present them, even though the subject takes part in an active and important way. Consequently, the reader could not see what kind of relationship the researcher has with the subject, unless the writer describe anything about it. We divide researchers into a few groups, according to their styles of description of the relationship: (1) researcher in a position of social scientist, (2) researcher describing the relation in a way of; (a) making people aware of it, (b) utilizing it as research material. After examining these groups, we have reached the conclusion that researcher need to devote more attention to the process of observing and interviewing their subjects, and describing the result. When researchers make their own reports of the facts that they observe, they must always give detailed account of their methods. To promote the qualitative researches in the field of sociology of education, it is worth bearing in mind that the researcher should give an accurate description of the issue, as well as the methods they have adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the active acceptance of psychological knowledge has progressed in Japanese schools. The institutionalization of school counselors is a typical feature of this movement. Generally this movement has been understood as one aspect of the psychologization of Japanese society as a whole. The psychologization of Japanese society has been conceptualized as a trinity of the following three components. The first is the acceptance of psychological knowledge. The second is an enlargement of the value of psychological reductionism, which is regarded as encouraged by the spread of psychological knowledge. And the third component is an enlargement of the value of emotivism, which signifies attaching great importance to taking care of the minds of oneself and others. Psychologization is a phenomenon under which these components progress simultaneously. The purpose of this paper is to reexamine the general presupposition that the active acceptance of psychological knowledge in Japanese schools is one aspect of psychologization of Japanese society, using analyses from nationwide survey data. It is certain that all the three components of psychologization are commonly observed in Japanese schools today. However, we lack sufficient evidence to believe that there is correlationality between the components and that they have a meaningful association. Data from JGSS-2005 were used for the analyses. Although the units of the data are individuals, the data contain variables that can be used as indices for all three components of psychologization. Can it be said that the more psychological knowledge one has, the more psychological reductionism and emotivism one adopts when considering the child's education? The author examined this question using loglinear models and logistic regression analyses. The results of the analyses made it clear that people with psychological knowledge showed a tendency toward emotivism, but did not show a tendency toward psychological reductionism. From an additional analysis, it was found that the cause of the spurious correlation between psychological knowledge and psychological reductionism is educational background. This finding has some implications. The active acceptance of psychological knowledge in Japanese schools should not be perceived as one aspect of the trinity of psychologization. Rather, it should be interpreted as a diffusion of a child-centered perspective, which is affinitive with emotivism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's academic achievements differ by social class. Today, many researchers investigate schools that effectively reduce these differences. They have pointed out that in schools that are successful in this endeavor, there are many practices aimed at raising the academic achievements of children from lower classes. In this paper, I attempt to clarify the effects of these practices from the viewpoint of added value. This study aims to compare the actual achievement levels of children of each region with those estimated based on their socio-economic conditions and to clarify the educational conditions in the regions in which the actual levels are higher than expectations. For my method, I analyzed the data of academic achievement tests. I clarified children's achievement levels in 49 cities and wards in the Tokyo metropolitan area and in school districts in Adachi Ward (73 primary school districts, 38 junior high school districts). I examined the relations between the achievement levels and the socio-economic conditions of each region. Using this data, I estimated achievement levels using regression analysis. Regions were then divided into types by comparing the expected levels and actual ones. I named regions whose achievement levels were higher than expected "Effort types." The opposites are named, "Problem types." I then investigated the differences of educational conditions between these two types. It. was found that in Effort types, the numbers of children per school, class and teacher are relatively small. School size, class size and teacher's burden are small in these regions. In Problem types, they are relatively large. These differences are significant in the data from school districts in Adachi Ward. Based on the findings, I concluded as follows: 1. The influence of social background on children's academic achievement can be reduced by the improvement of educational conditions such as reducing class size, which is the task of educational administrations. 2. The improvement of educational conditions is less effective for raising the absolute level of academic achievement. It is effective for the reduction of the social determinants of children's academic abilities. 3. Evaluations of schools from the viewpoint of added value are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The entry rate into the elite of university graduates who graduated with honor was higher than that of other graduates in Japan in the pre World War II period. What kinds of effects can explain this phenomenon? Three possibilities can be considered to explain it: first, honor graduates may be more successful in any job, so that there would naturally be a correlation between the university adaptability indicated by high grades and vocational success; second, they might have found it easy to gain sponsorship from established elite groups because of their honor grades, even if there were no necessary correlation between college grades and vocational success through severe competition; third, they may have found it easier to enter vocational sectors which were more accessible to the elite. The aim of this paper is to clarify how these three possibilities worked to create elites in the pre-war period, sampling mainly Summa Cure Laude graduates from Tokyo Imperial University. The main findings are as follows: (1) it is clear that Summa Cum Laude graduates entered jobs which were more accessible to the elite, such as Imperial University professorships or prestigious government positions; (2) they were more successful in whatever job they entered; (3) however, it is obvious that the Summa Cum Laude graduates received some special treatment in becoming Imperial University professors and were sometimes given advantageous positions and experiences as government officers, despite the fact that the competition for high elite positions in private companies was based on merit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1985, an interesting report that helps understand the relation between the population and the labor market was published. This report, 21 Seiki no Sarari -man Shakai, made forecasts on changes in the Japanese employment system toward the year 2000 by forecasting the manpower requirements in various occupations and analyzing the impact of the baby boomers on the labor market. Looking back over this past forecast and learning from its experience, this paper makes projections in the following two areas. The first is a forecast of the manpower requirements by industry and occupation in 2015. The report, based on a consideration of both the change of population by age and structural changes in industry, makes clear that there will be a large mismatch of supply and demand in the labor force. In particular, the service industry sector will experience a shortage of 2.34 million workers and the there will be a shortage of 1.67 million professionals. Conversely there will be too many manufacturing and technical workers. These dramatic changes will accelerate mobility in employment, it projects, to a level above the figure projected in the report in 1985. The second is an analysis of the relation between the number of workers and wages, an indicator of the quality of labor, during three decades of 1976-2006. The main results are as follows. 1) Based on an analysis of relative wages by age group, the ratio of wages of the group in their fifties divided by that of those in their twenties, and of the number of workers in same age groups, it is possible to conclude that the shock of increasing numbers of seniors has been absorbed and that the seniority management system has been maintained through a decline in the wages of seniors relative to the young. 2) Based on the same approach, looking at the relative wages and number of workers by educational background, the relative wage of university graduates to high school graduates has been rising among workers in their thirties and forties even as the number of university educated graduates has increased. This suggests the important policy implication that university is never an over-investment in education because the labor demand for university graduates is rising compared to that for high school graduates within the changing labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the demographic and economic background behind the recent increase in the number of Japanese women advancing to four-year universities. The factors behind the change include declining family size, changes in the labor market structure leading to a fall in the market value of the "female capital" of junior college graduates, and changes in women's employment behavior across their life course. A multinomial logistic regression analysis using NFRJ03 revealed weakening effects of sibship size and increasing odds of women advancing to four-year universities among younger cohorts. The changes in the return rates of educational investment also gave parents incentives to invest more equally among their sons and daughters. Women with four -year university diplomas, particularly those who had graduated after the enactment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law in 1986, had an increased probability of staying in the labor market. A discrete-time logit model hazard analysis estimating the effect of marriage and childbirth, however, revealed that the change is mainly due to changes in the timing of family formation, and particularly childbirth. The results suggest that gender equality in intra-family resource transfers for educational attainment involves a serious dilemma between equity between men and women and the reproductive success of the offspring for highly educated women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In considering the relation between population change and educational reform, investment in extra-school education can be a focal problem. In the 1990s, Japanese educational reform, and in particular cutbacks in the school curriculum, increased the need for investment in extra-school education, imposing a considerable burden on households. Also in this period, the advancement rate to higher education increased but the recession after the "bubble economy" may have led to an increased economic gap in educational achievement. Some researchers have pointed out that in spite of the declining birthrate in post-war Japan, the number of siblings was still a restrictive condition of educational achievement after controlling for social origin. In this paper, we first examined the relationship between the number of siblings and educational investment and achievement, using 2005 SSM (Social Stratification and Mobility) survey data. We found that for nearly all cohorts, both male and female, the number of siblings tended to be associated with a decrease in the experience rate of extra-school education. The number of siblings had a negative effect on investment in extra-school education. In spite of the popularization of investment into extra-school education and the declining birthrate, it seems that this negative effect of number of siblings on educational investment had endured in post-war Japan. We also found that educational investment had a stronger effect on educational achievement for the youngest cohort (born 1971-1985) than for previous cohorts. For the youngest male cohort, in particular, experience of extra-school education had a strong effect on academic achievement in junior high school, which in turn affected educational achievement. In this respect, it seems that investment to extra-school education has recently come to strengthen the "amplifying effect of meritocracy." We then investigated the determinants of parents' intention to make educational investment, and investment per month to their children. We found that parents' experience of extra-school education had a major influence on their intention to make educational investments into their children after controlling for their educational levels and family income. However, educational investment per month was not determined by parents' experience of extra-school education, but by family income and intention. We thus found that parents' experience of extra-school education had an indirect influence on investment into extra-school education for their children through intention to provide educational investment. It has been pointed out that especially in metropolitan areas, academic achievements of children are affected by the level of monthly educational investment, which based on parent's educational expectation and family income. This may mean that under the marketization of education, it may be that meritocracy is being substituted by "parentocracy," i. e., a mechanisms under which parental wealth and educational expectations determine the educational achievement of children. It has also been pointed out that Japanese public expenditures on education are low by international standards and that this has imposed a heavy burden on households and accelerated the decline of the birthrate. In order to reduce both inequality in educational achievement and declining birthrate, increasing public expenditures on education may be a critical task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At 1954, Professor Yoshihiro SHIMIZU of Tokyo University emphasized that the Educational Population Study could be a major topic in the field of the sociology of education. He was well informed regarding contemporary research trends in French sociology, and was very aware of the importance of the Population Study. Since then, several students in the sociology of education have engaged themselves in the study of educational populations. Governments have compiled statistics on education like student population, number of teachers and educational expenditure. In some countries these statistical data can be traced back to the middle of the 19th century. The first scholar who attempted a systematic analysis of such governmental educational statistics was Friedrich Edding in Germany. In 1957, he published International Trends in Educational Expenditures. In this book he compared trends of educational expenditures in several countries since the middle of the 19th century. From this time-series comparative study he drew the conclusion that countries which had attained a similar level of economic development should have similar sizes of educational systems and similar sizes of investment in education. In 1961, he presented a keynote paper to the OECD conference on "Economic Growth and the Investment in Education" along with Svennilson and Elvin, pointing out the existence of a strong correlation between the enrolment ratio and per capita GNP of OECD member countries. At the same time, they examined the ratio of educational expenditures to GNP, and they broke down 5 components which determine the ratio of educational expenditure among GNP, like proportion of school age population among total population, enrollment ratio, ratio of average teacher salary against GNP p. c. and per-teacher student ratio. This formulation has made possible international comparison of those educational indicators. Furthermore this formulation has made possible the simulation of educational expenditure allocation. This simulation model is now used by various international cooperation agencies to make clear trade-off relationship between various educational indicators. Stimulated with these research trends overseas, several Japanese students of educational population has started to analyze the trends of Japanese educational population based on modified models which have been developed in oversea countries. The author, who studied with Friedrich Edding since 1968, forecasted required numbers of high school and educational expenditure necessary for this expansion in 1974. Since then, various research outputs have been produced in the field of educational population studies. One major task facing this field of study is to extend the research perspective beyond the borders of one country. With globalization, movements of educational populations should no longer be confined within one country's borders. A second task is to encourage follow-up studies to ensure the quality of research outcomes in the field of educational population studies. Japanese scholars of sociology of education produce a large research output every year. However, most lack connections with the outputs of their colleagues. Outside people are much interested with those research outcomes, but most of the outcomes are not verified objectively by colleagues. Therefore, outside people are skeptical about whether these findings of particular experts are reliable because of the lack of follow-up studies. Recently, there have been strong opinions in factor of "Evidence-based policy." To put this into reality, we need to vitalize the cross-check studies, follow-up studies on research output done by our colleague researchers in the field of educational population studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One premise of studies on the Japanese university participation rate is that there have been three stages: expansion, stagnation, and re expansion. A second premise is the prefecture is used as the unit to determine whether students have moved upon entrance to university. However, the prefecture as a measurement unit does not always coincide with the zone from which students can attend university from home, or "the hometown." Therefore, using data from the "Student Life Survey" of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. this study directly measures the ratio of members of the 18 year-old cohort who entered university from home, and the ratio of those living away from home (19681998). In this paper, the former is called the university participation rate from home, and the latter the university participation rate from away from home. The finding is that for girls, the university participation rate &ore home has risen fairly consistently. This is important knowledge for the first premise of studies on the university participation rate. It appears that the reason why preceding studies have not given a successful explanation of the university participation rate of girls based on economic variables, whereas that of boys has been successfully explained, is because the cost of movement has not been considered. Therefore, this study confirms the effect of the cost of movement, and clarifies the difference of the determining factors of the university participation rate from home according to gender or university location. Furthermore, this study confirms a difference between girls and boys for each economic variable effect including the movement cost effect after controlling for factors peculiar to university location. The results are that the limiting conditions are more sensitive in large cities than in rural areas, and that girls are more sensitive to the limiting conditions than boys when controlling for the factor peculiar to the area. This suggests the reproduction of the composition where "girls remain in the local area, and boys move out." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate when and how the meaning of high school diplomas changed during the era of educational expansion in two senses: 11) subjective and (2) objective. More concretely, it examines: (I) how people recognized high school diplomas and (2) how high school diplomas functioned in the achievement of occupational and economic status. To examine these points, the authors focus on postwar Japan, when the high school enrollment rate rose dramatically under the new educational system. The data used in the analyses are Social Stratification and Social Mobility (SSM) data collected every ten years since 1955. Three cohorts, divided according to the high school enrollment rate, are compared. The high school enrollment rate is 50% to 65% among the first cohort, 66% to 89% for the second, and more than 90% for the third. The enrollment rate increased continuously during the first and second cohorts, so the former is named the "early phase" and the latter the "later phase." The enrollment rate roaches a plateau in the third. "Desired educational level" and "desired occupation" are used in the analysis of subjective meaning. "Occupation of first job," "occupation of present job," and "present persona[ income" are used to clarify the meaning in an objective sense. The analysis of subjective meaning reveals the following. As the high school enrollment rate increased dramatically, the desired level of education rose with it. More people wanted to go on to higher level of education: high school and higher education. But the desired occupation of people who wanted to go to high school was almost the same for the early phase and later phase cohorts. However, the actual first jobs of high school graduates in the two cohorts were very different. Fewer people obtained white collar jobs and more entered into blue collar jobs in the latter cohort. Comparing present job and present personal income for each of the four data sets since 1965, the three cohorts can be characterized as follows. In the early phase, a relatively large number of people acquired white collar jobs at an early stage of their occupational careers, and a substantive ratio maintained these jobs to 1995. In addition, personal income increased steadily as people of this cohort became older. On the other hand. a large number of people in the later phase cohort started working in blue-collar jobs. But as they got older, they seemed to move into different types of jobs. The personal income of this cohort increased dramatically in 1995. Therefore, it can he said that this cohort "caught up." For the last cohort, however, there seemed to be little chance of upward mobility in either occupational or economic status, In sum, if only the function of high school diplomas is considered, the meaning of high school diplomas changed between the early and later phase. But if the "catching up" of members of the later phase and the subjective meaning of high school diplomas is taken into account, there is little difference in how people recognize and value high school diplomas between first two cohorts. Therefore, a distinctive line can be drawn between the later phase and the next cohort 6. e.. the plateau), when the premium of being a high school graduate diminished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modernizing Japan, people from rural districts came to occupy many important positions in government officials, elite professionals and employees of private corporations in the metropolitan areas (major cities). They are called "Moving Elites." Considering that these "Moving Elites" moved away from their hometowns to live near their workplaces, the author decided to examine the types of social networks they established in the cities where they lived with people other than their classmates at school and colleagues at work. The paper aims to determine the method of communication used by the "Moving Elites" with others in different professions in the cities where they worked and the differences in methods of communication between people in their hometowns and those in the cities where they worked. Based on this question, this thesis focuses on the "Kaetsuno Association," which was established by people from Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures at the beginning of the Meiji Period and was active until the beginning of World War II. This thesis uses, as the target of analysis, people who graduated from junior high schools and high schools in the Meiji Period. The characteristics of the human networks of "Moving Elites" are examined, for both members and non members of the association. The results are as follows, 1. The people who became members of the Kaetsuno Association were graduates from imperial universities and military related schools in education, who took jobs as military officers, teachers and government officials. On the other hand, graduates of private institutions of higher education, who worked in commerce, manufacturing industries and farming, had only a peripheral relationship to the association. 2. From a generational viewpoint, there was a tendency for individuals from the newer generation who graduated from junior high schools under the old education system at the end of Meiji Period to show little interest in joining the association compared to members of older generations. 3. Although members of the association actively discussed their hometowns and the characteristics of people from their home regions, the purpose of the discusskins was not to unify people from the same districts, but to reveal anxieties concerning their identities in the cities, frustrations when their opportunities for promotion at work decreased, and even their communication problems with others. It is totally impossible to conclude that the association was able to create a situation that resembled the cultural unification of "upper groups of middle class people," despite the fact that they were originally from rural districts. Only the aspect of the isolation of "Moving Elites" stood out in the association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]