Search

This paper aims to clarify how educational and occupational expectations of students are conditioned by school track under Japanese school-to-work linkage. We compare Japan to the US and Germany, which have specific characteristics of school-to-work linkage of their own according to the literature. Our analysis is based on Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data collected by OECD. Using indicators from the literature, we can define the institutional characteristics of each country as follows: all the indicators are high in Germany, and low in the US, but in the case of Japan, the indicators for stratification and standardization are high, while vocational specificity is low. From the patterns of these indicators, we construct hypothesis about the effect of school track on students' educational and occupational expectations in each country. From our analysis, we can see that tracking in Germany strongly affects the educational and occupational expectations, while tracking in the US did not strongly affect either expectation. In Japan, school track strongly constrained educational expectations, but not occupational expectations. These results can be consistently interpreted as a consequence of different school-to-work linkages in these countries explained by using three indicators above. Therefore, we can conclude that we succeeded in clarifying distinguishing characteristics of the school track effect on student expectations in Japan compared to the US and Germany in relation to the institutional differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives an account of Prof. Dr. Kinji Shimizu, the first president of Nagoya Institute of Technology, and his establishment of Nagoya Municipal Science Museum. After graduating from the Electrical Engineering Department of Kyoto Imperial University in 1923, Shimizu was impressed by the German Museum in Munich during his stay there as a student in 1932. It's the first time that he learned the education in cooperation with industries. Just after the Second World War, he became director general of the Ministry of Education. However, new education system given by the United States focused not on developing practical ability but on gaining the basic knowledge, which is contrary to what he expected. Then, he contributed to the establishment of the Japanese Society for Engineering Education, besides working as the president of Nagoya Institute of Technology in the earlier 1950s. His idea was supported by industries for the economic growth. Throughout his career, Prof. Dr. Shimizu was convinced that practical engineering education would benefit Japan, and wanted to introduce cooperative education between universities and industries, along the lines of the same system in Germany and the United States. With this vision he founded Nagoya Municipal Science Museum in cooperation with local industries and local government as his final achievement. The museum was completed in 1964.

Toward the 21st century, subjects and methods of hygiene and public health will be specialized and subdivided. However, practical approaches to human health need an integrated method focusing to a structure of human life. Under these circumstances, the concept of 'health culture' becomes prevalent. The role of hygiene related to the improvement of life style, the development of re-cycle system, and fulfillment of a barrier-free system focussed on the handicapped and the elderly have become increasingly important. Therefore, an increase in the recognition to the concept of 'health culture' is essential to the research of hygiene. The purpose of this paper is to make a historical and theoretical analysis of health culture', in order to promote it as the leading concept of all activities concerned with health in the 21st century. The methods of this paper are mainly historical and theoretical review. 'Health culture' was introduced in American and European societies a hundred years ago. Health culture in the USA involves knowledge and skills applied to actual daily life, refrecting pragmatism as the ideal feature of American society. In Germany, the concept of 'Hygienishe Kultur' was established at the field of social hygiene by Grotjahn and by Fischer in the early 20th century. This concept recognized the importance of the development of culture and independence of life in labour based on the evolution of the concept of 'Hygienishe Kultur'. In Japan, under the influence of German social hygiene, the social hygienic theory flourished. A social hygienist, Tetsuo Hoshino used the term 'hygienic culture' in the context of life creation toward a healthy life. Health culture is the total system concerning knowledge, experience, skill, and norms related to health, which has developed with the development of society. It has fundamental function promotes the creation of culture and self-cultivation of living man, whereas, it contributes to the realization of health based on individuality, in conjunction with the co-operation of medical and health sciences. The contemporary representation of health culture includes new health care activities such as self-care, a self-help movement, and health volunteer activities. It means the basic shift of the function of health culture is from that of life style to life movement. Nowadays, the role of hygiene in the total health care system is seriously considered. The goal, objects, and methods of hygiene should be re-evaluated under the concept of 'health culture', in order to re-define hygiene as the science for people living in a society.