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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]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the actual management condition of Keio University during the Meiji period from 1903 to 1912 through analyses of the educational curricula and faculty salaries at Keio University in that period. Faculty are necessary to conduct educational curricula, and salaries are paid to the faculty as compensation. Although, from the management point of view, education and its finance are inseparably related to each other, this relationship has not been adequately considered in previous studies. In this paper, the historical issue of "the friction between education and finance" is considered by focusing on the forms of employment of faculty. In the analysis of the educational curricula, it was ascertained how many hours of classes were assigned to full-time faculty, and how the faculty were allocated. As a result it was found that there were differences among the study subjects in both the hours assigned and the allocation. In the analysis of faculty salaries, the management of personnel, the analysis of personnel expenses and the actual conditions of the remuneration and responsibilities of individual faculty were ascertained. With regard to the management of personnel, the three points of adoption management, work hours and salaries were considered. In the analysis of personnel expenses, it was shown that the total amount of faculty salaries increased year by year and, in particular, that 90% of this amount was accounted for by the salaries of full-time faculty. In the consideration of the remuneration and responsibilities of individual faculties, it was found that there was a hierarchy among full-time faculty of "high salary and few responsibilities" and "low salary and many responsibilities." To summarize the foregoing findings, a tendency could be recognized at Keio University for a small number of full-time faculty assigned to highly specialized class subjects to be given a "high salary and few responsibilities," and for a large number of full-time faculty assigned to class subjects on the general level to be given a "low salary and many responsibilities." It may be considered that such a hierarchy was one which had resulted from an aim to maintain and develop Keio University. [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]

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]

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 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]

The purpose of this paper is to examine who enters senmon gakko (Japanese vocational schools), how they use this education, and how this usage has changed over time. The senmon gakko has not been fully explored as an object of academic concern, since it possesses an amorphous nature derived from the separation of its legal position (as an institution of post-secondary education) and its practical position (as an institution of higher education). Preceding studies have made conflicting arguments regarding what kind of high school students enter senmon gakko. There have been two different positions. The first is the higher educational model, which sees the senmon gakko as an institution of higher education and presumes that the entrants belong to a similar stratum as their counterparts in university or junior college. The second is the post-secondary educational model, which regards the senmon gakko as an institution of post-secondary education and underlines its uniqueness. Today, the senmon gakko is often discussed in educational policies and academic discussions as if it were one of the institutions of higher education. Historically, however, senmon gakko were set up as less prestigious institutions of post-secondary education, beginning in 1976, and were long disparaged because of this. In other words, the position of the senmon gakko has changed from post-secondary education to higher education, and this change is emphasized in this paper. Some indices indicate that the turning point took place in 1990. In consideration of this, the author established the hypothesis that the change in the position of the senmon gakko reflects alterations in the students. This hypothesis is examined by applying a multinomial logistic regression analysis and other methods to the JGSS data set. The results suggest that the hypothesis is adopted. Until the 1990s, the senmon gakko was the unique route for high school graduates from the self-employed and similar strata to attain blue-collar or lower-level white-collar jobs as an initial career. So it can be said that the senmon gakko provided a relatively profitable path. Since the 1990s, however, with the increase in students from the lower white-collar class, senmon gakko students have become similar to university students in terms of social class. Now they are clearly different from high school graduates in their origins. However, from a comparison of entrance (family background and school records) with exit (initial jobs), the senmon gakko provides a smaller pay-out than it did before the 1990s. These findings demonstrate that the change in the users and usages of senmon gakko show a process through which post-secondary education is reorganized into higher education. The Japanese General Social Surveys (JGSS) are designed and carried out at the Institute of Regional Studies at Osaka University of Commerce in collaboration with the Institute of Social Science at the University of Tokyo under the direction of Ichiro TANIOKA, Michio NITTA, Hiroki SATO and Noriko IWAI with Project Manager Minae OSAWA. The project is financially assisted by a Gakujutsu Frontier Grant from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for the 1999-2003 academic years, and the datasets are compiled and distributed by the SSJ Data Archive, Information Center for Social Science Research on Japan, Institute of Social Science, the University of Tokyo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in social capital has grown recently among researchers both in Japan and around the world. It is "bridging social capital" that attracts particular attention today. Minorities tend to be portrayed as people who are denied such social capital. The author argues that it is important to examine the kind of social capital which is generated and utilized in networks developed by minorities themselves. This paper focuses on the "Burakumin," the largest minority population in Japan. Discriminated-against Buraku communities have benefited during the past half century from specific government legislation realized through the efforts of the Buraku liberation movement, as well as various Buraku improvement measures. On the other hand, however, new difficulties have developed recently such as the stagnation of the liberation movement, widening disparities in income and academic achievement within Buraku communities, and the abolition of relevant laws. In this context, we can analyze the impact of environmental changes on social capital and the formation of social networks based on it over time. This paper clearly reveals that there is dilemma between the assumption of homogeneity and the formation of minority networks. It also reveals that class -based disparities can be observed within the network and that the qualitative change of benefits influences the formation of networks. "Bonding social capital" is by no means uniform. We run the risk of overlooking diversity and disparity within the network if we emphasize homogeneity. In addition, the "positive" and "negative" aspects of social capital are not static, but change variously based on influences such as "being valued by people outside of the network" and "qualitative changes over time." This paper examines these dynamic aspects that are specific to the social networks developed by minorities. This paper focuses on "bonding social capital" within minority networks. In the case of social networks formed with the aim of achieving "liberation" from oppression, it is indispensable to build effective relationships with entities outside the network. Therefore, an important future task for the author is to maintain a good balance between "bridging social capital" and "bonding social capital," upon which minority networks rely heavily. [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]

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]

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]

In the period from 1975 to 2004, Japan accepted more than 152,000 new immigrant children under the age of 14 years, but there are no surveys or censuses on their academic achievements. This paper examines how "age or grade at the time of immigration" affected the academic achievements of 147 Chinese children who lived in a school district in Osaka as junior high school students. Using cross tabulation, the author finds that the percentage of high-school enrolment in the 1.5 generation (i. e. those who came to Japan as elementary schoolchildren) was much higher than that of the 1.25 generation (i. e. those who came to Japan as junior high school students) and even higher than that of 1.75 generation (i. e. those who came to Japan before the age of 6). In another cross tabulation, the author finds that high school students whose father was not a peasant in China were more likely to receive higher education than other high school students. The author then analyzes the determinants of years of education employing regressive analysis and finds that "Grade at the time of immigration" and "father's job in China" both have a consistent effect on years of education, such that years of education was highest when the child came to Japan as a third or fourth grader in elementary school. It is surprising to see that many members of the 1.75 and 2.0 generation quit school before entering high school. This indicates that the Chinese community (including their parents) are losing control over these children, who no longer speak fluent Chinese at home and school. As soon as the 1990s began, Japan experienced a large flow of immigrant, which lasted throughout the decade, and now most of the newcomer immigrant children in junior high school are members of the 1.75 generation, and soon will be replaced by the 2.0 generation. This paper, focusing on the difficulties faced by 1.75 or 2.0 generation immigrant children in surviving in school beyond the junior high level, acts as a warning that there will be many dropouts among Japanese monolingual immigrant children in the near future if no support or control is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine how the relation between general education and the world of work was structured, and what supported it in the early Showa Era, when the relationship appeared, through an analysis of the state of vocational guidance in primary school. Section 1 points out that the "Japanese" pattern of transition from school to work dates from the prewar period, and that earlier studies only clarified the intention and the actual situation on the part of companies or employment agencies. However, in order to grasp the entire historical process of the structuring of the system, it is necessary to elucidate the intention and the actual situation on the part of schools, and to inquire again on the issue of transition as a problem of education. The paper then explains the significance of clarifying the problem mentioned above. Section 2 examines the opinion of the Ministry of Education on the introduction of institutions for vocational guidance, and considers the kind of problems that occurred in school. It shows that setting up a special subject of vocational guidance has consistently been shelved although teachers thought the problems emerged because of the lack of such courses. In the background was an essential aporia regarding vocational guidance. The aporia was caused by the fact that the transition from school to work was not always successful even if vocational aptitude tests were complete, because it depended on the situation of the labor market. Section 3 clarifies that two methods for giving vocational guidance in primary schools emerged. The two methods were as follows: (1) directly helping students to find jobs, (2) cultivating a "spirit of enterprise." In addition, the paper points out that this divergence corresponded to an aporia in vocational guidance, based on "ideal" versus "reality." These methods led to the development of the relation between general education and the world of employment in postwar times, with "continuity in system" and "discontinuity in substance." Section 4 discusses "Love," which was used to support vocational guidance in school. "Love" was a magic word used to justify both methods, and to hinder any examination of the methodology of vocational guidance. The paper then argues that "Love" was the trigger for the emergence of the issue regarding transition as a problem of education. Section 5 is a summary and discussion. It points out that the divergence of methods for giving guidance was an inevitable result considering the matter of transition as a problem of education. Moreover, it hypothesizes that the two methods of vocational guidance in school were united by the justification of the practices using the word "Love". The word "'Love" continued to be used in postwar times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine relations between Japanese and foreigners in terms of educational support in communities from the perspective of the maintenance and change of relations. The paper clarifies the relationship by analyzing the gaze and interactions between undergraduate students and the newcomer children to whom they provide educational support. Previous research has discussed the educational problems of newcomers in the context of Japanese school culture. However, in order to focus on the relationship between Japanese and foreigners and to explain the maintenance and changing of the power of majority, it is necessary to study not only the school but also the relations in the community. In addition, some practical research focuses on educational support activities for newcomers, but is based on experiences rather than a theoretical background, and tends to find that support activities by NPOs have the potential to revolutionize the social system. However, some argue that relations between the majority and minority can be asymmetrical in the context of voluntary support. Therefore, this paper analyzes qualitative data, examining whether asymmetrical power relations between Japanese and newcomers are built or not within support activities in a community by an NPO, and how the relations are maintained or changed. The author interviewed and observed three undergraduate students participating in an NPO that provides educational supports for newcomer children. The following findings are obtained. First, the undergraduates had asymmetrical relations with the newcomer children, as they problematized the children's behavior. However, opportunities stemming from conflicts with the children led to the dissolution of the asymmetrical relations over "problems," as the undergraduates asked "questions" to understand the children. Second, while asymmetrical relations were maintained over "support," there was also a change in the relations with the children and parents. When the focus of narration is the worth of support activities rather than relations with newcomers, the categories of "Japanese who support foreigners" and "foreigners who are supported by Japanese" are fixed, and the asymmetrical relations are maintained. On the other hand, when a person has personal relationships with newcomers, and re narrates the problems and needs of newcomers as his/bet "own problems," the asymmetrical relations change. If Japanese supporters consider the relations between themselves to be more important than those with newcomers, they become blind to their asymmetrical relationship and conceal it under the story of "support." This leads to a paradox of support under which relations are fixed as long as Japanese support newcomers. However, if Japanese re narrate the needs of newcomers as their "own problems," they can free themselves from the asymmetry and create alternative relations with newcomers Previous research failed to sufficiently examine the power relations in support activities. Only looking at the positive side of support by NPOs, however, can blind one to the asymmetrical relations in support. Simply providing support for minorities does not free one from power relations. Research on relations between Japanese and foreigners in support activities in communities should be continued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes, in the context of their surroundings, the process through which high school students who came from China in and after the 1970s (Chinese newcomers), rebuild their hopes for the future, which were at one point destroyed by their coming to Japan, and make career choices. Chinese newcomers originally have their own life plans, based on school education and their life experiences in China. Coming to Japan is an interruption of their plans for the future. How do they rebuild a future outlook and pursue a desired career in Japan? It seems that, because newcomer students are at a disadvantage in terms of Japanese language, they are not able to maximize their academic ability, and tend to enter low-level high schools. How does this affect their school life and their academic career? And what kind of support do they need? This paper considers this issue, using the case of Chinese newcomers who were assisted by career counseling activities, at a lower track public commercial high school. The following two points are made clear. First, through their school experiences in China, the Chinese newcomers were imbued with the value that studying should come first and that grades are everything. They had an achievement based future outlook, under which future happiness is seen to depend on good grades and a high academic background. While they wished to go on to university, they were confronted by the anti-school culture in the high school, where studying is not highly valued, and came to feel friction, conflict, and denial. Their desire to go to university declined. In other words, school life in the high school did not offer them a way to achieve what they want in the future. Secondly, university student volunteers helped newcomer students to regain the hopes that they had lost after entering the commercial high school, and encouraged them to go on to university. Student volunteers acted as role models, embodying the pro school culture that Chinese newcomers originally had, and encouraged them to continue to be diligent and to make efforts. Specific information on universities given by teachers is also an important source for making the career choice to go on to university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of social class and a variety of attitudes regarding society and education on attitudes toward educational expenditures. In Japan, the rapid rise of educational participation rates has been strongly supported by household expenditures. The scale of private funding is very large in comparison with other countries, and not only high income parents, but also low income ones, make expenditures for their children's education. Therefore, the following question arises: what motivates Japanese people to give education to their children? Previous research on economics and the sociology of education has focused on investment and consumption. However, considering that the motives for educational expenditures are complex and are influenced by a variety of characteristics of parents, including attitudes on society and education, this paper investigates attitudes toward educational expense using data from the 2003 National Survey on Work and Daily Life. In order to identify significant patterns in many variables, decision tree analysis is used as a data mining techniques. Following a brief introduction of decision tree analysis, the technique is applied to delineate the key features that distinguish between people who are eager to pay their children's educational expenses and those who are not. First, the data indicate that many people believe that parents should pay for nearly all of their children's educational costs. Second, decision tree analysis reveals that the most important factor influencing the payment of educational expenses is not the benefit of education, but rather the recognition of educational inequality in contemporary Japanese higher education. People who perceive educational opportunities as being equal are more willing to pay for their children, because they believe that there is stiff competition for educational credentials. Third, investment and consumption are important factors for people who believe there is educational inequality. As a result, the motive for making educational expenditures depends on attitudes toward society and education. On the other hand, the group that showed most strongly negative attitude is people who believe that educational opportunities are closed by family income and that their own subjective social status is low, and that education does not play a central role for achieving high income and social status. This finding suggests that at present, educational costs are very heavy, and that if the burden of tuition fee and other educational expenses clearly brings an awareness of educational inequalities according to family income, many people will perceive education as being meaningless for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to reexamine the use of "Comprehensive and Multi-dimensional Evaluation" as the basis for University Entrance Examinations. Though the phrase "Comprehensive and Multi-dimensional Evaluation" itself was first articulated in the 1997 report of the Central Council for Education (Chuou Kyoiku Shingikai), the concept itself came into existence immediately after the postwar period. In fact, "comprehensive evaluation" was merely an excuse for avoiding having to add the score of Japanese Scholastic Aptitude Test (Shingaku Tekisei Kensa, used from 1947 to 1954) into the total score of the University Entrance Examination. Moreover, the term "multi dimensional evaluation" appeared in the outline of the University Entrance Examination (Daigaku Nyugakusha Senbatsu Jisshi Youkou), as it is proposed in the first report of the National Council on Educational Reform (Rinji Kyoiku Shingikai) in 1985. In fact, the report of the Central Council for Education (Chuo Kyoiku Shingikai) in 1971 stated that "Comprehensive and Multi dimensional Evaluation" was scientifically valid as a basis for University Entrance Examinations. The report is famous as the only report based on evidence, and is generally known as the "1971 Report" (Yonroku Toushin). In the interim report, the Central Council for Education stated that follow-up surveys by the National Institute for Education and the Educational Test Research Institute (Nouryoku Kaihatu Kenkyujyo) had proven that a "Comprehensive and Multi-dimensional Evaluation" could be a valid selection method for predicting a good Grade Point Average after entrance to university. However, the two surveys cited contained simple statistical errors. The first, survey by the National Institute for Education, failed to control for the "Selection Effect." A "Selection Effect" is a "restriction in range problem," caused by cutting off the distribution at the passing grade. As a result, there is a tendency to misunderstand the fact that, in actuality, academic achievement tests on University Entrance Examinations have little relationship with Grade Point Average after entering university. To tell the truth, this problem had been pointed out as early as 1924 by Japanese psychologists who were interested in Entrance Examinations. In the second survey, by the Educational Test Research Institute, the inevitable nature of multiple correlation coefficients was ignored. As the number of independent variable increases one by one, the multiple correlation coefficient necessarily reaches the maximum of 1. In this paper, the follow up research data from the Educational Test Research Institute is recalculated using a multiple correlation coefficient adjusted for the degrees of freedom. The conclusion is different from that reached by the Central Council for Education. This demonstrates that there is absolutely no scientific ground for the use of "Comprehensive and Multi dimensional Evaluation." In other words, it is not necessarily correct that putting a lot of effort into University Entrance Examinations and using anything more than academic achievement tests as reference for University Entrance Examination will lead to more students gaining good grades after entering university. If this mismeasure of academic achievement is not properly recognized, the number of university students who cannot achieve even low basic competence level will surely increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japan, like in most countries, the equality of educational opportunities is a crucial issue both in academics and in governmental policy. However, the policy of equality of educational opportunities in Japanese higher education has been weakening. The first aim of this paper is to investigate the background of the policy and to clarify the reasons for its loss of importance. With this aim, the author gives an overview of policy and research works on the equality of higher education opportunities in Japan, in comparison with those overseas. The aim of higher educational policy and planning in post world-war II Japan was to rectify disparities in higher education opportunities between regions and social classes by increasing the supply of institutions providing higher education. However, the policy turned drastically from enlargement to suppression in 1975. The establishment of new universities and departments in the metropolitan area were strictly restricted by the Ministry of Education. This policy aimed to reduce regional inequalities in higher educational opportunities, and was largely successful in doing so. However, the policy concentrated on the regional inequalities, leading to a loss of concern on inequalities among social classes, with the exception of student financial aid programs. Secondly, the results of the Student Life Survey by the Ministry of Education (from 2004 by the Japan Student Service Organization) are often used to demonstrate the equality of higher educational opportunities in Japan. On the contrary, however, some researchers argue that the inequality of higher educational opportunity has been increasing or at least not decreasing, using other survey data. This paper examines the equality of higher educational opportunities using new survey data from 2005. The data show large inequalities in university education opportunities, particularly in private universities. In particular, the participation rate is very low among low-income, low-achievement, female high school graduates. This shows that there are still problems of inequality. Thirdly, this survey shows the existence of debt aversion among parents in the lowest income class and in families with mothers having the lowest education levels. It seems likely that debt aversion leads to serious problems because of the inadequacy of student aid programs, coupled with high tuition fees in Japan. The student financial aid programs of The Japan Student Service Organization, the largest public student program in Japan, gives loans, but not grants, to undergraduates. Some parents and students from lower income tiers may decide not to apply to university to avoid a debt burden. This result implies the need for grants to maintain the accessibility of higher education in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The measurement of children's academic achievements and the explanation of differences between social classes should not be dismissed by sociologists of education. Although inequality is a major theme of the field, the sociology of education has lacked empirical evidence on the structure of disparities in academic achievements. This is partly due to the difficulties involved in collecting sufficient data on academic achievement through schools. In and after 2002, studies were begun on the relationship between academic achievement and social class in Japan. At the time, schools were being heavily criticized within the context of the debate over falling children's academic achievements. Some significant surveys were administered at that time, though they were small in number. However, they left some important issue to be solved. The first is that analyses of the determinants of academic achievement are inadequate for clarifying what factors will diminish class differences in achievement. The second concerns the reliability and validity of the variables collected. In particular, variables on the economic conditions of households are lacking. Finally, the surveys were conducted only in large cities. This paper examines the factors that affect children's academic achievements, and the extent of the effect of such factors, through an analysis of the data of the Japan Education Longitudinal Study 2003 (JELS2003). JELS2003 was conducted in two areas: one a middle sized city within the capital metropolitan areas, and the other a small local city. It also contains variables about the economic conditions of households. The major findings of the paper are as follows. 1. In the small local city, the differences of academic achievement between social classes were relatively small. 2. In the middle-sized city within the metropolitan area, children's academic achievements were affected by the level of monthly educational expenses, level of educational expectations of the child, and income level of the family. Inequalities in children's academic achievements in our society should be grasped in the context of the substitution of "parentocracy" for meritocracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines inter/intra family differences and child care support policies in Japan from child-rearing strategies and a gender perspective. For the theoretical consideration of mechanisms of reproduction of family differences, this paper proposes a Child-rearing Code and Gender Code based on B. Bernstein's theory of cultural transmission. The Child-rearing Code system reveals not only inter family differences based on parental economic background, but also intra family differences based on the .sexual division of labor in the family. This paper traces Family Support Policies after World War II, and examines how these policies were gendered and privatized. Especially since the 1990s, various Child care Support Policies have been introduced in Japan not just to support family childcare, but to raise the birth rate, and these policies sometimes functioned to reinforce a Gender Regime. The latter part of the paper focuses on voices of parents, based on an extensive empirical investigation which was conducted in Tokyo from 2000 to 2006. The study describes the isolation of mothers with children in a gendered division of labor situation, the emotional capital in mother child interactions, and the dilemmas of working mothers who have to divide their time between paid work and time spent with their children. It also explores the difficulties faced by fathers who want to, but cannot, care for their children, because of long working hours and business centered social values. This paper also explains the economic difficulties faced by single mothers due to the lack of social security and wage disadvantages in the labor market in Japan. Based on these theoretical and empirical considerations, this paper concludes that the symbolic realization of inter/intra family differences are generated by a gender code which operates with an invisible gender hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japan, disparities in high schools showed an increasing tendency until the end of the 1970s. Since that time, attempts have been made to analyze and reduce these disparities, both in the field of sociology of education and educational reforms. This paper aims to re-examine the challenges in both fields and to elucidate their positive outcomes and limitations, and in addition, to point out a new perspective for future challenges in this area. Academically, the study of disparities began with the application of the concept of "tracking." At the beginning, many types of evils caused by disparities were problematized, and the concept of "tracking" was adopted to document the situation. The concept of "tracking" was compatible with functionalism, which was the main theoretical stream in the sociology of education at that time. The concept of "tracking" was originally used in studies of high schools in the United States to reveal the fact that there were invisible mechanisms for the selection of students in open curriculum systems. However, in Japan, the concept was used to report the fact that there were great differences in the inner processes of schools and subjective aspects of students based on school disparities. In other words, the concept was used to point out the effects of the disparities. As a result, the study of disparities has been developed as the study of "tracking effects." It can be said that studies of the tracking effect could have contributed to investigations of the inner processes of schools and subjective aspects of students. But instead, they took a macro perspective from the studies of school disparities. As a result, disparities were not examined in relation to social structures. Politically, there are two ways to reduce disparities in schools. One is to control the level of achievement of new students in order to prevent the emergence of differences among schools (input control). The other is to control educational activities in the schools to ensure that tracking effects do not take place in each school (through put control). Since the late 1970s, input controls have been carried out through reforms of the entrance examination system of high schools and improvements of the guidance system of junior high schools. However, these controls were too indirect to reduce school disparities. In other words, whether they could reduce the disparities or not depended on their ability to change students' standards for school choice, which were indeed subjective. Through put controls have been carried out as reforms of high schools. High school reforms after the 1980s were generally seen as an attempt to weaken classifications and frames of education. Logically, it seemed that these efforts led to a limitation of tracking effects in each school and to a reduction in school disparities as a whole. However, these attempts were not effective as they lacked a grand design and were done separately for each school. Challenges to the school disparities in both fields mentioned above seems to be homologous. They share the fact that they look at the disparities from a narrow perspective, only in relation to inner processes of each school or the subjective aspect of students. School disparities are social disparities. For example, they involve class differences among the enrolled students, and are related to regional differences. Consequently, in order to reduce school disparities, it is necessary to see them in their social context. The conclusion of this paper, by introducing recent challenges to school disparities, proposes this new perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been a great deal of talk about widening social disparities in Japan. A number of books have been published declaring that Japan is now on the threshold of being transformed into a "society of disparities." This paper discusses some of the methodological difficulties that must be taken into account when considering widening disparities between the haves and have nots, seen from the standpoint of the sociological study of education. Firstly, the recently published works, with their declaration that social disparities are widening, are making an assertion about an uncertain future. The same point can be made about studies that examine the actual state of the social disparities on the basis of empirical data. This means, in other words, that any discussion of the effects of various current phenomena characterizing education on future social disparities always contain an element of uncertainty. Secondly, the extent to which social disparities are likely to grow in the future will be significantly affected by our current and future political choices. In determining, for example, the extent to which the ongoing process of globalization will transform economic and educational systems, it is utterly useless to make guesses based on simple forecasts. Rather, considering the combined effects of people's political choices and the social influence of experts at present and in the future, it is extremely difficult to predict the direction of change. Considering the foregoing factors, it is far from easy to carry out studies on how to reform the existing educational system and help alleviate the problems of inequalities that now beset the system, in ways that are acceptable to everybody. This paper calls attention to two crucial points. First, researchers studying the relationship between social inequality and education cannot remain indifferent to the question of political choices or choices among competing values. In other words, they must endeavor to analyze the issues of inequalities in education and formulate, on the basis of their analyses, concrete political visions or political programs. Another important point is that once the social disparities and their extent have been identified through academic investigations, it is necessary to call upon citizens, who have the competence to make political decisions, to decide whether they find the gaps acceptable or not. In order to make this possible, it is essential for school education to perform the function of helping children to develop the ability to make political decisions. And the question of what should be done to reinforce this function of school education needs to be studied in a sincere manner. [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 objective of this paper is to estimate the real heterogeneous effect of studying in a juku (a private preparatory school for entrance examinations) during junior high school on progression to high schools. Although attending juku is common among Japanese people, no consensus has been reached about the real educational effect of juku. Generally, placing students into groups that will or will not attend juku is not performed randomly. Instead, it is assumed that students are more likely to attend juku when their parents are enthusiastic about their child's education and have a high socioeconomic status. The simple correlation between attending juku and the progression to high-ranking high schools can be observed. However, this does not always imply that there is a real effect of juku on the progression to high-ranking high schools, because it may be a spurious correlation associated with the relationship between attending juku and the parents' high socioeconomic status. If a regression model is estimated in such a way as to control for socioeconomic variables, the coefficient of attending juku might show bias in the event that attending juku and unobserved heterogeneity are correlated. In addition, it cannot be assumed that attending juku has a uniform effect on everyone, although past analyses did not consider the heterogeneity of the effect. To overcome the difficulty of preceding research, a propensity score matching analysis based on a counterfactual causal inference framework is applied in this study. Data from the second wave of the Japanese Life Course Panel Survey was used. As a result, people whose parents had high educational backgrounds, who lived in urban areas such as the Kanto region, and who had few brothers and sisters were more likely to attend juku. As expected, the effect of juku was not uniform, and the result showed a contrast between boys and girls. A boy who had a high propensity for attending juku was more likely to gain a positive effect on the progression to high-ranking high schools. On the other hand, a girl who had a low propensity for attending juku was more likely to gain a positive effect on the progression to high-ranking high schools. Beyond that, the reason the result differed between boys and girls is considered. Finally, I have shown that using propensity score matching has several caveats: the need to consider the Stable Unit Treatment Value Assumption (SUTVA), unstable results, and deletion of unmatched samples. However, this analysis presents the possibility that not only can an unbiased estimation be obtained, but the linkage between sociological theories and statistical analyses can also be clarified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of support is being incorporated into a range of practices as changes occur in various social conditions. In the field of education, schools as a whole are being required to make efforts to provide organized support. Chapter 1 of this paper, using data from inclusion research in Kanagawa Prefecture, points out that the issues of organizations that are capable of giving support have been treated as problems of the team approach, which focuses on the coordinator as the key person, and the formation of local resource networks. At the same time it is indicated that there is a necessity to examine the problem of developing an organizational climate in which serious discussion can be held in a casual atmosphere in the teachers' room. In Chapter 2, regarding the latter problem, using empirical research data on "the concrete development of support" in an actual high school situation, it is shown how a "dialog frontline" consisting of "dialogs in the corridor" and on-the-fly-meetings was generated, and an organizational culture capable of providing support was formed. As such, it is described how this leads to such matters as school reform and the team approach becoming a substantive reality. In Chapter 3, an investigation regarding the significance of the "dialog frontline" was attempted within the framework of, for example, the significance of the shift in the medium of the dialog, the nature of the problem of negative definitions, the framework of knot-working, and the issue of intra-organizational barriers obstructing support. Lastly, the "dialog frontline" was positioned as a microsystem within the overall system, and it is shown that it displays its functions when supported by the mesosystem of the school organization and the macrosystem of educational administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on interviews conducted at three Osaka Prefecture high schools which are regarded as "schools with educational difficulties." in other words. "low-ranked high schools." The aim of this research is to clarify the aspects of the educational difficulties in each school, the background to those difficulties, and the problems of career support which each school faces in the actual conditions. In conclusion. I will indicate that these schools, in spite of the earnest efforts of teachers and careful support for students, reveal the "critical point" of the contemporary high school system. [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]

This study explores how schoolgirls in the Meijiera (1868-1912), who were the first generation of girls to attend school, associated themselves with their alma maters after graduation, and what networks they developed with their former teachers and classmates. More specifically the report examines whether their circles of close friends characterizing schoolgirl culture were maintained and expanded after graduation or whether their real lives and social positions specified their networks after graduation. The paper looks at Saibi Kai (Saibi Society), the alumni association of Ishikawa Prefectural Daiichi Girls' Middle High School, and examines how the Meiji-era alumnae were involved in the alumni association networks from the Taisho (19112-1926) to the prewar Showa period (1926-1989), by analyzing the "news on members column in the alumni bulletin. The results clarified the following points. 1. In examining the development of class reunion networks during the first half of the Taisho period, this study focused on the differences in profiles between members whose up-to-date information appeared in the column and those whose information did not, and used this to extract some characteristics of the networks. This examination shows that members' involvement in the network was largely affected by residence in Kanazawa City (regional factor), their locality, and good academic achievement during their school days, and not by such factors as their social status under the old system and legal domiciles in the family registry. The members also retained their connections through formal exchanges such as class reunions and sports meetings rather than through such informal means as letters and postcards. In other words they formed a network where reformation on members was exchanged through activities in Kanazawa City, the location of the school, [ml] which functioned as the center of the network. 2. The author also analyzed the profiles of members who had taken leadership iformal activities and members who had developed strong connections through informal gatherings. The analysis shows that many of the husbands of such members enjoyed prestigious social statuses as high-ranking military officials bureaucrats, university professors, and so on, and that the first generation of schoolgirls enjoyed rich, privileged lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What significance did people give to "entering university from local areas" in Japan in the period following the Second World War? And how have their views changed in the time since? To answer these questions, this paper focuses on the "advanced course" of Tottori prefectural senior-high schools, using the methods of political-sociology. The "advanced course" of Tottori prefectural senior-high schools is sometimes called a "publicly funded cram school." The teachers of the prefectural schools give instruction to students who are preparing for a new chance to enter university after failing the first time. In the period around 1960, there were still no private cram schools in Tottori Pref., but the number of students hoping for a second chance to enter university was rapidly increasing. In response teachers at one prefectural senior-high school began to give them instruction on a volunteer basis, and a few years later, the Board of Education institutionalized it as the "advanced course." This system was spread within the prefecture by the Board. Judging from this analysis, it may be said that the Governor, administrators and teachers recognized the disadvantageous condition of the local prefecture, and devised a policy to train talented youth as a means to overcome the backwardness of their home region. However, a debate on whether the "advanced course" of prefectural senior-high schools should be maintained or not began in Tottori Pref. about 2005. Private cram schools asked for the abolition of the "advanced course," because the social changes since 1990s had hurt their business. As a result, this demand became a focus of public policy in the prefectural assembly. The groups on both sides of the issue disagreed fundamentally on whether the course should be maintained or abolished, but agreed m regarding the "advanced course" as a device for meeting the "needs of individuals." With the massification of university education, the existence of the "external effect" meaning the social profit brought about by higher education, has come into question. In addition, the "needs of society," meaning the survival of the local prefecture, is not recognized within the policy of the modern "non-profit-sharing" model. In comparison with the "supplementary courses" established by PTAs, which perform a similar function in senior high schools of other prefectures, people do not feel a justification to spend public money on Tottori prefecture's "advanced courses." This leads to the hypothesis that the significance of "entrance into university from local areas" changes with the movement in perspective from social profit to personal profit. This means that the circuit between "education" and "society/economy" has been severed. Hence, the nurturing and outflow of talented youth from local prefectures is no longer seen as the main issue. However, local prefectures have been seriously affected by recent changes in both the industrial structure and decentralization. Now is the time to rebuild the tripartite affinity between "education," "society/economy" and "local areas." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the discourse on Japanese composition writing education (tsuzuri-kata) in the pre-war period and attempts to elucidate the development of the autopoietic educational system along with the rise and changes of the concept of "children." The discourse on writing education provides an image of the way of second order observation on children's observation in a Luhmannian sense: (1) What were the unique characteristics of children, which separated them from adults? (2) How should adults, as socializing agents, be caring for children? The findings are as follows: Beginning around 1900, the concept of "children" as something different from adults, but who were in the process of becoming adults, was discovered, along with an image of adults providing care for children. The "nature" and "life world" of children was discovered first:, followed by the finding of the children's "interior," especially the "childlike" interior. Finally, in the 1920s, the ability of children to "see" and "feel" things beyond the assumptions of adults was discovered. There, new practices arose, in which socializing agents demanded that children see and reflect themselves by writing, and through that, came to be "ideal children" and "future adults". In relation to this phenomenon, N. Luhmann suggests, in his educational system theory, that the relationship between children's observations and socializing agents' second order observations enables education to become an autopoietic system. Now that we have seen the details, we can refine it. By seeing "children" and their interior as half black-box and half guidable, education was able to become autopoietic. Moreover, since the system was developed, greater freedom for children and amhiwflence between children's freedom and educational intentions were repeatedly discovered within the educational discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yano and Hamanaka have analyzed recent trends in the ratio of advancement to higher education in Japan, and concluded that the increased financial burden on households has been a blocking factor in recent years. They argue that a public policy for reducing the financial burden is needed, and that if such a policy is implemented, it will lead to increased advancement to higher education. As methodology they adopt a time-series multi regression of Japan as a single unit, using several economic variables such as starting salary of high school graduates, household income, unemployment rate and tuition fees. In this paper, the author uses a similar time-series multi regression, but broken down into 47 prefectures, and with the addition of variables describing the educational system such as student capacity in metropolitan areas and in local prefectures. From this analysis, the author finds that economic factors do not have a significant effect on the advancement ratio, and that educational system variables have a greater influence in determining the advancement ratio. In contrast to Yano and Hamanaka, the author argues that the negative attitude toward advancement to higher education in recent years lies not outside of the educational system, but rather inside of the system of higher education. Curricular innovation to provide more relevant content is the key to attracting more students to higher education. In an age where more than 50% of youngsters advance to higher education, enriching teaching content is a more important ask than providing financial support. Researchers on higher education should pay greater attention to the educational system itself rather than factors outside of the system. [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]

The school system continues to occupy a central position in the system of social distribution. However, the school is changing from a social screening institution, as it was in the 1970s, to a support institution. Schools now tend to support the decision-making of students based on their own academic achievements and career plans. It is difficult for schools to intervene in students' decision-making in the way they did in the 1970s. However, the relationship between student's school records and their academic and career achievements has not been broken down despite the drastic change in this internal process. In this paper, the authors describe this mechanism in the school by investigating one commercial high school in the Metropolitan area. The authors examine data from the "Student Kartes" of all students in 2002. In these documents, teachers record students' academic achievements and their process of career determing. The authors then analyze how students move between the various channels offered by the school to make academic and career choices, and show some typical patterns. The main conclusions are as follows. First, many students failed to attend group counseling formally provided by the school, and teachers need to give individual support to students. Second, ironically, due to the fact that academic affairs were not highly valued at the commercial high school and that academic competition was not stiff, students with a strong commitment to school tended to have better achievement than those who had a weak commitment. In that sense, the school, as a support institution, also functions as a social screening institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper elucidates historical changes in the images of homoeroticism between male students in the Meiji Era and examines the factors behind this change. During the Meiji Era, intellectuals subscribed to a morality that prohibited homosexuality. However, some male students, known as kouha (solid students), shared common values that placed a positive value on homoeroticism between male students. They loathed falling victim to women's charms, and aspired to develop ideal relations between themselves and other elite male students. In the 1900s, the number of girls attending school increased markedly, and the presence of female students increased. These women came to be seen as suitable love or marriage partners for male students. In modern Japan, the emergence of female students helped to form the ideology of romantic love and a new positive image composed of love, marriage, and family. These changes brought about by the emergence of female students had an impact on the images of homoeroticism between male students. After the 1900s, a form of homoeroticism called "love between men" became popular among the nampa (soft students), and the kouha students lost their monopoly on homoeroticism. However, "love between men" was just a substitute for love between men and women. On the other hand, the kouha students strengthened their belief that they should avoid falling in love, as they thought it was too feminine. Therefore, they called close relations between men "friendships between men," avoiding the use of the word "love." In this way, homoeroticism between male students was separated into "love between men," as an imitation, and "friendship between men." Homoeroticism between male students was transformed into a form adapted to heterosexism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to discover a route for the resolution of "differences in scholastic ability," which are a serious problem in Japanese Education, using the idea of "Effective Schools". "Effective Schools" are schools which have relatively small differences in scholastic ability between social groups. This report looks at the continuation of effects of schools, and studies the characteristics of "Effective Schools" in Japan. In conventional studies on "Effective Schools" in Japan, seven characteristics are clarified: (1) Ordered child groups, (2) Mutual empowerment by students, (3) A school administration that values teamwork, (4) Connections between schools and outside organizations, (5) A positive school culture, (6) A system that encourages learning, and (7) Leadership. These were found in data from a single year, however, and were not based on data collected continuously. Therefore, surveys to date are inadequate. This report demonstrates the existence of "Effective Schools" and analyzes the characteristics of schools in one city in Hyogo Prefecture, based on continuous data. The findings are as follows. To begin with, from an analysis of scholastic ability data, it is clear that the evaluation of "Effective Schools" is considerably affected by grade groups. In previous studies in this area, attention had not been given to the differences between grade groups, and this suggests a danger in relying on data for a single year. In addition, caution must be exercised in basing policymaking on data on scholastic ability performed in a single year. Next, while the results of the surveys varied greatly by grade groups in most schools, there were two schools (A and B) that were continuously effective. School A was unified several years ago. The teachers are building a new school culture, involving "watching and checking inside school" and "taking learning hours." On the other hand, School B is characterized by "good class atmosphere" and "self direction in learning." The two schools seem to have very different characteristics, but it can be pointed out that teachers of both are supportive in various aspects. Comparing these with the seven characteristics of "Effective Schools" in Japan, School A is a school that has (1) Ordered child groups and (6) A system that encourages learning (in School). By contrast, School B has (2) Mutual empowerment by students and (6) A system that encourages learning (at home). Moreover, both schools have (3) A school administration that values team-work and (5) A positive school culture. From those analyses, it can be hypothesized that "Teacher Culture" and "School Culture" are important factors in the study of "Effective Schools." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, regional disparities in education can be seen from the following six aspects. (1) Disparities between areas (disparities between cities or towns) (2) Disparity inside areas (disparities between elementary school areas) (3) Visible disparities (4) Invisible disparities (5) Disparities in school education (6) Disparities in social education Among these disparities, this paper focuses on disparities inside areas, invisible disparities, and disparities in social education. The reason is that these are the new disparities found in mergers between municipalities (a contemporary phenomenon in Japan), movements of population and the decentralization of power. In other words, under the decentralization of power, communities are called on to be economically and educationally independent from the central government, and these new disparities are related to the educational power of communities and to the power of social education connected to them. They are also related to the urgent educational issues that must be tackled together by educational officials, people involved in schools and social education, and local residents under the decentralization of power. The two principal directions for this task are as follows. (1) Cooperation between schools and communities by strengthening support from educational administration to schools and communities, and strengthening cooperation involving both school education and social education. (2) Improving the specialization of education in a broad sense. In other words, improving technical cooperation with specialists such as teachers, leaders of social education, medical personnel and welfare personnel. These points will be crucial determinants of the success or failure of education under the decentralization of power. In addition, the author uses data on administration in cities and towns in Shiga prefecture, which are familiar to him. Nevertheless, the manuscript consists of some guesses without actual evidence in some points; therefore it has in some sense the character of the presentation of a hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the formation of "disparities" in the transition from school to work, and to discuss ideal methods for support. In the early 21st century, young people were able to become full-time workers even if they had become part-time workers after leaving school. In other words, Japanese society compensated for the initial "disparity" in the transition from school to work. However, the following two points were clarified in February 2006, according to a survey carried out on 2, 000 young people in Tokyo. First, in the period from 2001 to 2006, the selection of full time worker was nearly completed at the point when young people left school. Second, academic background is growing and social background is weakening as factors for the selection of full time workers. To put a brake on the expansion of "disparities," it is necessary to secure higher education as a right, and create laws to provide equal conditions to irregular workers, and to provide support for the transition from "Freeter" (job-hopping part time workers) to full time worker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]