Current Challenges of Kindergarten (Yochien) Education in Japan: Toward Balancing Children's Autonomy and Teachers' Intention

Many education critics, teachers, and parents have lamented the recent poor achievement scores of Japanese school-age children, and have sought the reasons for the decline. Some critics, including the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, and Science and Technology, blame the practice known as yutori-kyoiku (literally translated as "relaxed-education"), initiated in 2002, which cut the school week from six days to five days and slashed curriculum content by 30 percent. At first glance, this debate does not seem to affect kindergarten or preschool education directly. However, some critics make kindergarten the scapegoat for poor school performance, saying that kindergarten education overemphasizes free play. Thus, this article provides an overview of the history of kindergarten education in Japan, focusing on the development of curriculum content and practice. The authors illustrate the current Japanese kindergarten curriculum and prospects for the future.