Description
Book written by 1996 Abe Fellow Takehiko Kariya based on his project “Entry into the Labor Market from Education: A Comparative and Historical Sociology of the School-Work Transition in the US and Japan.”
Until the early 1990s, Japanese education was widely commended for achieving outstanding outcomes in global comparison. At the same time, it was frequently criticized for failing to cultivate ‘individuality’ and ‘creativity’ in students. Wide-ranging education reforms were enacted during the 1990s to remedy these perceived failings. However, as this book argues, the reforms produced a different outcome than intended, contributing to growing disparity in learning motivation and educational aspiration of students from different class backgrounds instead.