"The Ideal Citizen", Globalization, and the Japanese Response: Risk, gate-keeping and moral education in Japan

TY - CHAP

T1 - "The Ideal Citizen", Globalization, and the Japanese Response

T2 - Risk, gate-keeping and moral education in Japan

AU - Roesgaard, Marie Højlund

PY - 2011

Y1 - 2011

N2 - In 2006 the Fundamental Law on Education was revised and later the curriculum guidelines for Moral Education were revised accordingly; revisions concerned emphasis on individual responsibility, respect for life, environment, nation, and other countries, understanding of differences, and strengthening of moral capabilities in children. It has been common to view initiatives concerning Japanese moral education as conservative/traditionalist attempts to re-introduce pre-war practices. I would suggest that a more productive point of departure would be to look at it as “gate-keeping”, where what is considered basic and inalienable in Japanese culture and morality by those in a position of influence is kept safe. In this sense it concerns the “immunology” (Cowen) of moral education in Japan, but the other component of Cowen’s pair of terms, “permiology” must also be included. The contents of moral education can be seen as a reaction to the challenges of globalization, the risks and anxieites experienced in globalized society. In understanding the aspects of immunity and permeability of moral education and the education of the ideal citizen in Japan it will be useful to employ theories of globalization by people such as Robertson as well as Beck’s thinking on world risk society and reflexive modernity and the work done on cosmopolitanism by Beck and Appiah among others. The paper at hand is an attempt to make sense of the new curriculum guidelines in the light of gate-keeping, the challenges posed by globalization and changing social conditions as represented by increased perceptions of “risk” and anxiety.

AB - In 2006 the Fundamental Law on Education was revised and later the curriculum guidelines for Moral Education were revised accordingly; revisions concerned emphasis on individual responsibility, respect for life, environment, nation, and other countries, understanding of differences, and strengthening of moral capabilities in children. It has been common to view initiatives concerning Japanese moral education as conservative/traditionalist attempts to re-introduce pre-war practices. I would suggest that a more productive point of departure would be to look at it as “gate-keeping”, where what is considered basic and inalienable in Japanese culture and morality by those in a position of influence is kept safe. In this sense it concerns the “immunology” (Cowen) of moral education in Japan, but the other component of Cowen’s pair of terms, “permiology” must also be included. The contents of moral education can be seen as a reaction to the challenges of globalization, the risks and anxieites experienced in globalized society. In understanding the aspects of immunity and permeability of moral education and the education of the ideal citizen in Japan it will be useful to employ theories of globalization by people such as Robertson as well as Beck’s thinking on world risk society and reflexive modernity and the work done on cosmopolitanism by Beck and Appiah among others. The paper at hand is an attempt to make sense of the new curriculum guidelines in the light of gate-keeping, the challenges posed by globalization and changing social conditions as represented by increased perceptions of “risk” and anxiety.

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 978-1-873927-51-9

T3 - Oxford studies in Comparative Education

SP - 85

EP - 106

BT - Reimagining Japanese Education

A2 - Blake Willis, David

A2 - Rappleye, Jeremy

PB - Symposium Books

CY - United Kingdom

ER -