Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century

Chinese minorities are absent from curricular documents). 31 Students are also to
be encouraged to investigate particular issues and challenges confronting their
local area, with a view to heightening their awareness of its ‘special characteristics’
(P. Social Studies CS, p. 22). The clipboard-wielding students invariably featured
on the covers of Primary Social Studies textbooks are doubtless engaged in such
investigations.
Significant for an understanding of the curricular framing of ‘diversity’ are
discussions of ‘tolerance’. The objects of tolerance are almost invariably located
outside Japan itself; the commentary to the Primary ‘General Provisions’ features
four references to the need to ‘respect other countries’ (takoku wo sonchou)
(P. General Provisions Com., 3, 7, 24, 79). Diversity is here depicted primarily as
characterising a world of homogenous nations, rather than intrinsic to national
communities themselves. The stipulations for moral education at primary level
spell this out: ‘While having solicitude for our nation’s traditions and culture,
and possessing a heart full of love for country, to take interest in foreigners
and foreign cultures’ 32 (P. Moral Education Com., p. 51). One of very few explicit
references to the presence of ‘foreign children’ in Japanese schools brackets
them with Japanese returnees, calling for both groups to be provided with ‘close
guidance’ and for other students to be brought to recognise their ‘advantages
and special features’ (P. General Provisions Com., p. 79). But this implicitly
maintains the distinction between an essentially homogenous Japan and the
‘foreign’ world, with cultural diversity in the Japanese classroom portrayed as a
factor of ‘foreignness’ or exposure to foreigners.
Actual curricular coverage of ethnic and cultural diversity within Japan, or
related issues of discrimination, is not quite as nugatory as official curricula
might suggest. There is significant variation in local policy, with authorities in
some regions with large migrant or minority ethnic populations seeking ways
of promoting greater inclusion or integration (Tsuneyoshi, Okano and Boocock,
2011). Talk of education for ‘multicultural symbiosis’ (tabunka kyosei), which first
emerged in civil society, has gained currency in national policymaking discourse
(Okano, 2012). Civics and History texts generally note the presence of substantial
ethnic Korean and Chinese minorities, relating this to the legacy of Japanese
colonialism (e.g. Teikoku Shoin Koumin, p. 46; Tokyo Shoseki Koumin, pp. 47, 49).
Some discussion of the Ainu (in Hokkaido) and of Okinawans as distinct ethnic
groups is also common, as is reference to discrimination against burakumin (a
long-despised hereditary underclass) (e.g. Teikoku Shoin Koumin, pp. 44-5).
The growing presence of foreigners in Japan is also highlighted and linked to
growing demand for migrant labour in certain sectors, as a result of the ageing
31 A related issue is that the Japanese government does not collect data on ethnic diversity
amongst Japanese nationals — which encompasses indigenous peoples, naturalised migrants
and former colonial subjects. This makes it difficult to gauge the true nature and extent of
diversity and devise appropriate policies (see Tsuneyoshi, Okano and Boocock, 2011).
32 Original in Japanese: ‘ 外 国 の 人 々や 文 化 に 関 心 を 持 つ’ (gaikoku no hitobito ya bunka ni
kanshin wo motsu)’.
Rethinking Schooling for the 21 st Century:
The State of Education for Peace, Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship in Asia
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