Education reform and education politics in Japan

Since the 1980s, a new tide of education reform movements has emerged in many countries, including the United States and Japan, along with the rise of a consumer orientation and national concern over the quality of schooling. This has made parental choice into a major policy issue, along with accountability and independent control. Four forms of symbiosis are identified: embracive, segregated, civic and market-oriented. This article discusses the nature of current reforms, and argues that they place Japanese education at a threefold critical crossroads or in a state of crisis.