It's good that Japan is open to improving its system of education, but it may want to consider the disadvantages of the American approach that practically exempts students of responsibility for their education.
When Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura met with a ministry panel recently to discuss the inclusion of moral education for elementary and junior high school students beginning in 2015, he unwittingly stepped into a potential minefield.
Don't count on the controversial internment of loyal Japanese Americans during World War II to receive full coverage in future American high school history classes.
Despite the apparent disconnect in recent years between the exemplary performance of Japanese students and the nation's stock and currency market fluctuations, the knowledge and skills that students bring to the workplace in the form of human capital make the companies that hire them ...
Japan is hardly alone in confronting shame about past events and whether to describe them in textbooks. Germany, the United States and China are undergoing similar debates.
Publicizing the names of teachers in newspapers when their students fail to measure up could be a prescription for demoralization in Japan.
American education reformers charge that companies can't find enough qualified workers in science and technology. But these workers are here — in the form of unemployed college grads.
LOS ANGELES — When Japan's Central Council for Education recently announced its plan to move the nation's schools away from yutori kyoiku, the "more relaxed education" policy adopted in the 1990s, its decision was largely based on the belief that effective schools are responsible ...
