Introduction

The political history of educational development in Japan has much in common with Western nations, but it also has distinctive features of its own. Following the Meiji restoration of 1868, Japan's leaders embarked on a modernisation programme that consciously looked to the West for its inspiration and for practical models. A second period of Western-inspired reform followed Japan's defeat in World War II. This was a more democratic political settlement that allowed for real pluralism, including the formation of independent teacher unions.

In 1947, local unions came together to form a national organisation, the Japan Teachers Union (JTU). Although initially well supported by ordinary teachers, the JTU was frustrated in its efforts to have an influence on education policy by political and statutory constraints far more restrictive than those found in comparable advanced, democratic nations. Locked out of the central corridors of power, teachers’ unions instead relied on the threat of disruption or non-compliance in schools to block education reforms they were opposed to. They had considerable success in pursuing this strategy until a chronic decline in membership sapped their power at the local level in most parts of the country. This decline was made worse by a major schism in the JTU that took place in 1989 and by the collapse of its main parliamentary ally, the Japan Socialist Party, in the 1990s.

Contemporary Japan's Government Structure and Education System

Japan is a parliamentary democracy with two elected chambers of its national legislature: the House of Representatives (or Lower House) and the House of Councillors (or Upper House). It is similar to the British parliamentary system in that the head of government, the prime minister, is always a member of the Lower House. He is usually the leader of the majority party and his cabinet is also mostly drawn from the members of the two houses (Stockwin 2008). Japan is a centralised state with a national bureaucracy built on the nineteenth century French model. Japan's 47 prefectures are the heart of its local government system, but they have limited leeway in how they are allowed to interpret education policy in the course of its implementation.