Roger Goodman

The concept of Kokusaika and Japanese educational reform

Globalisation has become one of the most fashionable concepts in social scientific discourse over the past 15 years, along with a related vocabulary of words such as ‘transnationalism’, ‘McDonaldisation’, ‘Cocacolanisation’, ‘localisation’ and ‘glocalisation’. Much ink has been spilt on how such terms should be defined and used in a theoretical context and how they can be mobilised methodologically, but little agreement has been reached on either score. This paper argues that the lack of consensus about the exact meaning of any new concept results in it becoming what the anthropologist Victor Turner has called a ‘multivocal symbol’. Such symbols are capable of being interpreted in multiple ways by different actors and in some cases can become the site of conflict as different interest groups compete to have their own interpretations accepted as the dominant one. The multivocality of such concepts also means that not only can different words or terms sometimes be used to refer to basically the same process, but also the same terms can be used to describe very different processes. In order to both see how this operates in practice—and what are the implications of its operation—it is necessary to undertake a detailed, ‘thick description’ of the use of such words in a particular social context during a defined historical period. This paper intends to examine the use of the Japanese term ‘kokusaika’ (often translated as internationalisation) and its related expressions from the mid 1980s and in particular focus on how it has been applied in the arena of educational, particularly higher educational, reform.

The rapid redrawing of boundaries in Japanese higher education

Abstract This paper examines the fundamental changes which are currently taking place in Japanese higher education. These changes are seeing the development of what has been dubbed the ‘third generation’ of Japanese universities which can no longer rely on student fees and government support to survive and need to find other ways to generate income. The paper shows how the different responses of Japanese universities to these new challenges is leading to an increasingly diversified higher education sector with major implications for the future of teaching, research and administration.

Education: Anthropological Aspects

The discipline of anthropology has brought a number of important points to bear on the study of education – a relativistic perspective, a holistic approach, and the ethnographic method. At the same time, the study of education has become increasingly common in anthropological accounts, generally under the headings of the study of ethnicity and nationalism, or cognitive and psychological anthropology. This article examines the development of the anthropological study of education and explores why, despite its apparent importance, it is still looking to establish a secure niche as a subfield of the discipline of anthropology.

The invention, gaming, and persistence of the hensachi (‘standardised rank score’) in Japanese education

ABSTRACT This paper explores the development of the hensachi system in Japanese education from the 1960s when it first appeared as a de facto measure for scholastic achievement. Unlike absolute scoring systems (such as A-level grades) hensachi gave an indication of the probability of getting a place on a particular course at a particular school or university rather than telling applicants where the bar was set in order to have a chance of being offered a place. Private companies quickly saw the opportunity to collate the huge amounts of data needed to obtain accurate hensachi bell curve distributions and began operating practice exams (mogi shiken) in schools across Japan. From the mid-1970s onwards, hensachi increasingly became seen as the source of many educational ‘evils’ in Japan and there were many attempts to ban its use. It was blamed for cramming, examination hell, and a focus on educational scores rather than learning. The system was also being used by teachers and schools to short cut the real examination system. The final section of the paper explores why, despite these concerns, repeated predictions of the demise of hensachi have proved to be premature.

Some recent lessons in Japanese education

Ikuo Amano, Education and Examination in Modern Japan, translated by William K. J. Cummings and Fumiko Cummings with a foreword by Ronald P. Dore, University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo, 1990. pp. xxiii, 234. ¥5562. Edward R. Beauchamp and Richard Rubinger, Education in Japan: A Source Book, Garland Publishing Inc., New York and London, 1989. pp. 300. £22.50. Benjamin C. Duke (compiler and editor), Ten Great Educators of Modern Japan: A Japanese Perspective, University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo, 1989. (with a foreword by Edwin O. Reischauer). pp. 237. ¥5974. Teruhisa Horio, Educational Thought and Ideology in Modern Japan: State Authority and Intellectual Freedom, edited and translated by Steven Platzer, University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo, 1988. pp. xxvi, 410. Mike Howarth, Britains Educational Reform: A Comparison with Japan, Routledge, London and New York, 1991. pp. xiv, 193. £35.00. Leonard James Schoppa, Education Reform in Japan: A Case of Immobilist Politics, Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies Series,...