抄録
By verifying the latest policy trends concerned with the concept of "special zones" as applied to the education field, representing a deregulation policy initiative within the framework of Prime Minister Koizumi's structural reform plans, this paper aims to verify the essence of these trends and their policy aims. In addition, by examining such factors as the division of roles and responsibilities between schools in special zones and existing schools, the paper will also verify what kind of relationship with the current public education system has been generated by the establishment of schools in a variety of formats such as the establishment of schools by corporations having the status of Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs). The central point of the paper is to verify whether the concept of "special zones" is likely to evolve into a search for a change in the design of the public education system as a whole or whether it will remain stuck at the level of a superficial reform.
