Abstract
Educational policies in Japan have changed in recent years. Educational administrative and fiscal policies that have been formed in an era of rapid economic growth now show a tendency to change. First, we can point out the fact that central governments subsidies for compulsory education have decreased in the 1990s. On the one hand, this is because of the restriction of national budgets. On the other hand, we can consider that this means a process of change from centralized educational fiscal policies to decentralized policies. Second, we must take notice of the fact that devolution policies are very important for the central government, too. The Devolution Promotion Committee proposed last year a policy of abolishing work delegated to the local governments by the central government. And The Deregulation Committee maintained the promotion of the introduction of school choice. In this situation the Department of Education has started to reform the system of local boards of education. Now we face again a reformation of educational administration, from a centralized to a decentralized system.
