Abstract
This study examines how foreign language education curriculum policies were formed in local Japanese governments utilizing the Experimental School Projects in Special Zones for Structural Reforms in the 2000s. This project relaxed national curriculum regulations and played an important role in the diffusion of English learning in elementary schools across Japan. However, few studies on the detailed circumstances of foreign language education in these governments are available. The main results are as follows: (a) Most of the cases focused on elementary school English education. (b) Most local governments began foreign language education classes in the first grade, but there were also cases of implementation beginning in other grades. (c) The specific subjects, hours of study, and the subjects that were omitted varied from one to another. (d) The local governments’ goals for the project varied from those closely related to foreign language education to those considering societal impacts, and their characteristics tended to differ depending on the name of the subjects. (e) Some of the goals seem to be influenced by national policy or by the specific circumstances of each locality. These results clarify the diversity of foreign language policies in local Japanese governments, which has not been sufficiently revealed in previous studies.
