First, this paper looks back at the process by which the article on coeducation was put in the postwar Fundamental Law of Education and the debate about the nature of males and females. After that, the paper discusses the fact that these concepts were introduced smoothly without contradicting the prewar concept of separate education for both sexes, and the theory was not put into actual practice becaouse modern theory on the equality of the sexes was based on the idea that woman's peculiar attributes were real. Furthermore, it has been made clear that by the women's liberation and second femnist movement the reality of women's liberation was deepened, and the social structure became complicated through sexual discriminations. At the same time, various realities of unequal and un-symmetrical school education were cleary exposed. The social concepts of "onna-rashisa(womanliness)" and "otoko-rashisa(manliness)"were investigated thoroughly by gender, distinguished from sex or sexuality. Even now school practices for gender free educaion face many problems. It has become rather clear that the direction of a social system that supports gender discrimination has a new view of sexual differences and male-female relationships. It seems, however, that the new concepts of sexual defferences and male-female realtionship, and th social structure that support these views are becoming acceptable.
