The political process of neoliberal educational reforms, and related analytical perspectives

Abstract

A succession of books is being published that depicts changes in Japanese society based on the keyword of neoliberalism. This trend is particularly noticeable in fields that address the issues of workers, the elderly, people with disabilities, women, young people, and children. Expressed in more general terms, interest in neoliberalism appears to be growing in fields that study groups that are in weak positions within society. For this reason, this article focuses on the issue of educational reforms in order to identify the spread of neoliberalism in Japan, and it also discusses the development thereof. Viewed from the point of view of the intents of the elite, the development of educational reforms in Japan involves a variety of intermingled factors, and in some aspects these cannot be described as simply neoliberal reforms. However, when viewed at the real - world level of impact on society, school education clearly has been swept in a tide of neoliberalism, and those involved in education see this as problematic. It is the author's belief that this difference in recognition itself generates the current poor prospects on the subject of educational issues. It can be said that there is a pressing need to build an analytical framework for ascertaining comprehensively trends among the elite who institute reforms and trends among the people in weak positions who feel the effects of reforms.