Unosuke Kawamoto’s Life and His Contribution to Special Education in Japan

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to introduce Unosuke Kawamoto’s Life and his contribution to Special Education in Japan. Unosuke Kawamoto (1888–1960) is an educationalist who played an important role in education for handicapped children (education for children with special needs) and expanded theoretical and practical activities in civic education, vocational education and guidance, adult education, urban education, science teaching and so on. Especially, in the period of educational reform of after World War II, Kawamoto became a member of Education Reform Committee, and he took part in the planning for the establishment of Fundamental Law of Education as a representative in special education. He strongly demanded an equal opportunity for education to handicapped children and thoroughness of compulsory education, and he started working for the realization of obligatory education system for the blind and the deaf.