Abstract
This paper examines inequality and conflict in family education through interviews with about 40 Japanese mothers of elementary school students. Since the late 1990s political pressures and social concerns regarding the improvement of education and child-rearing within families have increased greatly in Japan. In contrast with the fact that the main concern of political pressure is the moral socialization of children, social concerns have focused on the success of children in educational competition. There are worries, however, that this emphasis on family education might widen the inequalities among experiences of children and aggravate the problems of mothers regarding both the incompatibility of work and child-rearing and the difficulties in choosing the best way of family education. Interviews with about 40 mothers regarding their daily practices of and perspectives on family education affirmed this anxiety. What is needed is not to lay stress on family education, but to enrich the public opportunities for children to develop their abilities and possibilities.
