The purpose of this paper is to examine the issues in securing basic education in elementary and junior high school from the viewpoint of collaboration between education and welfare. This paper is based on my presentation at the symposium of the 4th annual conference of JASBEL (Japan Association for the Study of Basic Education and Literacies). In the symposium, titled “The security of basic education for children confronting difficulties”, Mr. Takuya Murai and Mr. Akihiro Jinushi presented on the daily lives and school experiences of socially disadvantaged children and their parents. I was impressed by their presentations, and I wanted to reconsider how schools stifle, among others, children in poverty, children with disabilities, and children who are chronically absent from school. In section 2 of this paper, I discuss the significance of basic education, the system of securing basic education, and the educational contents which should be secured. The particular needs may change as students age, but the present compulsory education system and gakuryoku (academic ability) have many limits and problems from the perspective of securing basic education. In section 3, I look back upon the history of exclusion from school focusing on minority group children. These children have been held from the meritocracy. That is, those minority people have been suffering from institutionalized discrimination in the educational system and labor market. In section 4, I referred to the concept of kyoiku fukushi (educational welfare) which recognizes the integration of education and welfare, then I present a conceptual framework of basic education in elementary and junior high school. In conclusion, I insist that respect for the rights of the child is crucially important in educational reform toward the security of basic education.

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There are various difficulties in actually practicing cooperation in the fields of education and welfare. Nowadays, rather than discussing the necessity and significance of cooperation, there is a need for a fundamental study that can reflect on why dissonance and barriers that make cooperation difficult arise. In this paper, based on previous research on the collaboration between medical care and welfare, and the successes of education-welfare studies, we refer to an education-welfare approach that sees the whole human life from both an educational viewpoint and a welfare viewpoint. After that, we will devise a binocular view of the education-welfare perspective that can comprehensively see the complementary positioning of both viewpoints. In conclusion, using a four-quadrant map with the two axes of present orientation - future orientation and social orientation - interpersonal orientation, we define welfare as a quadrant of present - social orientation, and education as a quadrant of future - interpersonal orientation. This binocular perspective of an education-welfare four-quadrant map allows us see the parallax between the viewpoints education and welfare, which will be useful for understanding and cooperation between the fields.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the process of implementing support systems in non-formal settings for children with foreign backgrounds in Chiba prefecture, Japan. In the past 30 years, as the Japanese government expanded the acceptance of foreign workers, the number of foreign residents has increased, and volunteer-based Japanese language classes have been implemented in each region. Due to a lack of support in formal education, children and youth with such backgrounds are participating in non-formal educational setting in the community to master basic Japanese literacy. While many approaches and practices are held in school education, the practices in non-formal education have been disregarded as just complementing formal education, compensating for the deficit of support in school education. In this study, I will clarify how Japanese language support for foreign residents has evolved in Chiba prefecture, where many foreigners live and multiple languages are spoken. Methodologically, the author conducts a comparative analysis of MEXT’ s education policy for foreign students and the Japanese language education policy of the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Then, the author reanalyzes the list of Japanese language classes from 1993 to 2019 in Chiba prefecture from the perspectives of the changes in the number of Japanese classes by city, the administrator of the Japanese classes, and the support target. Through these analyses, the author points out the following: First, in recent years, national educational policies have gradually led to programs for children of immigrants.　 However, non-formal education for such students has been not clearly defined in the policy. Secondly, non-formal educational support for children with foreign backgrounds has expanded from Japanese language support and serves as a foundation for subject learning in preparation for entering high school, and for over-aged students. Finally, various people have acknowledged the roles of such non-formal education and made contributions in this area.

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In areas where public junior high night schools have not yet been established, volunteer organizations such as NPOs are holding classes to support migrant students who have surpassed schooling age and have not received regular education either in Japan or their country of origin to advance to high school. However, there are many migrant youths who cannot concentrate on their studies even if they have a desire to study due to financial need and other issues, and who, as a result, often have to forgo advancing to high school. This paper examines the necessity of public junior high night schools from the perspective of enhancing re-learning support for migrant young people over school age, while also summarizing the historical background. In particular, this paper focused on Aichi Prefecture, a region in which public junior high night schools once existed, but have not been re-established since their closing down.

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This empirical study is based on the hypothesis that creating opportunities for contact between infants from poor families and the community and society at large may have positive effects on children’ s development. The research focuses on one child who participated in a child-rearing salon in a housing complex. We could identify three positive effects on infants from poor child-rearing families who took part in local activities continuously. First, the salon provided a special place where the child became connected with society outside the home. Next, it placed the child on the start line of deficiency-needs, and finally, it brought a desirable lifestyle and culture in infancy.

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In South Korea, literacy education was institutionalized and the Academic Career Acknowledgement System was introduced in 2007 with the revision of the Lifelong Education Act. The System helps illiterate and undereducated adult learners receive primary and middle school diplomas through participation in literacy programs provided by regional literacy education institutes. There has been significant debate over how learners' literacy should be assessed. In Seoul, the primary school diploma course program began in 2011. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education after a number of discussions adopted the ‟portfolio‟ which includes the entire learning process as a method of assessing academic credentials and has issued evaluation guidelines. There are three types of evaluations (diagnostic, formative, and summative), and the format of the evaluation paper in the portfolio is also introduced in the guidelines. In order to clarify how this evaluation guideline is used in the literacy programs in Seoul, field research including interviews was done at three different types of literacy institutions. Through our research, we have found that each program provides creative and unique education following the evaluation guidelines. We also found that the Academic Career Acknowledgement System has produced not only issues on evaluation but also many other issues such as the differences of working conditions between teachers and the achievement gaps between learners while the System improves the learning of uneducated adult learners and gives them confidence. The research results will give suggestions for discussing the evaluation guidelines in literacy and Japanese programs in Japan.

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‟Act to Guarantee access to supplementary learning to insufficient compulsory education due to absenteeism and what not‟ has established in 2016. NGO and researchers claimed that the needs surveys for evening junior high school is not enough. The survey is important barometer because it depends on not only the method for investigation of who is and how to estimate the amount of the people with incomplete basic education, and related with the needs what is latent or revealed. It is also difficult for us to grasp what is the intangible nature of the needs at all. I apply to the sociological theory of the social constructivism, and define the needs for the studying in evening junior high school and analyzed and considered from the needs survey held by the education board in Kanagawa prefecture. I found that the people for needs for evening junior high school are more revealed people than other regions when NGO is there for the people from the estimation results.

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