The purpose of this article is to explain the changes in the teacher system from two points of view, the influence of the historical system and the ideal causes, such as ideas, norms and discourses.

First, we consider the structural transform of the teacher system. An advanced teaching profession is desired, in which the following systems are created, (1) professional standards in all local boards of education, (2) teacher license renewal every 10 years, (3) professional schools for teachers. It is considered that there is legitimacy through argument at the Central Council for Education. Such arguments were summarized in three reports, published in 2006, 2012 and 2015.

Concerning the influence of the historical system, we can point out the laws related to the teacher license, teacher salary and open argument. There is a large number of laws related to teacher licenses. The regulations are complicated. The licenses are issued based on learning at the higher education institutes who provide the curriculum for obtaining teacher licenses. There is a requirement that the institutes are approved by an authorized committee under the control of MEXT. The approval system is connected in an open discussion system with legitimacy. It is stratified with many sub-committees and controlled by the section in charge. This is also why teachers’ salaries are subsidized by the central government.

In view of the ideas about changing the system, the bureaucrats have been the main actors in making changes to the system and adopted the idea that academic ability contains three factors : basic knowledge and skills, applied skills and motivated attitude. The mediocre results of PISA brought about these changes. The decline in academic ability and lack of international competencies by the authorization of OECD was of great concern. The definition of academic abilities was affirmed without any disputation by the revision of The Law of School Education in 2006. The idea has been changing national curriculums, teacher systems, national exams for higher education institutes. According to the 2012 report by the Central Council for Education, the teachers’ competency in leading new learnings for such academic abilities is located in the core of the teaching profession.

Other actors are scholars of education who have experience as presidents or chairpersons of educational institutes. Professor Kaoru Yokosuka is one of the influential actors .He was the president of national and private universities for teacher education. He was a chairperson of sub-committees and working groups of the Central Council for Education which made the three reports mentioned above. He is a researcher of pedagogy and teaching and has also been asserting that teacher education should be based on the needs of elementary school teachers since the 1970s with a lot of trials at his university. Such experience shows that it is not so easy to link practice and theory for development in education.

Now it is time to decide the future of our educational universities, whether to consider teacher education as a bureaucratic request and keep it at a distance, or to commit deeply to continuing teacher development.

In Yokohama City, before the government revised the law, the Board of Education originally decided to collaborate with the universities which offered teacher training courses in Kanagawa Prefecture. In this paper, the progress of the action by Yokohama City Board of Education is reported, and the way of educating and training teachers is considered.

In Yokohama City, 55% of the teachers have worked no more than 10 years. Because the Board of Education had anticipated this situation, they took measures as follows.

1 Making a “talent encouraging indicator for the teachers” according to their career stage

2 Taking account of school-based training by establishing a “mentor-team”

3 Founding “Eye (I) College” to educate the applicants for teaching posts in Yokohama City

However, because the school situation has become more and more complicated and has changed with remarkable speed, Yokohama City found that they needed to take new measures targeting more applicants to teaching positions in Yokohama City.

They decided to work together with the universities. They visited 41 universities to exchange opinions with each other, and conducted surveys in 2013. They also made agreements with 47 universities regarding cooperation in educating and training teachers, and started the “Conference on teacher education and training with the universities” in 2014. As a result of the visits and the survey, they came to understand the conditions and ideas of the universities.

In 2015, they shifted from a general approach to an individual approach in order for each university to participate flexibly. They also took into account “the interchange program” between the public schools and the universities. In 2016, they made efforts to improve the way of conducting “teaching practice” and “the interchange program”.

From now on, the Board of Education and the universities should have closer cooperation in educating and training teachers, and should come to a shared understanding of the present conditions of the schools. They have to educate and train teachers who can play an active role on the school front line.

This paper considered the reform trends of current teacher education in Japan from the perspective of the sociology of professions.

First, this paper summarized the trends in the sociological studies of the professions. In recent years, sociological studies of professions tend to define the professions broadly as intellectual occupational groups. One of the main themes of these studies is to investigate how the professions change their knowledge level, task area, influence, and how they interact with states, universities, and other occupations. In addition to this, recent studies of the sociology of professions tend to argue that the model image of professions is diversifying in some new professions like management consultancy as well as in traditional professions like doctors. This paper defined this situation as “re-professionalization”.

Secondly, this paper focused on the problem of the core curriculum of teacher education that is the one of the main issues of the recent reform of teacher education in Japan. The recent reform should not be denied entirely, because it has features of the policy for the re-professionalization of teacher education. However, the recent reform also includes some problems. The policy making process of the recent reform is mainly promoted by the Ministry of Education, and the reform plan heavily reflects the interest of administrators. As a consequence of this, the recent reform plan of teacher education lacks consideration for diversification of teachers, and participation of professional groups.

Thirdly, this paper examined the possibility of the plural accreditation in teacher education as a solution for the problem of the diversity and participation of professional groups of teachers. In comparison with doctors which is a precedent example of core curriculum, the teachers are characterized by a massive working population and internal diversity. This feature of teachers makes it difficult to build a unified core curriculum with the participation of professional groups of teachers. As one solution to this problem, we can learn many from the plural accreditation system of the U.S. teacher education or the U.S. psychologist education.

In conclusion, this paper argued that we should build multiple associations for accreditation and devote more time to making a core curriculum. We should not use a rough-and-ready method to make a rigid unified core curriculum without the participation of professional groups of teachers. We may have another way to make a more flexible core curriculum through competition or cooperation of plural accreditation groups. Each of them holds a different professional image of teachers.

The concepts of professions are diversifying in many other occupations as well as in the teaching profession. Faced with this situation, we need to consider the diversity of the professional image of teachers, and to discuss the plural accreditation system for participation of professional groups of teachers.

Teacher training policy in Japan is undergoing profound transformation. This process is being driven by many factors, including demographic and social changes. After the mass retirement of teachers in the past decade, a large number of new teachers entered the profession. Today, teachers are confronting new challenges in response to rapid social changes such as globalization, the advancement of science and technology, and the emergence of a knowledge-based society. A critical issue is how to improve teacher performance, as is the case in many other countries. The central government has discussed the reform of teacher education, and in November 2016, the Law concerning Special Regulations for Educational Public Service Personnel was revised.

This article aims to clarify the characteristics and existing problems of teacher education reform in Japan. The article consists of three parts. The first section briefly describes the existing teacher training programs and reform trends. There are two important trends: 1) the need for standards regarding teacher competence to encompass the continuum of teacher preparation and development and 2) the need for developing evaluation criteria in line with the rigorous civil service reform implemented through the revision of the Local Public Service Act in 2014. Local governments must conduct assessments and connect them to remuneration, career advancement, professional development, and sanctions.

The second section discusses the related legislative process. The two central government councils on education formulated the concept of “teacher training indicators” in their reports as standards to be widely used at the respective stages of pre-service training, recruitment, and inservice training. These indicators would be designed by the board of education in each prefecture and major city and used for not only guidelines for professional development but also criteria for evaluation. However, in the Diet committee, the Diet members argued that these indicators should not be used for teacher evaluation. They reasoned that teachers might be threatened if teacher evaluation based on these indicators is linked directly to teacher pay. As a result, the Diet adopted a supplementary resolution that required the government to inform local governments about the difference between the objectives of the teacher training indicators and teacher evaluation. The government has pledged to act in line with its intent. This development has resulted in the existence of two kinds of standards for teacher development and evaluation.

The third section investigates the connections between the teacher training indicators and the criteria for evaluation that some prefectures had developed. There are mainly three kinds of connections : closely connected, loosely connected, and irrelevant. Now, the boards of education are developing their indicators in cooperation with universities. The enforcement is left to the discretion of each board so that the impact of the indicators will vary among 47 prefectures and 20 major cities. It might be inefficient or ineffective to use two irrelevant indicators, so it is conceivable that they will be integrated in the future. Further studies are needed to assess the outcomes of the reform.

In recent years, there have been various reforms of the working conditions and treatment of teachers. For example, a teacher evaluation system has been introduced in both urban and rural prefectures, and there has been a transfer of authority over matters related to teachers’ salaries in compulsory education to ordinance-designated cities.

Regarding this matter, my first point is to consider the connection between the personal evaluation system and teachers’ salaries. My second point considers the issue of costs and authority related to the transfer of control of the salary when the financial burden and authority regarding a teacher’s salary are handed over to an ordinance-designated city in urban and rural prefectures due to decentralization. I also discuss whether urban and rural prefectures, which pay the teachers’ salaries guarantee equal working conditions. For my third point, I consider whether the aims of teachers’ unions are reflected in teacher salary systems.

The purpose of this paper is to reexamine the “School Standard Bill” and “School Finance Bill” which were planned in the educational reform period after World War II in Japan.

The main results of this research are as follows:

1. The research on the school standard bill was initiated by Taro Nakajima & Mitsui Ito. However, the origin and the date of the “Bill concerning the Standard of Curricula of Schools” that was a subject of research in their paper were unknown. In this research, I confirmed that it existed as the bill which is dated December 19th, 1949 in the “Tomejiro Atsuzawa collection”.

2. Previously, the “Bill concerning the Standard of Curricula and Organization of Schools (first tentative plan)” (November 1st, 1950) was reviewed as having been created by the Ministry of Education. However, I pointed out that it was the bill which was translated as “BILL CONCERNING THE STANDARD OF CURRICULA AND ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOLS” which originated with Osborne's proposal by CIE Education Division.

3. The principle of educational finance came into existence in accordance with the “Bill concerning the Local Educational Administration”. However, it was deleted in the “School Board Law”. Therefore, the problem of educational finance reform remained even after this was concluded. Regarding this case, I showed that there was an “offer” from the CIE to “specify a nationwide education standard by the law.” It then became clear that, the idea of a “School Standard bill” depended on this point.

4. The Ministry of Education’s “School Finance Bill” which was planned together with the “School Standard Bill” included the theory of equal contributions from state funds and local expenditure. However, I pointed out that this was different from the principle of “Equalization Formula for the distribution of state funds” which was sought by the CIE as a way of determining the role of the state in educational finance.

5. Regarding the tax and fiscal reforms, which were based on the “Report by the Shoup Mission”, the expenses for the compulsory education treasury charge were absorbed by the local finance equalization grant. Therefore, the Ministry of Education tried to make the local governments pay for the standard schooling in the “Bill concerning the Securing of Standard Expenses for Compulsory Education”. I pointed out that this fact was related to the “School Standard Bill” which was divided into “School Facilities Standard Bill” and “Bill concerning the Standards of Curricula and Organization of Schools”.

6. The School Standard Bill was ultimately not submitted to the Diet. I pointed out the reasons for this : being that the “School Finance Bill” and “Bill concerning the Securing of Standard Expenses for Compulsory Education” were not put into effect.

In 1969, the Ministry of Education issued a notice about high school students’ political activities to the prefectural boards of education, which restricted the students’ political activities and the teachers’ teaching activities. Prior to the Ministry’s notice, prefectural boards issued notices with similar contents. Under these notices, the political activities of high school students had been severely restricted.

In this paper, I argue that the Ministry and prefectural boards intended to exert improper control on education, which was prohibited by the Fundamental Law of Education of 1947. The reasons for reaching this conclusion are as follows.

1) The Ministry and prefectural boards restricted the activities of teachers and students by means of these notices. However, those restrictions were illegal because these notices had no legal power.

2) The notices limited the teachers’ freedom in teaching, and forced the teachers to restrict the students’ political activities both inside and outside school. Unjustly restricting teachers’ freedom in teaching will limit their activities to ensure the students’ right to learn. Although the high school students’ political activities should be guaranteed as a human right, the Ministry considered their activities to be a disturbance of social order.

3) The Ministry insisted that the political activities of the students should be restricted for the sake of public welfare in the notice, but it was illegal to restrict the human rights of students based on public welfare.