This paper clarifies the characteristics of lectures given by Yoshimura Shuyo, who served as a Confucian scholar for Mihara Domain, near Hiroshima in the late Edo Period. This paper examines notes taken by his son, Yoshimura Izan, in order to compare Shuyo’s lectures on Mencius delivered at Choyo-Kan, the public academy in Mihara Domain, and at Kosai-Juku, a private school in Mihara.

　This comparative analysis reveals that Shuyo tailored his lecture content on the same topic (Mencius) based on student’s social status within the Edo status hierarchy. The central premise of Shuyo’s lectures were adapted to his student’s social standing.

　On the one hand, at Choyo-Kan where pupils came from a higher social status and were expected to be politicians and rulers of districts, Shuyo did not deliver tutorial commentary on Mencius, but focused on grasping big concepts and expounding virtuous lessons. Shuyo’s lecture aligned with Mihara Domain policies, implying that Shuyo’s intent was to develop students’ governmental and ruling mentality.

　At Kosai-Juku, on the other hand, he delivered tutorial commentary on Mencius for pupils to demonstrate how to read classical texts. Pupils at Kosai-Juku were of commoner status for whom Shuyo could not delivere political instruction because it was considered a taboo for commoners. For Shuyo, learning for commoners was autotelic rather than for political purpose.

　In the history of education, it can be seen that the growth of women paying attention to hygiene stemmed from modernization. However, the process remains unclear in the Japanese context. This study examines why improving female hygiene rapidly became the matter during the 1880s, focusing on Watanabe Kanae (1858-1932) and his argument for the promotion of Sokuhatsu (western-bound hairstyle for women).

　In 1885, Watanabe invented Sokuhatsu and delivered a speech promoting it as an economical, useful and hygienic new hairstyle at the meeting of the Sanitary Association. In that speech, he was unable to provide decisive hygienic advantages over the traditional hairstyle. However, only one month later, Watanabe insisted that women’s improvement to “hygienic cultivators” by converting into Sokuhatsu would solve the issue of Japanese physical weakness. His argument on the promotion of Sokuhatsu included a strategy for race betterment which was well known as a rudimental argument of eugenics in Japan.

　This study reveals that Watanabe was rooted in eugenic ideas and advocated the improvement of the Japanese race, especially its physical inferiority to the Occidental. He was eager to strengthen the Japanese race to match the Westerner through hygienic reformation about bringing-up, food, clothing and shelter. Watanabe argued that women were important agents for race betterment; therefore, they must be transformed into the hygienic cultivators.

　Watanabe’s argument was meaningful for educators who were concerned about the physical weakness of the Japanese and paid attention to physical education, such as school hygiene. Following Watanabe, other eugenicists, hygienists and educators advocated women’s role in race betterment. This paper shows that women, as essential cultivators of human betterment, were expected to be concerned with hygiene.

　The aim of this paper is to clarify the propositions for the elementary education policy in the Meiji and Taishō Period and its historical significance through examine the process of discussion about the proposed amendment imperial ordinance relating to elementary schools.

　The proposed amended imperial ordinance on elementary schools was the subject of long term debate in the Ministry of Education. After extending compulsory education in 1908, graduation rates dropped, although the number of applicants for middle school increased. To deal with this situation, the Ministry of Education supported the proposed amended imperial ordinance relating to elementary schools, but the Educational Investigation Committee took a more cautious approach and stopped the ordinance. Popular perception considered the proposal as an ordinance to extend school age.

　Examination of the direction of discussion on the proposal from the Ministry of Education reveals the following. The Educational Investigation Committee determined that the proposed amended imperial ordinance relating to elementary schools was appropriate.

　The discussion also led to Egi Kazuyuki’s idea for an amendment of the secondary education system. Deliberation on this proposed amendment of the secondary education system was accepted as related to the popular perception of extending the mandatory school age. Second, the proposed amendment to the secondary education system suggested multiple paths/branched system in elementary education.

　The proposed amendment to the secondary education system included the amended imperial ordinance relating to elementary schools and the proposal to extend mandatory school age. As a result, the discussion held by the Educational Investigation Committee rejected more flexible rules on school age, flexibmle management, and multiple paths in elementary education.

　This paper analyzes the actual educational conditions of repatriated children in post-war Hokkaido’s urban areas, specifically Sapporo and Hakodate.

　After WWII, the Japanese government expected Hokkaido to accept repatriated citizens who resided in territories lost during the war. Consequently, many moved to Hokkaido, particularly to Sapporo and Hakodate with many having no choice but to leave their property behind when they fled. However, the Japanese government did not prepare sufficiently to accept these repatriates. Therefore, even after returning to their home country, many found themselves living in impoverished conditions.

　Due to their straitened circumstances, many of the repatriated children had no choice but to work. Some children were unable to attend school; others had to be absent from school for a long periods. However, even amidst these harsh living conditions, there were some people who established schools and others implemented an educational system to suit the actual circumstances of these children. However, this study reveals that implementation was not the result of the work of the government, but rather was made possible through the efforts of the repatriates themselves together with dedicated teachers.

　So far the study of education problems of repatriated children has been superficial, and there has been no investigation into the later lives of these children. This study shows that the measures taken by the governments of Japan and Hokkaido for repatriates were makeshift, as reflected in actual education conditions of the repatriated children under those circumstances.

　Based on the history of the “cumulative record summary” created by the Ministry of Education in 1949 (Showa 24) and the subsequent revision to the student permanent record, this paper seeks to clarify the function of the “educational evaluation” component of student permanent record documents expected to be used by secondary schools during the post–World War II education reforms.

　The “cumulative record summary” served as a “record for teaching” meant to improve teaching methods and curriculum content based on daily teaching activities.

　The subsequent revision to the “student permanent record” in 1955 (Showa 30) added the role of “externally validated record,” for use as data to inform future study and employment activities.

　The Ministry of Education explained that the “student permanent record” had a “dual character” indicative of the document’s two functions as a “record for teaching” and “externally validated record.” However, the record has since undergone major revisions since its inception as the “cumulative record summary.”

　Accordingly, this paper will consider the nature of the “cumulative record summary,” the reactions of educational institutions that used this document, the background to the revisions to the “student permanent record” at the Ministry of Education, and the “dual character” of this document.

　As a result, in addition to clarifying the “educational evaluation” function of the “cumulative record summary,” we conclude that the function of the “student permanent record” as a “record for teaching” does not have substance sufficient to be characterized as having a “dual character” from the viewpoint of enhancing “educational evaluation.”

　In Japanese colonial-era Korea, Sōshi-Kaimei was applied from 1940. This was a policy of pressuring Koreans to adopt the Japanese paternalistic family system instead of their own traditional clan system. While Sōshi (creation of family names) was almost compulsory, Kaimei (change of given names) was voluntary. It is the general opinion of previous research that the Governor General of Chosen had actively promoted Sōshi but was passive about Kaimei, because it was necessary to leave a boundary line between Koreans and Japanese. However, there is documentation that some Korean women in Keijō changed their given names to Japanese-style ones ending with ko (Chinese character 子), from the 1930s. Additionally, some Korean girl students using ko in their given names were found on the register of Dongnae Girls’ High School in Busan. When Sōshi-Kaimei was implemented, Japanese-style names became more popular, and the use of ko in given names also increased among Dongnae students. A portion of the school register records that some of those who kept their Korean names were called by Japanese-style ko names, by their close friends at school. When students could not use Japanese-style names due to opposition from their patriarchs, they chose such names for themselves to be used with in their spheres of intimacy. This trend reveals how Korean girl students using ko in their names may have reflected a kind of “voluntary” consent to colonial power.

　According to Ivan Illich, in Shadow Work, Antonio de Nebrija (1444-1522) can be regarded as the first person to insist that public education is essential for the unification of the modern nation-state. In fact, Nebrija was often mentioned in connection with his Gramática de la lengua Castellana (1492), one of the first vulgar grammar works in early modern Europe. There are few studies, however, on his crucial educational work, De liberis educandis libellus (1509). Nebrija was a pioneer of the Humanist movement in the Iberian Peninsula, during the reign of Reyes catolicos, so he compiled his educational text from fertile ancient classical proses. This study attempts lexicographic and rhetorical analyses of this brief document, to clarify the process of receiving the classical writing style in the precursory discourse of modern education. In other words, this article aims to examine how Nebrija composed his educational treaty, based on ancient classic sources, in addition to analyzing his terminology of principal topics. He mainly referred to Pseudo-Plutarch’s De liberis educandis, Aristotle’s Politica, and Quintilian’s Institutio oratiae. Nebrija followed the classical tradition of the usage of educational terms. Nebrija’s use of the Latin verb, educare, therefore, signified not to teach knowledge, but to nourish and to nurture children.

　His treaty testifies that the style of educational discourse predates modern scholars. While the history of education in early modern Spain has been largely neglected, Nebrija should be considered a trailblazer of the modern style of educational discourse.