Educational reforms after the Asia-Pacific War brought a strong emphasis on equality into Japanese compulsory education, in terms of provision, pedagogy and participation. The effects upon post-war Japanese society have been profound, ranging from a dramatic levelling of differences in academic attainment to a sense of national identity as a broadly homogenous society. In contrast, educational structures and policies in post-compulsory education have emphasized differentiation over equality, resulting in fierce competition for educational credentials. This tension between equality during compulsory education and competition in post-compulsory education has been crucial in the shaping of post-war Japanese society.

Introduction

Education has been a powerful shaping force in post-1945 Japan, as well as a battleground for competing ideas. Particularly notable have been the striking contrasts between compulsory and post-compulsory education. The nine years of compulsory education at elementary and junior high school have been marked by attempts to approach equality of provision, instruction and treatment of pupils. However, post-compulsory education is a different and more complex story. The high school system has been the arena for competing visions of what education should be: comprehensive, universal and equal, or differentiated, hierarchized and competitive. Meanwhile, the proportion of young people receiving university education has soared, yet without a fundamental change in the system's hierarchical character.

Education can thus be understood as reflecting some of the strongest competing sets of ideas in postwar Japan—the idealization of equality of opportunity and treatment on the one hand, and the (enthusiastic or reluctant) acceptance of differentiation and competition on the other. In turn, experience of these materialized ideals has shaped successive generations of postwar Japanese. Examining education helps us understand how and why Japanese society as a whole has continued to embrace ideas and practices that may seem in tension, if not downright contradictory.

Many features of Japan's postwar education system have roots in the decades before 1945, which have continued to exert powerful influences, as noted below. However, the starting point for any account must be the Allied Occupation (1945–1952), which saw the greatest reshaping of Japan's education system since the Meiji period (1868–1912).