My Vision No.67
2023.8Japan's Educational Disparities and the “Myth of Equality”
Is compulsory education in Japan able to respond to the differences in each child's environment?
In this edition of My Vision, we consider the current status of educational disparity, what lies behind it,
and the future of public education.

About This Issue

Educational Disparities Are Directly Related to Japan’s Declining Birthrate- Are We Responding to the Diversity of Children’s Family Environments and Attributes?
Kazuhiro Higashi
Executive Vice President, NIRA / Senior Advisor, Resona Holdings, Inc.

Ensuring high-quality education for all is one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Education canbreak the cycle of poverty and correct inequality. Japan possesses a system of compulsory education, but is
it the case that all children have equal access to high-quality educational opportunities? Some children areunable to attend cram schools because of their family environment, and others miss out on educational
opportunities because they have trouble adapting to school life. What is the current status of educational
disparity in Japan, and what lies behind it? What is the best direction for Japan's school education?” In
this edition of My Vision, we seek the opinions of experts in the field of education.
Keywords…Educational disparities and declining birthrate, children's rights, fair education

Expert Opinions

Japan's Educational Disparities and the “Myth of Equality”
What is the current status of educational disparity in Japan, and what lies behind it?
What is the best direction for Japan's school education?

Data-driven Education Policy-making for
Substantive Improvements, Not Mere Pretense

Providing a Systematic Program of Support toChildren from Disadvantaged Family Backgrounds

Ryoji Matsuoka

Yuko Nonoyama-Tarumi

Associate Professor, Faculty of Sociology, Ryukoku
University

Professor, Faculty of Sociology, Musashi University

Keywords…socioeconomic disparities in educational
opportunities and outcomes, data-driven policy-making

Keywords…Disparities in academic achievement bysocioeconomic status (SES), low-income households andsingle-mother households, myth of equality“Relearning” What Should Have Been Learned in
Elementary and Middle School: Paving the Way to
Realizing Self-Reliance for High School Students
Who Are Poor or Non-Attendant

Increase the Workforce in Public Schools to Support
the Academic Performance of the Stratum of Failing
Students

Katsuji Yamada

Koukichi Shimizu

Principal, Osaka Prefectural Nishinari High School

Professor, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka
University

Keywords…Transmission from parents to children, Keywords…Fixed hierarchy, guarantee of academic
relearning, support for self-reliance
performance, diversity in public schools

Question the Current Status of School Education
Kenryu Nakamura
Senior Research Fellow, Research Center for
Advanced Science and Technology, The University ofTokyo
Keywords…Children taking control of learning, public
action for educational change, LEARNInterview period：May-June, 2023
Interviewer : Sosuke Suzuki (Research Coordinator andResearch Fellow, NIRA)

Editor: Reiko Kanda, Maiko Sakaki and Tatsuya Yamaji. This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Copyright Ⓒ 2023 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

1My Vision No.67
2023.8About This Issue

Educational Disparities Are Directly Related to Japan’s
Declining Birthrate-Are We Responding to the Diversity of Children’s Family Environments and Attributes?
The word “educate” is derived from a Latin word
meaning “to draw out potential,” and it cannot be disputedthat the type of education that a person receives is importantin enabling them to fulfill their potential and to thrive in theirown unique way. The issue of disparities in education istherefore a matter of great concern. The quality and quantityof education that children receive varies depending on their

Kazuhiro Higashi

family environment and conditions, which in turn affects their

Executive Vice President, NIRA /Senior Advisor, Resona Holdings, Inc.

educational background and their later life. The term “cycle ofpoverty” is an easy way to picture the problem. However,educational disparities do not only exist in situations of poverty. For example, not a great many
parents are able to oversee their children's performance of homework on a daily basis. A difference inthis attention to homework may affect their children's academic performance. In addition, while somefamilies are able to provide their children with a variety of cultural experiences, including travel andextracurricular lessons and activities, there are also many families who would like to give theirchildren these experiences but cannot afford to do so. While the government's free education program
can be expected to have a certain effect, it alone cannot fully address the problem of the family
environment affecting children's academic performance and educational background.
Despite the diversity of family circumstances, it cannot be said that the current public
education system gives sufficient consideration to children's family environment, or to their attributes
and abilities. The necessary support should be provided in an appropriate fashion based on the family
environment and the upbringing that form part of the child’s background. As one of the experts
interviewed for this edition points out, the “myth of equality” in educational administration is open toquestion, and the attitude of treating children homogeneously without considering their differences
cannot be seen as true equality. The same problem applies to the non-attendance of children who do
not fit in with school education. Is there a uniform image of the human being that education is aiming
to produce, and are children who do not fit into the framework being ostracized? We must be prepared
to rethink our system of education.
In this edition of My Vision, we consider the issue of educational disparities from theperspective of a variety of experts in the field of education.

Disparities in Education Left Unaddressed by the System
First, how should we understand the current status of educational disparities in Japan? Ryoji
Matsuoka, an Associate Professor at Ryukoku University, underscores that Japanese compulsory
education has not effectively eliminated socioeconomic disparities in educational opportunities andEditor: Reiko Kanda, Maiko Sakaki and Tatsuya Yamaji. This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Copyright Ⓒ 2023 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

2My Vision No.67
2023.8outcomes. He strongly refutes the argument that “since all students are provided with the same
opportunities through compulsory education, individuals' educational achievement depends solely on
their ability and effort.” His research shows that children from different socioeconomic backgrounds
have different basic learning skills at the start of elementary school, and these disparities persist
throughout the schooling years, leading to different levels of educational attainment.
According to Professor Yuko Nonoyama-Tarumi of Musashi University, compared to othercountries, in Japan, the size of the gap in academic achievement in the lower-tail of SES, which
includes children from low-income families and single-mother households, is relatively large within
the overall gap in academic achievement in the SES distribution. Professor Nonoyama-Tarumi makes
us keenly aware of the urgency of creating a systematic program of support for children from lowincome families that makes them structurally prone to academic disadvantage. She points to the“myth of equality” in educational administration - the concept that all students should be treatedequally - in addition to the state of the high school system as reasons why this disparity has been
neglected in Japan. As a result of segregation between high schools by students’ SES, she says, there
is little diversity within schools and fewer opportunities for students to develop feelings of empathy
for those who are in different circumstances from themselves.
Against this background, we can be greatly encouraged by the efforts described by Katsuji
Yamada, the Principal of Osaka Prefectural Nishinari High School. This high school enrolls many
children who are educationally disadvantaged due to their families' financial difficulties or difficult
parent-child relationships. The school helps students become self-reliant by providing care tailored totheir actual circumstances, even offering “relearning” of content studied in elementary and juniorhigh school, in order to enable them to earn and provide for themselves following graduation.
Underlying this is the powerful concept that the essence of education is to break through thereproduction of disparities. Sharing this philosophy widely should spark the beginning of a national
discussion on overcoming educational disparities. In addition, in order to advance the discussion, it
will be essential to upgrade the data available to us, such as the results of panel surveys, in order toallow us to ascertain the reality of educational disparities, as both Professor Matsuoka and Professor
Nonoyama-Tarumi point out. It is surprising that a developed society such as Japan’s does not possess
such data, which could serve as a basis for policy-making.

Necessary Reforms in School Education
What should school education look like in the future in order to realize fair educational
opportunities? Professor Koukichi Shimizu of Osaka University advocates guaranteeing academic
achievement for all children. He believes that the talent of children with high academic ability should
be brought out, while at the same time those with a low level of academic ability should be supported
and boosted. He points out that it will be necessary to increase the scholastic workforce in order toensure that there is an adequate allocation of teachers for this purpose. It will also be important tourge that improvement of the stability and quality of public schools, which the majority of children
attend, is necessary for the future of the country. Professor Shimizu believes that society as a wholeshould support public schools in which diverse children, including those with a non-Japanesebackground, or children with disabilities, can grow up together.
Editor: Reiko Kanda, Maiko Sakaki and Tatsuya Yamaji. This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Copyright Ⓒ 2023 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

3My Vision No.67
2023.8On the other hand, Mr. Kenryu Nakamura, a Senior Research Fellow at The University ofTokyo's Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, sounds a warning regarding the stateof school education today. Mr. Nakamura claims that a school system and parenting practices that
seek to create a homogeneous human being possessing a specific level of ability and conforming to a
specific image are depriving children of their natural curiosity and potential. In addition, heemphasizes the fact that children who are ill-suited to this type of educational environment will havemore difficult lives. We need to allow children to have experiences in which they grapple with learning,enabling them to grasp the point to be learned by themselves. The challenge for the future will be how
parents, schools, and society are able to change their attitudes toward education from the ground up.

Education Is the Cornerstone of a Society in Which People Can Have Children Witha Feeling of Peace of Mind
If a child's future is restricted by his or her family's living environment or level of culture,that child's rights are also limited. In a society in which a child's future depends on the economic andcultural level of his or her parents, it is impossible to raise a child with a feeling of peace of mind. Fearof not being able to provide one’s children with an adequate education as a result of the family
environment leads to a reluctance to have children. We must become keenly aware that educational
disparity is not only unhealthy for our society, but may also be directly related to the serious issue ofthe declining birthrate that our nation is facing. In order to build a society in which people can havechildren with a feeling of peace of mind, we must create a high-quality educational foundation. Now
is the time for the entire nation to work together on this very important task.

Kazuhiro Higashi is NIRA’s Executive Vice President and Senior Advisor to Resona Holdings, Inc. After serving as Chairmanof the Board and President and Representative Director, he assumed his current position in June 2022.

Editor: Reiko Kanda, Maiko Sakaki and Tatsuya Yamaji. This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Copyright Ⓒ 2023 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

4My Vision No.67
2023.8Expert Opinions

Data-driven Education Policy-making for Substantive Improvements,
Not Mere Pretense
The term“Kyoiku Kakusa”(教育格差) refers to educational
disparities in educational outcomes, including academic performanceand final educational attainment. Individuals tend to have different
education outcomes partly depending on ascriptive factors such as theirparents' educational attainment and occupational status, householdincome, region of origin, and biological sex (i.e., the conditions at birth).
On the other hand, another similar-sounding term,“Gakureki Kakusa”(学歴格差), literally translated as“educational credential disparities,”
refers to the tendency that individuals with higher education
credentials are more likely to receive favorable opportunities and
Ryoji Matsuoka
treatment, for example, when job hunting.
Disparities in outcomes that can be traced back to one's“birth”
Associate Professor, Faculty of
becomeevident
at an early stage of life. For example, nationally
Sociology, Ryukoku University
representative data indicate that children from different socioeconomic
groups begin elementary school with different basic learning skills. One of the main reasons for theseoutcome gaps is considered to be derived from socioeconomic disparities in educational opportunities
between families.
The widespread claim that everyone is given the same opportunity in compulsory education andthat one's final educational attainment depends on ability and effort ignores the reality captured by thedata. Disparities in opportunities based on the socioeconomic status of the family of origin, including
parental level of education and household income, exist not only between families and between national,
public, and private schools but also between public elementary schools (between neighborhoods) that 98%
of children attend.
Public schools in socioeconomically advantaged areas, where most children come from families
with both parents holding college degrees, and those in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods,
where few parents have college degrees, cannot be considered equivalent educational environments. Thisdistinction is observed partly as differences in attitudes toward learning and higher education of bothparents and children. More specifically, the former schools are characterized by most children focusing on
academics, anticipating higher education pursuits, participating in additional academic lessons outside ofschools, and engaging in extracurricular activities, whereas many children in the latter schools lack a clear
educational goal.
Japanese compulsory education serves to prevent the widening of educational disparities thatexist at the early stage of elementary schooling, but it is not enough to reduce them. The extent ofeducational disparities in Japan is average compared to other advanced countries, making Japan a
mediocre society in terms of educational equality.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has put forward
policies that sound reasonable based on simplistic arguments but has done little to rigorously investigate
their effectiveness. Additionally, MEXT has frequently attempted to disseminate “good practices” inteaching and school management, but these practices have not been proven effective in the first place, and
it is also questionable whether they can be replicated in schools with students of different socioeconomic
backgrounds.
According to data comparable over the past 20 years, spreading “good practices” has not
significantly improved educational disparities between socioeconomic groups or the nation's average
student academic achievement. To change this ineffective way of governing the education system, we needto shift to evidence-based educational policy-making that focuses on improving outcomes, rather thancreating the illusion of “taking action.” Specifically, we need to establish a cycle of incorporating researchfindings into policy, and then repeatedly evaluating the effectiveness of education policies and classroom
practices through multiple longitudinal surveys that track students and schools.
Professor Matsuoka specializes in the field of sociology of education, with a research focus on addressing educational
inequalities to create a society where individuals can fully realize their potential. His research, which utilizes large-scale
datasets, has been published in peer-reviewed journals both nationally and internationally. He earned his Ph.D. in
Educational Policy Studies from the College of Education at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa.
Editor: Reiko Kanda, Maiko Sakaki and Tatsuya Yamaji. This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Copyright Ⓒ 2023 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

5My Vision No.67
2023.8Expert Opinions

Providing a Systematic Program of Support to Children from Disadvantaged
Family Backgrounds
An international comparison has shown that in Japan, theschool-level association between students’ socioeconomic status (SES)
and academic achievement at the senior high school level is extremely
high. In other words, Japan has a segregated high school system inwhich students are sorted into different schools not only by theiracademic ability in entrance examinations, but also by their family
backgrounds. In a high school system with little diversity within
schools, students have few opportunities to interact with students
from different family backgrounds. The lack of opportunities to relate
Yuko Nonoyama-Tarumi
with, learn with, and empathize with people in different situations
Professor, Faculty of Sociology,
may be one reason why people do not see inequality as a social
Musashi University
problem.
Furthermore, an international comparison of where in the SES distribution the educational
inequality is relatively large within a society reveals that in Japan, the ratio of achievement gap at lowertail SES to achievement gap at upper-tail SES is large. In other words, children from low-income
households and children from single-mother households, who are more likely to suffer economic
disadvantage, display a relatively greater level of academic underachievement. These children need asystematic program of support, rather than “luck” in whether or not they happen to be blessed withattentive teachers and schools. In the U.S., it is established by law that the federal government allocates
additional funds to schools with many children from low-income families and schools with many migrantor other children who are non-native speakers of English. It is important for Japan to consider acompensation policy that provides additional financial resources for children from disadvantaged family
backgrounds, and to guarantee academic achievement through, for example, increasing the number ofteachers who support these children, providing after-school learning support, and supporting educational
expenses through “vouchers” for out-of-school education.
Lying behind the neglect of disparities in academic achievement in Japan is the “myth of equality”
among educational administration and schools. The idea that all students should be treated equally has
discouraged discussions focused on additional support for low-income children. There is also a lack of
educational data necessary for such discussions, particularly nation-wide panel surveys by the governmentthat follow children’s academic ability over time, resulting in inadequate understanding of the current
state and mechanisms that generate disparities in academic achievement.
Disparities in academic achievement are a manifestation of broader social issues that go beyond
education, such as welfare and social security; it goes without saying that there is a need for policies that
focus on the economic situation of families, such as income redistribution and social welfare policies.
However, it is simultaneously essential to first deepen our understanding of the current educational
disparities based on data, secondly to discuss what kind of society we want to build and what the purposeof education is for our society, and thirdly to consider ways of ensuring diversity within schools and theintroduction of a systematic program of support for children from disadvantaged family backgrounds.
Professor Nonoyama-Tarumi specializes in the sociology of education and comparative education. Her research interests
include the mechanisms that generate disparities in academic achievement and comparative research on educational
disparities. Her publications include Yuko Nonoyama-Tarumi [2017], “Educational achievement of children from singlemother and single-father families: The case of Japan,” Journal of Marriage and Family 79(4), pp. 915-931. She is a memberof the Expert Committee on the National Achievement Study and a Fellow of the International Academy of Education.
Professor Nonoyama-Tarumi holds a Ph.D. from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University.
Editor: Reiko Kanda, Maiko Sakaki and Tatsuya Yamaji. This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Copyright Ⓒ 2023 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

6My Vision No.67
2023.8Expert Opinions“Relearning” What Should Have Been Learned in Elementary and Middle School: Paving
the Way to Realizing Self-Reliance for High School Students Who Are Poor or Non-Attendant
The culture and the living environment of parents aretransmitted to the child. At the high school at which I serve as Principal,
we take in children who have not adjusted academically in elementaryand junior high school, or who have been truants. Many of them are indifficult situations in terms of family finances and parent-childrelationships. The poverty rate among our children is well above the
Osaka Prefecture average, and it is often the case that their mothers andfathers were raised in similar environments. The gap in academic ability
is noticeable from about the third year of elementary school, when
Katsuji Yamada
children learn to calculate with figures that they write. That gap widens
Principal, Osaka Prefecturaldepending on whether or not a child has someone to help them with their
Nishinari High School
homework at home. The peak of truancy is seen around the second yearof junior high school, when children begin to dislike school due to thesheer accumulation of things that they do not understand. High school is the forum in which sucheducational disparities are most strongly manifested. Almost all junior high school students take the highschool entrance examination, and their grades determine the high school they enter. Unfortunately, thekind of high school they attend will determine the rest of their lives.
Our school also offers “relearning” programs for subjects that students studied in elementary andjunior high school. We enable students who did not achieve adequate learning outcomes due to truancy tostart over from the basics in high school in order to offer them the opportunity to enter the workforce inthe future. Some students say that they wish to relearn from the elementary school level. What is
important to us is taking the approach that it is not the fault of the students themselves that they do notunderstand what they are studying. We do not blame them for what they are unable to do, but recognize
and praise them for what they are able to. In some classes, our school uses 30-minute intervals to maintain
concentration, and first-year students take “relearning” classes in English, Japanese, and mathematics
every day from Monday to Friday. Small class sizes are the basis of the program, and support teachers are
assigned to the students.
Even if a child enters high school, dropping out of school will lead quite directly to a life of poverty.
Graduating from high school is an important passport to a child's future life. 70% of our students work
part-time jobs in the evening, and we have therefore reduced the number of absences by delaying the startof school by one hour to accommodate the students' actual needs. For children who cannot rely on others
because they do not know how to, we have opened the “Ibasho Café”* in the school, where students cancasually drop in for a chat or consultation, and NPO youth workers are there to listen. For many years, ourschool has put a great deal of effort into helping students find employment, and for 12 consecutive years,
the job offer rate for job applicants from the school has been 100%.
Depending on the school, there are different local characteristics and different home environments.
We thoroughly analyze the actual situation at home while deciding how to respond; for example, what typeof floor plan does a student have in their study area at home; does the student have a desk to study at. Our
school, which accepts many children from difficult home environments, is committed to supporting selfreliance to ensure that students can earn and live on their own. We believe that the essence of education
is to break down the reproduction of disparities.
*An “ibasho”is a place where a person “fits in.”Nishinari High School enrolls many children living in difficult home environments. The school’s “Anti-poverty Learning”
program, which seeks to break the cycle of inequality and poverty, has been widely covered by the media. Mr. Yamada served
as Vice-Principal and later Principal of the school from 2005 to 2013 before being transferred; he was reassigned as theschool's Principal in 2017. He has created an environment conducive to learning by looking deeply into the realities ofstudents' lives, and has lowered the dropout rate, which was once close to 20%, to single digits. Mr. Yamada is a graduate of
Kyoto Prefectural University’s Faculty of Letters.
Editor: Reiko Kanda, Maiko Sakaki and Tatsuya Yamaji. This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Copyright Ⓒ 2023 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

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My Vision No.67
2023.8Expert Opinions

Increase the Workforce in Public Schools to Support the Academic
Performance of the Stratum of Failing Students
We must avoid a future in which educational disparities fix
hierarchies in place. In the past, status and property were passed directlyfrom parents to children in status-based societies. Equality of education has
been introduced twice in Japan, during the Meiji Restoration and thepostwar period; these efforts created conditions in Japanese society
enabling people to move between social strata by means of education. Now,
however, the transmission of social status from parents to their children isonce again gaining strength. In addition to each family's economic situation,
cultural standards, and human relationships and connections (i.e., “social
Koukichi Shimizu
capital”), the academic ability and educational record of children are
Professor, Graduate School
determined by the strength of their parents' desire to send them toof Human Sciences, Osaka
university. Indicated by such phenomena as the fact that the term “oyaUniversity
gacha” (meaning “parental lottery”) (see note) has recently become
widespread in Japan, the general public seems to be becoming more awareof a disparity between families.
Our goal should be to provide a solid foundation for students in the low-achieving stratum inschool education. Rather than narrowing the gap that exists by reducing opportunities for students who
are more academically able, the goal should be to support the stratum which has fallen behind andguarantee academic achievement to all children. To achieve this, it will be necessary to restore trust in
public education. Specifically, the first step will be to increase the workforce in the field of education. The
number of teachers involved in compulsory education should be increased, and two teachers should be
assigned to each classroom to ensure that instruction tailored to proficiency level and supplementaryteaching can be provided without difficulty. The best ways to achieve this would include increasing thenumber of teachers, increasing school budgets, and paying teachers appropriate overtime wages, but itwould also be beneficial to encourage students and parents to volunteer to help. The public’s view ofteachers is also problematic. First, we must correct the fact that the number of people who aspire to becometeachers is declining as a result of the trend of “teacher-bashing.” Second, because students who display a
low level of academic performance lack motivation to study, the creation of a “mutual learning”
environment, in which children teach each other, would represent an excellent means of encouraging study.
The creation of healthy learning groups would raise overall academic performance and supplement the
shortage in the educational workforce.
The excellence of public schools lies in their ability to enable students to learn about diversity.
When diverse children, such as children with a non-Japanese parent or a non-Japanese background, or
children with disabilities, are educated together, they develop empathy and tolerance for others. It isdifficult to foster such feelings in an environment in which children of similar backgrounds are clustered
together after passing examinations to enter government or private schools. In Tokyo and other large
metropolitan areas, there is a strong tendency for parents to send their children to private schools, but inJapan as a whole, 98-99% of elementary school students and approximately 90% of junior high school
students attend public schools. If we do not ensure the stability of public schools and improve their quality,
it could threaten the survival of Japan as a nation. The good qualities of public schools should be more
highly valued, and society as a whole should support public schools.
(Note: An expression that describes the type of parents to which a child is born and the circumstances into which
the child is born as a matter of luck; analogous to terminology used in social network games.)
Professor Shimizu specializes in the sociology of education, clinical pedagogy, and coexistence studies. Both his parents
graduated from junior high school and had no more involvement with formal education. He himself was able to develop his
academic ability through his school education, and he stresses the importance of ensuring that all children have an adequate
education. Professor Shimizu holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Education of The University of Tokyo. He is theauthor of numerous books.
Editor: Reiko Kanda, Maiko Sakaki and Tatsuya Yamaji. This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Copyright Ⓒ 2023 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

8

My Vision No.67
2023.8Expert Opinions

Question the Current Status of School Education

Kenryu Nakamura
Senior Research Fellow,
Research Center for Advanced
Science and Technology,
The University of Tokyo

Modern school education has created an efficient system oflearning that aims to produce in children the abilities and humanqualities expected by society. In this context, children who are not able tofit in with school education experience considerable difficulties in theirlives. Although in recent years there have been more options for children
to learn even if they are non-attendant, modern compulsory education
can leave children in a “gray zone,” with no place to go. By contrast,
families with a strong commitment to education systematically lay down
the foundations for study even before their children enter elementary
school. Such children develop intellectual reflexes, respond quickly to
instruction, and grow into children who are able to perform tasks
precisely and accurately. However, many of these young people become
confused and unable to perform when they are told that they can think

and act as they wish.
School education and parenting that attempts to create such homogeneous human beings has
deprived children of their natural curiosity and potential. The essence of education is not to create a herdof children with good memories, able to respond to questions quickly. What is needed is learning that eachchild comes to on his or her own through the experience of learning that does not flow smoothly. Also, rather
than aiming for everyone to be “cheerful, friendly, and energetic,” and then ostracizing children who do not
fit this model, we need a school education that includes children with a variety of characteristics anddisabilities, and in which children can create something positive together.
Seeking to achieve this goal, we have developed an education program called “LEARN” incooperation with companies and local communities. Children, from the most gifted to those who dislike
studying, meet for the first time on the day the program is conducted and work together to solve problems,
irrespective of their grades or any disabilities that they might have. What is important is that the children
enjoy themselves. LEARN provides a rich, formative experience that fosters curiosity and makes children
aware of the fun and freedom of learning. If schools can freely make use of such opportunities as an“alternative classroom,” schools will naturally change.
Only the will of the general public can change education today. Instead of waiting for thegovernment to make a move, the first step is to change the mindset of parents. We need to break awayfrom the current standard thinking that forces children to attend cram schools from a young age in the
pursuit of efficiency and imposes on them an ideal image of a human being based on the current belief that“not good at studying or school = not suited for society.” It is also necessary to change the mindset of parents
and schools, which assume that all children should be treated the same, despite the fact that there are
innate differences in people's abilities. Children who have difficulty in reading, writing, andcommunicating should be encouraged to use technology to compensate for their innate differences in ability,
rather than forcing them to work hard on the assumption that everyone can succeed if they try hard enough.
Mr. Nakamura specializes in the study of assistive technologies. He conducts empirical research towards the realization of asociety that recognizes unique human resources and accepts diversity. In 2014, he launched “ROCKET,” a project that sought
to discover exceptional talents among children who do not fit in at school, capable of disruptive innovation (the project wascompleted in 2021). Currently, he oversees “LEARN,” a program that provides a type of learning that differs from school
education to ensure that students can continue studying what they wish to study, irrespective of whether or not they possess
innate ability. He completed coursework towards a Doctoral degree from the Graduate School of Education, Hiroshima
University.

Editor: Reiko Kanda, Maiko Sakaki and Tatsuya Yamaji. This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Copyright Ⓒ 2023 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

9