VALUES EDUCATION AND
GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP IN
JAPANESE SOCIAL STUDIESKiyoshi Karaki (University of Tsukuba)

Moral Education in Japan• Moral education in Japanese school education• a subject in elementary and middle school• virtues: elementary1-2(19), elementary3-4(20), elementary5-6(22),middle1-3(22)• Category A: myself(ex. honesty…)
Category B: relations with people(ex. communication…)
Category C: relations with groups and society(ex. justice)
Category D: relations with life and nature(ex. preciousness of life …)• Moral education in schools is conducted through alleducational activities.

Differences between Moral
Education and Values Education
Moral Education
Values Education
virtuesvalues
We can teach virtues. We can’t teach values.
In moral education classes,
students learn about theimportance of virtues throughteaching materials prepared byteachers.

In values education classes,
students are required to think
autonomously with certain
values for decision criteria while
engaged in cooperative
discussions with other students.

Values Education in Social Studies• Issues concerning such matters as poverty, peace,energy and inequality, which are the focus of the SDGs
(Sustainable Development Goals), need urgent
resolution to build a sustainable society.
• Values Education in Japan uses these issues as teachingmaterial and requires students to consider measures toresolve them.
• In particular, social studies aims to develop global
citizenship in discussion-focused classes.

Course of Study in Japan• Course of study(COS): National curriculum in Japan• All of schools develop curriculums based on COS• Revised once nearly every 10 years• New course study:• Elementary: notice in 2017, implementation in 2020
• Middle: notice in 2017, implementation in 2021
• High school: notice in 2018, implementation in 2022

Subjects in Elementary and Middle
SchoolsSchool

Subjects and others

Elementary Subjects: Japanese, Social Studies(3-6), Mathematics,(113)
Science, Living Environment Studies, Music, Drawing andCrafts, Home Economics, Physical Education, Foreign
Language, Moral Education
Others: Foreign Language Activities, Integrated Studies,
Special Activities
Middle(102)

Subjects: Japanese, Social Studies(1-3), Mathematics,Science, Music, Art, Physical and Health Education,
Technical Course and Home Economics, Foreign
Language, Moral Education
Others: Integrated Studies, Special Activities

The Number of Hours for Social
Studies• Educational goals, content and number of hours arestipulated in detail for each of these courses.
• The number of hours for Social Studies in elementary
school, for example, is as follows: 70 for the third year,
90 for the fourth year, 100 for the fifth year and 105
hours for the sixth year.
• In middle school, the number of hours for the same
course is 105 for the first and second years and 140
hours for the third year.
• The amount of time for 1 credit is 45 minutes inelementary school and 50 minutes in middle school.

The Goals of Social Studies• In middle school, the goal is “…to develop as follows afoundation for the disposition and abilities required for acitizen to form a peaceful and democratic nation andsociety existing independently in a globalizing
international society from a broad perspective throughactivities to inquire into and resolve issues using socialviews and thinking.”• In addition to the above, both(elementary and middle)
levels of school have three concrete goals.
• Three goals concern the areas of knowledge and skills, theabilities of thinking, judgement and expression as well as themotivation to learn and humanity.
• The viewpoint of these three goals is shared across allcourses.

Principles of Developing Global
Citizenship based on Values Education• Principle 1: Using social issues as teaching materials• Even in a Social Studies class that aims to develop global
citizenship, social issues addressed do not need to be global
in nature. Important social issues that are difficult to resolve,
whether they be foreign or domestic, are raised.

• Principle 2: Autonomous student thinking based on
decision-making standards• Social issues are difficult to resolve because multiple values
are in opposition regarding the issue. Values Education-based
Social Studies classes compel students to confront thisconflict and make autonomous decisions using what they
have learned as well as their own life experience.

Principles of Developing Global
Citizenship based on Values Education• Principle 3: Emphasis on discussion as cooperative classlearning• In recent years, many have pointed out the importance ofactive learning in schools in Japan. In our globalized society,there is a need to cooperatively consider and implement
resolutions to problems. Social Studies continuously works tolink classroom learning with learning in society.

Social Studies Classroom Practice inElementary School(1)• Five areas of social studies for the fifth grade• a. the territory of Japan and the lives of its people• b. agricultural and fishery food production in Japan• c. Japanese industrial production• d. the relation between industry and information in Japan• e. the relation between the country’s natural environment
and the lives of its people.
• study concerning e. is further divided into the three areas of natural
disasters, forests and pollution.

Social Studies Classroom Practice inElementary School(2)• Upon the conclusion of the unit on natural disasters,students who learned such matters as types of thesedisasters, the locations and timing of their occurrence
as well as disaster measures on the national andprefectural level considered issues faced by their ownregion.
• These issues concern how to improve rivers which cause
great damage to the region through repeated flooding.

Social Studies Classroom Practice inElementary School(3)Opinion A

Opinion B

conservation positionpreservation position

protection of nature for humans

protection of nature for nature“The river that flows through our town
floods nearly every 10 years. You probably
still remember the flood last year that killed
many people and destroyed homes. We
propose covering the river bed withconcrete to prevent flooding. Even if we dothis, the fish in the river will remain there.
Also, we will build a water park around theriver so that the river will be popularamong town residents.”“The floods are so damaging because ournatural disaster preparedness is lacking.
Even if we are sufficiently prepared, though,we cannot completely avoid damage.
Floods are unavoidable. If we cover theriver bed with concrete, it will have a great
impact on the surrounding environment.
The fish and the beautiful nearby
vegetation that are there now will be gone.
Protecting nature is more important thananything else.”

Social Studies Classroom Practice inElementary School(4)• To start, students summarize the pluses and minuses ofeach position in a table to accurately understand them.
• They then choose a position and discuss with students
who selected the other position.
• The discussion, however, is not to seek an answer. The
point is to clarify the decision criteria for conservationand preservation for students to have a basis for sharing
their views with others and to work together to derivesolutions.
• Considering problems without answers allows us to findthe meaning of classroom practice based on Values
Education.

Social Studies Classroom Practice inMiddle School(1)• Here I will examine the study of international support inthe civic area in middle school Social Studies classes.
• This takes place in the third and final year of middleschool. In first and second Grades, student learn
geography and history.
• The civic area consist of the following four areas.
• a. contemporary society and us• b. the economy and us• c. politics and us• d. problems in international society and us

Social Studies Classroom Practice inMiddle School(2)• In their study of international support, students considered
support for the Republic of Niger in Africa.
• On the southern edge of the Sahara Desert in west Africa,
the Republic of Niger is one of the world’s poorest countries
due to repeated military coups d’etat and a harsh naturalenvironment.
• Since it has the world’s third-largest proven reserves ofuranium, a key mining commodity, this country has deep
trade ties with Japan.
• But these links have become tenuous with nuclear power
plants in Japan suspending operations due to the explosionof the Number 2 Reactor at Fukushima in the Great East
Japan Earthquake.

Social Studies Classroom Practice inMiddle School(3)• To start, the following five current international support
projects were presented to students;
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

food donations
vaccinations against infectious diseases
provision of agricultural technology
construction of elementary schools
donation of solar lanterns

Social Studies Classroom Practice inMiddle School(4)• Students considered which projects to prioritize.
• Then, international support conditions and the Amartya Sen
capability approach was explained to the class.
• And the students again considered which of the five projects
should receive priority.
• In the first round, most students gave first priority to either food
donations or vaccinations because they felt that human life was of
the greatest importance.
• In the second round, the number of students assigning first priority
to provision of agricultural technology or construction ofelementary schools increased.

• This is a result of sustainability being added to human life asdecision criteria for the students.

The role of Schools on Developmentof Global Citizenship• In Japan, there is increasing consideration of developing
global citizenship, and with the adoption of The 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development at the 2015 UN
Summit resulting in the SDGs becoming widely-known
globally, there is increasing focus on such development.
• School-based education plays an important role indeveloping global citizenship, and such a foundation willserve these children when they become adults andleaders of society.

Conclusion• Since Japan has a Course of Study as a National
Curriculum, it is possible to efficiently develop global
citizenship and promote Values Education.
• Also, schools in Japan are capable of developing theirown curriculums based on the Course of Study throughemphasis on the principles of curriculums open tosociety and curriculum management.
• It is also now known globally that individual teachers
can enhance class lessons through repeated lesson
study.
• School education in Japan has a great deal of potential.

Challenges• The adverse effects of the teaching for exams that iscommon in east Asian nations and the reduction inopportunities for lesson study due to teachers being
busy are obstacles to conducting Values Education
classes.
• Also, the greatest issue is that the theory and methods
for this type of education are under development.
• It is my hope that the three development principles
covered here will contribute to such development.