[Development of comprehensive community sports clubs (see Part II, Chapter 8, Section 2-1)]

Comprehensive community sports clubs are being developed nationwide to enable children to learn about exercise and sports with their families and the local community, and children’s sports activities centered on these sports clubs are being expanded.

[Expanding physical education classes and extracurricular sports club activities (see Part II, Chapter 8, Section 5)]

Opportunities to experience the pleasure, invigoration, and feeling of accomplishment provided by sports are being expanded through comprehensive sports club activities that allow participation in multiple events, the promotion of

▲Comprehensive community sports club (Nippon Runners, Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture)

joint physical education and sports club activities provided by two or more schools, and the use of outside instructors in school physical education.

[Development of good eating habits and other personal lifestyle habits (see Part II, Chapter 1, Section 3 and Part II, Chapter 8, Section 6-1 (1))]

In order to develop the sound eating habits that are essential so that children can build healthy minds and bodies in their growth years, teaching is being improved through the use of nutrition instructors. In addition, a national "Early to Bed, Early to Rise, and Don't Forget Your Breakfast" campaign is being promoted to help children develop good basic personal lifestyle habits and improve their daily lifestyles.

## Section 3 The Revision of the Courses of Study

## 1 Basic perspectives regarding the revision of the courses of study

## (1) Circumstances until now

Regarding the overall review of the Courses of Study, the Central Council for Education’s Courses of Study Committee has been deliberating since April 2005 after the Council received a request for deliberations from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. In February of 2006, the “Deliberations Progress Report” was compiled, followed by the “Summary Report of Ongoing Courses of Study Committee Deliberations.” This was followed by hearings with related organizations and a month long request for comments from the public, after which the “Regarding the Revision of Courses of Study for Kindergarten, Elementary School, Lower Secondary School, Upper Secondary School, and Schools for Special Needs Education” report was submitted.

## (2) Basic perspectives regarding the revision of the courses of study

The basic perspective of the revisions in the report is that while the philosophy of cultivating “Zest for Living” in the existing courses of study is even more important now, there are many issues with the present conditions of children, so it is necessary to aim to establish specific steps to execute the philosophy in light of those issues.

In the report, the philosophy “Zest for Living” is given importance, and rather than a dichotomy between “room to grow” and “cramming,” there is a need to securely establish basic and fundamental knowledge and skills, on the one hand, while reciprocally cultivating the ability to think, judge and express through the use of those skills on the other hand as “the two wheels of the cart.”

Here, the proposal is to increase the class hours for Japanese language, math and arithmetic, social studies, and foreign language classes in elementary and lower secondary school to enable the firm acquisition of content easy for children to grasp through repetitive learning and learning activities using knowledge and