Role of Education in the Modernization of Japan - Assignment Example

Modernization of a nation or a country is a very important process as it depicts the overall lifestyle, culture, and norms and values in the nation. Modernization is often a result of interplay of a variety of internal and external factors related to and affecting the nation. These factors include but are not limited to immigration, emigration, education, job opportunities, religion, and cultural norms and values. One of the signs of modernization of a society is when people start viewing professionalization and rationalization as progress. Other characteristics of modernity include but are not limited to urbanization, secularization, and industrialization. Loss of people’s faith in religious institutions is also a parcel of modernity. This paper analyzes the role of education in the modernization of Japan. Today, Japan is one of the most developed and advanced countries in terms of industry and technology. It is well-connected with the rest of the world through trade and education. The delivery of scientific education has played a huge role in maximizing the elements of modernity in the Japanese society. Education has become a necessity rather than a choice or option in Japan since it is a prerequisite for becoming a professional, getting a job, and contributing in the economy of the country. The role of education in the modernization of Japan cannot be overemphasized. Japan opened its door to modernity around 1860s. Particularly, the period from 1868 to 1899 is very important in terms of the role of education in the modernization of Japan. The Japanese showed enthusiasm in effective adaptation from other countries in the course of the Meiji Era. One of the most popular sports in Japan is baseball. Japan formed its first baseball team in 1873 (Christensen, n.d.). Horace Wilson, a Christian missionary teacher taught the students how to play baseball at Tokyo University. A Japanese team challenged an American team in 1891 to a game in Yokohama (Christensen, n.d.). Overwhelmed with its own superiority and overconfidence being the masters of an American game, the Americans granted the Japanese team the challenge offer after five years of wait. As the Japanese team entered the Club where it was not previously granted the permission to enter, it was booed at to which the Japanese team did not show any reaction. However, their performance and astounding victory shocked the Americans and the Japanese team won another rematch held later. Japan’s activities around the Meiji Era can be characterized as rational shopping in that the Japanese borrowed everything ranging from social systems, infrastructure, and technology to methods of education from the advanced countries across the globe. The Meiji oligarchs set off on the Iwakura Mission in 1871 in which they spent several months visiting various countries in the Europe and the US (Christensen, n.d.). The purpose of this mission was to bring home anything which might be of value or significance to the Japanese ranging from zoos to the banking systems. Some of the influences they took included new forms of agriculture, a French system modeled policy system, and a system of education influenced by Prussia as well as America. Many students formed part of the Iwakura Mission and hence stayed with the host families in different countries around the world to gain foreign education before coming back to Japan. The oligarchs invited the foreigners upon their return to Japan to serves as advisors in Japan which led to the in-pour of more than 2000 highly educated people from 23 different countries into Japan (Christensen, n.d.). Education became the government’s priority in Japan as the Meiji government realized that provision of universal public education is a prerequisite for westernization and modernization of the country. The school system established by the Ministry of Education in Japan in 1871 was closely based on the American model (Chikara, Mitsuo, and Dauben, 2013, p. 177). Although the curriculum supported by the school system was primarily utilitarian, yet the centrally administered administration system of the school was copied from France. Foreign advisors like Marion McCarrell Scott and David Murray helped create normal schools for teacher education in the different prefectures (Revolvy, n.d.). Specific forms of curriculum were created by recruiting other advisors including George Adams Leland (Revolvy, n.d.). Expert tutors were chosen from all across the globe for all disciplines. Buddhist temples in Japan ran private schools which were nationalized as elementary schools. Daimyo ran feudal domain schools which were nationalized as middle schools whereas the foundation of Tokyo Imperial University was laid by Tokugawa shogunal. The curriculum added by them was focused on traditional and conservative ideals representing the percepts of Japanese values Confucianism, particularly the ones related to the new Meiji state service, human relations’ hierarchical relations, morality, and the pursuit of learning. The centralized control of government upon education along with the 1890 Imperial Rescript on Education embodied the ideas that primarily guided education in Japan till the end of the Second World War. The first Minister of Education, Mori Arinori, together with Inoue Kowashi established Japanese educational system’s foundation in December 1885 (Nieves, 2014, p. 29). These laws guided the establishment of all levels of educational system in Japan including the elementary, middle, and normal school system, as well as the imperial university system. The rationale behind the establishment of the Imperial Universities was to prepare westernized leaders who would play an active role in the modernization of Japan. As a result of the Meiji Restoration, Western learning spread far beyond military science in Japan to include a range of other learning areas. The new Japan had western learning as its official doctrine. Educational reform, to the Meiji leaders, was among the most important measures in Japan’s transformation from a feudal country to a modernized as well as unified national state. Awareness of the immediate need to introduce a unified and modern system of education in Japan so that they could come at par with the West, the Meiji leaders firmly came down in the favor of Western learning. After the establishment of the Ministry of Education in Japan in 1871, the Fundamental Code of Education was established in 1872. This Fundamental Code of Education that was promulgated stood for and reflected the victory of Westernizers in its entirety. Okuma Shigenobu used a very utilitarian tone to state, “[the Code of Education is] the key to success, and no man can afford to neglect it. Learning having been viewed as the exclusive privilege of the samurai and his superiors, it was neglected by farmers, artisans, merchants, and women. Even those among the samurai who did pursue learning indulged in poetry, empty reasoning, and idle discussions, and their dissertations, while not lacking in elegance, were seldom applicable to life. There shall, in the future, be no community with an illiterate family, or a family with an illiterate person” (Shigenobu cited in Chikara, Mitsuo, and Dauben, 2013, p. 177). As the country became increasingly industrialized, the demand for vocationally trained and highly educated personnel grew. This imparted a need for the government to take immediate and effective steps to establish a mechanism of vocational training and skill development of the people within the country. Following Mori, Inoue Kowashi also created a state vocational school system and established separate school system for girls to promote women’s education (Maurya, 2014). In 1907, compulsory education in Japan was extended to six years (Maurya, 2014). The Ministry of Education approved textbooks so that they could be issued as per the new laws. Some of the subjects that formed part of the curriculum included moral education, design, mathematics, composition, geography, Japanese history, reading and writing, singing, drawing, physical education, and calligraphy. Much of the content in these subjects was derived from the Western literature which resulted in inculcation of a westernized sensibility and outlook of the global matters in the Japanese students. The Taisho and early Showa periods in Japan from 1912 to 1937 increasingly centralized the education system. The Extraordinary Council on Education was established by the government from 1917 to 1919 which was entitled with the task of issuing the reports and recommendations for the reform of education. The Extraordinary Council on Education’s primary emphasis was on development of higher education in Japan. It was through the efforts of the Extraordinary Council on Education that a number of private universities in Japan received officially recognized status. Alongside, the Extraordinary Council on Education provided the poor families with subsidies so that they could afford to get their children the compulsory education. This played a significant role in the increase of literacy rate in Japan and greatly catalyzed the process of modernization of the country. Many new social currents such as anarchism, liberalism, communism, and socialism influenced the pedagogical methods during this period. Teachers unions were formed and different movements of student protest criticizing the nationalist curriculum of education happened through the New Educational Movement. Circumstances following the Manchurian Incident of 1931 made the national educational system’s curriculum more nationalistic (Tatsuhiko, 2007). After the onset of the 1937 Second Sino-Japanese War, the curriculum was modified such that it became more and more military oriented (Tatsuhiko, 2007). The militaristic and nationalistic indoctrination gained strength after the commencement of the Pacific War in 1941. While the national idiosyncrasies were preserved ever since the Meiji period, the Japanese state became organizationally modernized. The 1945 surrender of Japan, the 1946 United States Education Missions to Japan followed by another in 1950 played a huge role in the abolishment of the traditional educational framework prevailing for decades in Japan and its replacement with the highly modernized post-war educational system in Japan (jica-ri.jica.go.jp, n.d.). Physical education also played a role in the modernization of Japan. One example of this is Kodokan judo’s invention by Kano Jigoro who combined the most effective techniques of the schools of jujutsu from the Tokugawa-era with the concepts of physical education prevailing in the Western literature by using a range of scientific methods (Vlastos and George, 2001, p. 1202). Rather than representing judo as physical education only suited to Japan or something that belongs to old tradition, Kano actively participated in the international Olympics movement and also helped a student reach the US for teaching judo. Martial arts, group harmony and industrial paternalism were some of the traditional practices and values that have both predated the modernization of Japan and also have played a role in its unparalleled success. “It was not that long ago, in fact, that Japan specialists ascribed Japan’s successful modernization to the utility of its premodern values and institutions, on the assumption “traditions” were direct cultural legacies” (Vlastos, n.d., p. 1). Poets and artisans have also facilitated the process of modernization of Japan. Japanese poetry views nature as mind’s symbols. Japanese have a conviction that “the mind that is symbolized and the nature that provides the symbols are in essence one and the same. Since humans and nature are manifestations of the same life, we have an implicit belief that the human psyche, however complex, is always expressed in natural form” (Takeshi, n.d., p. 1187). A careful analysis of the history of Japan over the last two to three centuries highlights the role of educated leaders, poets, and artisans in carving out the modern Japan from its old self; “A man born in the northern province of Echigo (Niigata) and educated at Waseda University in Tokyo, Aizu [Yaichi] made his first trip to the Yamato province in 1908, at the age of twenty-eight” (“Introductory Essay” 8). Aizu Yaichi wrote a number of poems in his trips to Nara which was often a chosen site for visit with his students from Waseda university, and published a series of essays commenting his poetic anthology. Educated poets and writers have hugely contributed to the modernization of Japan. Poets and artisans shaped most of the aesthetic speculation in the premodern and early modern Japan (“Aesthetics” 1168). Modernity is characterized by exposure and in-pour of talent in the country. Students coming back from overseas have played a huge role in improving the content and quality of education in all fields in Japan. Some of the prominent personalities in this regard include Mori Ogai, Nagai Kafu, and Natsume Soseki as writers; Takahashi Korekio, Katsura Taro, Inoue Kaoru, and Ito Hirobumi as politicians; Oyama Sutematsu, and Tsuda Umeko as educators; Togo Heihachiro as a soldier; and Tomonaga Shin’ichiro, and Yokawa Hideki as scientists. Today, Japan is modernized to the extent that the Japanese government offers the highly talented students from all over the world scholarships for higher education. Every year, thousands of students come to Japan for higher studies not only from developing countries but also from developed countries. Japan being one of the popular choices of students provide evidence for the high quality of education and technological equipment in Japan, and its relevance to the western standards of education. One of the most important and fundamental elements that have brought a revolutionary change in Japan and have set it on the path of modernity is education. Over the centuries, as a result of various sociopolitical events, Japan has undergone a transformation in its educational range, quality, and standard. Today, Japan is one of the countries that is visited by thousands of students every year from all over the world for higher education that is rewarded all over the world. Education is deep-seated and integrated in a variety of elements of contemporary Japanese society, lifestyle, and culture. It can thus be concluded that education has played a very important role in the modernization of Japan. References: “Aesthetics.” n.d. pp. 1167-1172. Chikara, Sasaki; Mitsuo, Sugiura; and Dauben, Joseph W. The Intersection of History and Mathematics. Birkhäuser, 2013. Christensen, Maria. “The Meiji Era and the Modernization of Japan.” n.d. http://www.samurai- archives.com/tme.html. “Education in the Empire of Japan.” N.d. http://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Education%20in%20the%20Empire%20of%20Japan. “Introductory Essay: The Poetry of Aizu Yaichi.” pp. 7-27. Maurya, Ashoka. “Dharma of the Day.” 14 March 2014. http://dharmaoftheday.blogspot.com/2014_03_01_archive.html. Nieves, Frank. “Martial Studies & the Modernization of the Japanese School System.” Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages (IKOS): UNIVERSITETET I OSLO. 2014. https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/40710/JAP4691-MA-Thesis-Frank-Nieves.pdf?sequence=1. “Part I. Overview of the History of Japan’s Education.” N.d. http://jica- ri.jica.go.jp/IFIC_and_JBICI-Studies/english/publications/reports/study/topical/educational/pdf/educational_02.pdf. Takeshi, Umehara. “Nationalism and Aesthetics.” Aesthetics. (N.d.) pp. 1184-1188. Tatsuhiko, Yoshizawa. “The Manchurian Incident, the League of Nations and the Origins of the Pacific War. What the Geneva archives reveal.” The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. (2007). http://japanfocus.org/-Yoshizawa-Tatsuhiko/2593. Vlastos, Stephen; and George, Timothy S. “Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan.” The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 60, No. 4. (Nov. 2001). pp. 1200-1202. Vlastos, Stephen. “Past/Present Culture and Modern Japanese History.” pp. 1-16. Read More