A COMPARATIVE CULTURAL STUDY OF COMMON SENSE AND NON-COMMON SENSE IN JAPANESE EDUCATION

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This study is an attempt to show that what is regarded as a common sense matter in Japanese education is not necessarily a common sense in the world through a comparison of Japanese cases with those of other countriesThe following are among the findings obtained in this study(1) While the understanding of other cultures and the formation ofnational identity are the two different tasks that have been pursued compatibly in many countries, what have been argued in Japanese education are the promotion of inter-cultural understanding education without a nationalistic point of viewon one hand and the conflicting views of nationalism on education(2) Ceremonical events like entrance ceremony have been developed particularly in Japanese schools with a view to nurturing the sense of group belonging in students. This is unique with japanese schools, whole characteristics need to be analyzed with this respect(3) Teacher development programs are another topic where Japanese cases are unique in an international context. While they are designed to develop individual teachers' expertise in the U.S., Japanese teachers pay specific attention to improving their schools through their professional development(4) In histry education, it is difficult to touch upon negative historic phenomena. Comparing with the British case, where creating common perspectives and compromise have been attempted, Japanese history textbooks are written on the basis of different views of history and they do not share the common perspectives(5) Finally, academic freedom in the post-war Japanese universities proves to be reconsidered with reference to the German case, where de-militarization and de-nazismization' of universities ended up halfway thyrough the operation of academic freedam