A Study on the characteristics of education policy changes in contemporary Japan : from a historical and analytical perspective

虽然在20世纪70年代、80年代和90年代曾多次尝试对日本的教育政策进行剧烈的改变，但在90年代后半期首次实现了实质性的改变。为什么这些变化不是发生在20世纪70年代或80年代，而是发生在90年代末？本研究旨在以区分政策内容与形式的框架来解释这一问题。政策内容是通过连接制度概念、机构和主体等话语类别的关系来定义的。这些类别关系代表权力关系，在此基础上制定特定的政策。保单形式涉及传达和实现纳入保单内容的类别关系的合法沟通方式。随着外部权力关系的变化，教育政策的内容实际上自20世纪90年代末S以来发生了变化，这是使CA…能够进行的新的政策制定形式的结果这项研究还侧重于教育部内部的因素，这些因素使教育部能够改变其以前的政策。这项研究区分了部长秘书处(MS：“kanbou”)和其他局(“genkyoku”)，如小学和中学教育局。这两类单位在应对变革需求方面有不同的组织结构。移民局的主要作用是对各部各局行使全面的协调职能，因此移民局比其他局更灵活地适应政策变化。研究表明，直到20世纪90年代末，MS才凭借其在各局中的较高地位以及其强化的组织结构而适当地发挥其协调职能。可以得出的结论是，外交部内部的职能是同一时期政策变化的一个重要决定因素，这并不是仅仅由外部政府力量来解释的。较少

Although there had been repeated attempts to execute drastic changes of Japanese education policy in the 1970s,1980s and 1990s, substantial changes were realized for the first time in the second half of the 1990s. Why did the changes occur not in the 1970s or 1980s but in the late 1990s? This study aimed to explain this question using a framework in the form of a distinction between content of the policy and its form.Policy content is defined by the relationships linking discursive categories such as institutional concepts, agencies and subjects. These category relationships represent power relations on the basis of which a particular policy is formulated. Policy form is concerned with the modes of legitimate communication that convey and realize category relationships incorporated into policy content. In line with a change in external power relations, the content of education policy has actually changed since the late 1990's as a result of new forms of policy-making that enable the Ca … More binet to exert stricter control over Ministries.This study also focused on internal factors within the Ministry of Education that enable it to change its former policy. The study distinguished between the Minister's Secretariat (MS : ‘kanbou') and other bureaus (‘genkyoku') such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Bureau. These two types of units entail an organizational difference in responding to a demand for changes. The main role of the MS is to exercise a comprehensive coordinating function over various bureaus in the ministry (‘kanboukinou') and thus the MS is more flexible to adapt to policy change than the other bureaus. The research showed that it was not until the late 1990s that the MS properly performed its coordinating function relying on its high status among the bureaus as well as its reinforced organization structure. It can be concluded that the MS's function inside the Ministry was an important determinant of the policy changes during the same period, which were not explained solely by external, governmental forces. Less