The Crisis of History Education in Contemporary Japan: A Systematic Reform by Osaka-Based Historians

Abstract

This paper aims to introduce the recent reform in history education across high schools and universities in Japan. Japanese education, including university history majors and teacher credential programs, has for long focused on in-depth training in narrow empirical studies, while basic theories and concepts, ones positioned across the entire spectrum of academic knowledge of history and historical research, are seldom taught systematically. This tendency, combined with other social and economic conditions and cultural values, has resulted in a secondary education history syllabus that emphasizes memorizing factual knowledge without necessary reflection on what historians articulate and deliberate over. To help researchers and teachers in history replace such a conformist form of education with competence-oriented active learning of history as a subject, Osaka-based historians, collaborating nationwide with researchers and teachers, have proposed several glossaries, commentaries, and novel exercises for understanding history and historical research and conceptualizing factual knowledge so as to provide necessary clarifications, discussions, and judgments. Thus, new textbooks written from the perspective of global history are expected to be well understood and taught in classrooms.