A 'Nation at Risk' Crosses the Pacific: Transnational Borrowing of the US Crisis Discourse in the Debate on Education Reform in Japan

In striking contrast to the international acclaim during the 1990s for Japanese schools' instructional excellence and solid curricular contents, the Japanese media, scholars, politicians, and the public continued to perceive their country's schooling as steeped in a dire crisis, afflicted with such "educational problems" as bullying, school absenteeism, violence, and, most recently, "classroom collapse," or teachers' loss of control (Tsuneyoshi 2004). The sense of crisis was further intensified after the 1998 announcement of the 2002 revision to the national curriculum standards ('gakushū shidō yōryō'). Touted as 'yutori' (relaxation, latitude, or more room for growth) education reform, the curricular revision introduced a 5-day school week and an integrated study period ('sōgō gakushūno jikan'), as well as further decreasing instructional hours and streamlining curricular content for the first 9 years of compulsory education. Ken Terawaki, a high-ranking officer of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) and a spokesperson for the reform, claimed that these measures were designed to shift the focus onto building children's ability to learn and think independently and to de-emphasize rote memorization as well as reduce pressure in children's lives (Terawaki 2001).