Nashonarizumu to kokyoiku: sengo teki ronso kara no ketsubetsu no susume

This paper aims to initiate a new debate on nationalism in education. Firstly, I assess Japanese liberal and leftist discourses on nationalism as they have emerged in the recent debate on the controversial revision of the Fundamental Law of Education. I demonstrate how Japanese liberals and leftists criticize without due reflection the recent nationalistic education reform agenda, often associating it with a form of nationalism as extreme as in pre-war/war-time Japan. Then I review the debates in political philosophy on liberalism, nationalism, and multiculturalism, wherein liberal and socialist theorists rethink the overly negative articulation of nationalism and recognize its potential for democratic and social justice ends. I use this review to highlight the particular articulation of nationalism in the Japanese education, which has marginalized a more careful treatment of nationalism in public education and a discussion of its constitutive role in liberal democratic policy. Having identified the essentially contradictory nature of nationalism, I demonstrate how nationalism can be strategically appropriated in the Japanese education context for liberal and progressive political ends. In conclusion, I call for strategic uses of nationalism to restore the conditions essential for redistributive and recognitive justice, which has been seriously eroded by the ongoing neoliberal social, economic, and educational reforms.