Deregulation and decentralization of education in Japan

Japan in the late nineteenth century centralized its institutions, including education, in order to catch up with the Western industrialized nations. However, in the late twentieth century, in order to maintain its competitive edge as a world leader in the economic globalization process, the national leadership instituted a series of reforms to deregulate and decentralize the educational system. The objective is to provide sufficient flexibility and local control at the school level that creativity, individual initiative, and the spirit of entrepreneurship will become part of the teaching/learning process for each new generation of Japanese students. However, it is difficult to change the mindset of those who deal with reform. It is odd that deregulation and decentralization have been implemented in a uniform manner by conveying the orders of governments.