INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copysubmitted Thus,some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be fromany typeof computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignmentcanadverselyaffect reproduction. In the unlikely. event that the author did not send UMI a complete DWlIlScript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed,a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sectionswith small overlaps. EaCh original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced format the back ofthe book. Photographs included in the original mamlscrlpt have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell mformanon Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann A~bor. M14S106·1346 USA 313f761-47oo 800:521-0600 EDUCATION ECONOMICUS? ISSUES OF NATION. KNOWLEDGE AND IDENlTIY IN CONfEMPORARYJAPAN A DISSERrATION SUBMITIED TO TIlE GRADUAm DMSION OF mE UNlVERSrIY OF HAWAII IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENI'OF 1'HE REQUIREMENfS FORmE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN POUllCALSCIENCE AUGUST 1995 By Marte Annette Thorsten Morimoto Dissertation Committee: Kathy Ferguson. Chairperson Deane Neubauer Sankaran Krishna Wimal Dissanayake Victor Kobayashi OMI Number: 9604171 Copyright 1995 by Morimoto, Marie Annette Thorsten All rights reserved. OMI Microform 9604171 Copyr.ight 1995, by OMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. uw 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 © Copyright 1995 by Marie Thorsten Morimoto All Rights Reserved iii ACKOWLEDGEMENTS In addition to the five committee members. I would like to thank Dr. Patricia Steinhoff. Dr. Mike Douglass. and Dr. Michael Shapiro for their valuable comments on earlier portions ofthis dissertation. I am extremely grateful to the East-West Center for generously funding my doctoral studies and fieldwork inJapan in the fall of 1993. I would also like to acknowledge Dr. Morl Yuji. Dr. Otani Yasuteru. Dr. Katsue Reynolds. Dr. Victor Kobayashi. Mr. Takata Norto, several members of the National Institute for Educational Research. and the helpful staffof the International House ofJapan for their assistance with my fieldwork. This study also used information collected while on a scholarship from the Japanese MinistIy of Education for studies at Hiroshima University from 1988 to 1990. iv ABSTRACf The apparently close relationship between education and national strength in Japan has long captured the envy and attention of the world. But is Japan's educational system an instrument of economic nationalism. as many outsiders imply? Perhaps Japan's education is linked with an "economic nationalism" in some respects. but today. the signs of consciousness of education as a state economic resource in Japan are historically rooted. socially diffuse. subtle and often silent. The intention of this thesis is to gain an understanding of the Japanese precedent of what has become a newly relevant issue in the United States and other advanced societies: merging the goals of education with the discourse of state economic security. abbreviated as "education economicus" - an educational system that maximizes utility as in the imagery of homo economicus (economic man). However. education has a profound impact on personal. social and national identity: these issues should be questioned in tandem with making schools into defensive armaments of economic nationalisms. This thesis presents political images and ideas. namely. those that support economic nationalism. that are made intelligible to ordinary citizens. It discusses how such ideas are "refracted" in various social media. including policy documents. mass media. popular culture and personal discourse. After reviewing the construction of educational knowledge from the prewar period of empire-building to the "economic superpower" and proposed new "lifestylesuperpower." I focus on v three areas of conflict. First. Japanese people have grown accustomed to nonfonnal educational practices. such as companies that market a convenient numerical evaluation (hensac11l1. Many people are reluctant to give up their "empowerment" gained from the evaluation which the government now wants to abolish. Second. the political economy that supports and is supported by education continues to exacerbate gender inequalities such as those that produce the phenomenon of "education mamas." The third issue demonstrates how the legacyofbureaucratic superiority. diffused at the local level. maintains power over students with its kosoku. school regulations. that are often enforced to militaristic precision. By highlighting one individual's struggle against school regulations. this chapter also acknowledges the power of human agency in social discourse. vi TABlE OF CONIENfS .ACKN'O'WLEDGEl\fENTS ....••.•••••••.•.•.••...•.........•..•.... tv .ABSTRACT ........•......••.••••.............................. v CHAPTER I: Introduction The Launching of the Japanese "Sputnik" and Changing Currents of Education Economfcus 1 Education as a National Resource 5 Concepts 19 The Misnomerof ''Economic/Educational Nationalism" 19 ''Naming'' Economic Nationalism '" . 29 Language and National Identity 36 Research Methods 47 CHAPTERU Ironies of the "Japan Shock" and Education fromEmpire to Economic Superpower 51 Ironies ofJapan as Model 52 Htstoncal Development: Japan as a MilltaIy Power . 59 Post-Occupation Japan and Genesis of the "Economic Superpower" ............ 65 Disenchantment WithEconomic PrioI1ties 86 CHAPTERm The NewJapanese ''Lifestyle Superpower" - or. How to Mythologize the Death Knell ofthe Econcmte Superpower 103 Pre-figuring the Seikatsu Taikoku: The "Ufestyle Superpower" and its Antecedents 110 ConceptualAntecedents 112 Economic Conditions ............ .. ........ 115 Demographic Changes 115 Social Trends 116 The Lifestyle Superpower and its Layers 118 Growing Pains 125 CHAPTER IV Issue One: The Calculations of Examination and Nation: Introduction ... .............................................. 131 CHAPTER V The Calculations ofExaminations: The Hensachi as a Micro-Japan. Inc. 145 The Hensacht and the Transfonnation of Formal Education 150 The Entrance Exam Industry 156 The Hensachtas a Micro-Japan. Inc. 161 Public End. Prtvate Means , '" . 161 The Government as ''Big Follower" 173 The Hensachi and Efficiency 177 Education and the Lifestyle Superpower ISO CHAPTER VI The Taming of Choice: "TheWay of the Empirtcal" Hensachi 194 Numerical Identity: The Gaze of the Hensachi 199 Gaze of the NatshinsM 205 vii CHAPTER VII The Expulsion of the Hensachi 208 The Expulsion of the Hensachi and New Language of "Choice" 209 Only MyOwn Child 212 Realignment of Educational Politics .. ...................... 215 CBAPTERVDI Numerical Identities and Questions of National Identity 221 Social and Cultural Implications of the Hensachi 221 Numerical Identity. National Identity 224 CHAPTER IX Issue Two: Education Mama-dzillas and the 'Domestic Politics" of Postwar Japan 233 Introduction ...................................... 233 Image of the Education Mama-dz1lla .... ..................... 238 TheoreticalApproach ... .................................. 242 The Education Mama: Pre-existing Knowledge 246 Clearing Time for the Education Mama-dz1lla: Woman. School. Work .... ........................................ 255 Women and Education 258 Women and Labor 263 CBAPTERX Second Schools and the Second Sex: The More Things Change. .. 273 Public and Private 275 Madly-Proliferating Juku and the Creation of Education Mamas .. 282 How to be a KyOiku Mama: Second Schools and the Second sex 286 How Not to be a Kyoiku Marrta: The Tatemae of Home Education .. 295 The MoreThings Stay the Same: The Academic-Record Society 297 CHAPTER XI Madness and the Madly-Proliferating Education Mamas: Mom:1sm at the Juncture 303 The Education Mama in Popular Culture 308 Labor and LifestyleIssues 318 Changing Values 321 Demographic Changes 323 Japan as World Leader and Role Model of Asian Countries ..... .. 326 CBAPTERXII Issue Three: The NailThat Came Out All The Way: Hayashi Takeshi's Case Against the Regulation of the Student Body 329 Introduction to Student Regulations and Hayashi's Case AgainstThem 333 Unconstitutionality ofKOsoku ...................... .. 338 Illegitimacy of Kaso1o.L •••••..•••.........•......•.... 339 Inhumanity of KOso1o.L •••.•.•••...............•..... 340 Human Rights and the Student Body .. ...................... 342 Beyond "East" and 'West" 346 The KOso1cu as a Reminder of Militarism 348 Hayashi as a Mediator 356 Westernized language. Japanized syntax 358 Xenophllia as "Ordinarily Japanese" 359 Mutability of Boundaries East and West 360 "Amertcamzations" ................ 362 viii CHAPTERXIII : Conclusion Eight Comers of the World under Many Roofs 370 Collective Consciousness of Education Economicus? .. 372