Title Towards a Lifelong Learning Society?

The Reform of
Continuing Vocational Education and Training in Japan
Journal Comparative Education
Volume & Page Vol. 25, No. 2 (1989), pp. 133-149
Year 1989
Litterateur Kevin McCormick
Reviewer Sri Kumalasari
Nim 210020301028
Review Date 03 October 2021
Review Journal Japanese Vocational Education

Research Purposes The essence of the problem lies in the past success of the system of
education and training in relating education to employment through
motivating high age-participation rates in formal education, and in
achieving high standards in general education, more specific skills
training has been left largely to the employers. The ‘one chance’
nature of the educational system based on highly competitive entry
using entrance examinations has concentrated the minds of young
people and their parents.
Core Discussions This brief and highly selective account of continuing vocational and
training structures and mechanisms ini Japan raises a number of
interesting points for discussion for and international readership. Of
all the areas in which nation states an supra-national bodies might
seek foreign example of policy harmonisation, the field of
continuing vocational education and training is one of the most
fraught and complex, for it manifests and mirrors much of the
cultural heterogeneity of different national tradition in a most
intimate fashion. Within the European Community (EC) the
harmonisatioan of professional qualifications has made remarkably
slow progress when set against the goals of the free movement of
labour in single market. Cross-cultural comparison poses the
questions of not merely what similarities and diffrences exist but
also how and why those institutions emerged. It is by considering
these questions that one can move on to examine more closely the
scope for change and development in other societies and to perceive
the constraints on change more clearly.
Journal Excellence The advantage of this journal is that the author describes about,
1. Pressures which encourage the reform and development of
continuing vocational education and training.
2. The way in which vocational element are largely excluded from
the curriculum of compulsory schooling.
3. Scope of public vocational trainng.
4. Nature of training within enterprises.
5. A range of issues which need to be addressed on the agenda of
 vocational education and training in Japan.
6. the relevance of the Japanese experience for contemporary
discussions of vocation and training in Europe and the USA.
Journal Deficiency The drawback in this journal is that in this journal the discussion is
more dirested to vocational training. The discussion of vocational
education in Japan in not very detailed in the journal.
Inference Moreover, the prominent role occupied by the private sector in
continuing vocational education and training in Japang sharply
circumscribes the likely scope of public sector initiatives. As a
recent American review team from the US office of educational
research and improvement noted, “Most continuing education for
adults in Japan takes place in private, profit making institutions.
While wmployers in most countries are major providers of
continuing vocational education in the form of training, the scale of
private-sector provision in Japan in considerably extended by privat
sector educational bodies.