Child, Education and Society in Current Japan

Abstract

Child-raising patterns and practices show a great variety across cultures. In Japan ideally the happy and all-permitting years of early childhood are followed by an increasingly strict, rigid and all-controlled phase of education – both at home and in schools – in order to produce smoothly adjustable members of society who understand and respect the primacy of skillful adaptation. This traditional expectation however tends to show signs of crisis – due to the value changes influenced by globalization, digitalization and the one-child family model. This ultimately leads to less verbal human communication and to growing cases of virtual interactions which in its turn have a negative impact on the society and the economy of the country.