Nonformal Education and Civil Society in Japan ed. by Kaori H. Okano (review)

In contemporary Japan, much education goes on within formal schooling—institutions established or sanctioned by the state, providing formal academic qualifications which are recognized by the state. Thanks to much research over decades, there may be better documentation of Japan's formal schooling in English than of any other non-Anglophone society. However, less has been written about education outside formal schooling, and this collection helps to advance understanding of this area.

The book is composed of an introductory chapter by the editor, Kaori Okano, and nine further chapters on a wide variety of aspects of nonformal education in Japan. In the introduction, Okano explains that the book differentiates between "informal" education, which it understands as "any unsystematic learning which individuals gain through self-study and, simply, experience" (p. 1), and "non-formal" education, which it sees as "intentional teaching and learning activities that occur outside formal schooling" (p. 1). However, Okano points out that the boundaries between these two categories are "fuzzy" and suggests that formal, nonformal, and informal education are best understood as "parts of a continuum" (p. 4). The introductory chapter provides useful contextualization for the later chapters, which deal with particular areas of nonformal education.

The nine remaining chapters cover a wide range of educational areas. In the majority of cases (six chapters), they deal with nonformal education that is linked to the formal education system in some way, supplementing it or providing alternatives. Two of these chapters deal with education for cultural and/or linguistic minorities. Okano herself contributes a chapter on "the changing relationship between 'schools for foreigners' and formal schools" (p. 109), which argues that some Anglophone international schools and overseas Chinese schools in Japan have started to become attractive to some elite Japanese families seeking a more international education for their children, while there is increasing liaison between nonformal schools for ethnic minority children (especially Latin Americans) and formal schools; this is promoted by government due to concern about the poor academic attainment and job prospects of these children. The other chapter, by Tomoko Nakamatsu, provides a case study of five volunteer groups offering (mainly) Japanese language support for migrant children and youth. Nakamatsu identifies a number of persistent problems in the relationship between such volunteer groups and the local governments that provide them with funding: in particular, the aims of governments and of volunteer groups do not necessarily mesh, and the tendency for funding to be allocated on a short-term (usually annual) basis, combined with turnover among government officials, makes this financial support fragile. These chapters reinforce the conclusions of earlier research on migrant children's education, local government, and civil society.¹

Eiji Tsuda contributes a chapter on "community-based after-school care programs" (p. 53) (in Japanese, gakudō hoiku), providing a valuable study of a major phenomenon in contemporary Japan about which very little has yet been written in English. Essentially, this refers to arrangements to look after groups of elementary school children after the school day ends, until a caregiver such as a parent can collect the child. The need for such services has dramatically increased over the last two decades; according to Tsuda, "in 2012 more than 846,967 children participated in 20,843 such programs," run in order of frequency by local government, social welfare corporations, voluntary associations, local social welfare councils, and parents' associations (pp. 53, 56). Tsuda provides a case study of a program he is himself involved in, suggesting that it encourages children to learn to interact with others of diverse ages and promotes the learning of relationships (rather than academic learning, for example). Such features seem to echo priorities found by researchers in Japanese preschools and elementary schools.²

An overview of alternative schools for long-term absentee (futōkō) students is provided by Hideki Ito's chapter. Ito also includes a brief case study of one alternative school for high school age children, suggesting that students continue...