Japanese Childcare

How do Japanese schools inculcate traditional values in their children? In terms of early childhood education, this question becomes increasingly significant as more women have begun to enter the workforce and require day care for their young children. A number of studies have looked at methods of training and dominant cultural concepts, pointing out that preschools employ devices similar to those used in Japanese families. Yet until now, there has been no systematic exploration of the institutional logic governing early childhood education.

Based on field research within Kyoto's Katsura day care center, Japanese Childcare looks at the broad societal goals of preschools, analyzing the structures by which they try to foster the rudiments of organizational life central to Japanese ideology. Eyal Ben-Ari considers the management of day care in Japan, discussing bureaucratic texts that display official notions of "normal" child development.

The book also examines the individuals and resources that allow such institutions to function: administrators, teachers, staff meetings, and the role of the state in standardizing preschool education. A comprehensive survey of the early childhood education system in Japan, Ben-Ari's book opens up a range of questions about the future of traditional childcare in the climate of globalization.

Eyal Ben-Ari is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Research Fellow at the Harry S.Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.