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History and Philosophy of Science in Japanese Education: A Historical Overview

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Abstract

This article describes the historical development of HPS/NOS mainly in higher education. Because the establishment of universities in Japan in late-nineteenth century was a reaction against Western imperialism, higher education aimed to cultivate scientists and engineers with an emphasis on practical applications. This direction in higher science and engineering education continues into the present. It has conditioned elementary and secondary education via university entrance examinations, where no questions on NOS appear. Hence, HPS research and education has developed in Japanese higher education with little connection to elementary and secondary education. Instead, NOS is communicated in literature, movies, and other media. Scientific and technological communication occurs mainly outside the school curriculum in venues like museums.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Research on the meaning of wasan is ongoing. The concept, to date, has been largely misunderstood. For example, some argue that wasan lacks the notion of functions (Ueno 2006).

  2. 2.

    See Piovesana (1963).

  3. 3.

    The importance of popular culture in public’s interest in science in Japan continues to the present. The atomic bomb case before and after WWII was discussed in detail in Ito (2010), for example.

  4. 4.

    The development of HPS in Japan in its current sense is almost absent in the Kyoto School, as the school was accused of contribution to the Japanese navy after WWII.

  5. 5.

    Manuscripts of Nishida and Tanabe can be examined online at the Kyoto school archive. http://www.kyoto-gakuha.info/

  6. 6.

    Tanabe’s position in Tohoku was taken by the philosophers Takahashi Satomi and Miyake Goichi, both of whom studied under Edmund Husserl.

  7. 7.

    Ministry of Education (1941).

  8. 8.

    Sawada (1997), p. 3.

  9. 9.

    Okazaki and Okuno-Fujiwara (1999) points out that the social systems of Japan during the WWII essentially continued after the war under different names.

  10. 10.

    Sawada (1997).

  11. 11.

    Also see Sect. 68.5 of this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Yuko Murakami

  2. Faculty of Education, Ehime University, Matsuyama, Japan

    Manabu Sumida

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  1. Yuko Murakami
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  2. Manabu Sumida
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Correspondence to Manabu Sumida .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Michael R. Matthews

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Murakami, Y., Sumida, M. (2014). History and Philosophy of Science in Japanese Education: A Historical Overview. In: Matthews, M. (eds) International Handbook of Research in History, Philosophy and Science Teaching. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7654-8_68

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