• Korean Journal of Comparative Education
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.1-22
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• 2017

This study aims to examine the continuity of national education between prewar and postwar Japan in the context of nationalism and citizenship education by considering the direction and process of educational reform which has been a turning point in Japanese education policy. It explores the limitations of educational reform at the normative level and institutional and procedural level. Meiji Japan needed to form a united group to support modernization while also cultivating obedient people who supported the emperor, and the modern education system played a major role in achieving this task. After Japan's defeat in World War II, the nation sought to change the framework of authoritarian nationalism inherent in Japanese traditional through educational reforms and achieve the goals of democratization and non-militarization. The postwar educational reform has transformed the educational structure, but democracy and peace orientation have not been rooted internally. Under the backdrop of the Cold War, the education returned to the inverse.