THE STRANGE CHILD: Education and the Psychology of Patriotism in Recessionary Japan | By Andrea Gevurtz Arai | Pacific Affairs

THE STRANGE CHILD: Education and the Psychology of Patriotism in Recessionary Japan | By Andrea Gevurtz Arai | Pacific Affairs



BOOK REVIEWS, NORTHEAST ASIA


VOLUME 92 – NO. 2




THE STRANGE CHILD: Education and the Psychology of Patriotism in Recessionary Japan | By Andrea Gevurtz Arai


Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016. xv, 233 pp. (B&W photos.) US$25.95, paper. ISBN 978-0-8047-9853-2.

The Strange Child offers a very demanding and multi-faceted approach to understanding how schools and families have been affected by economic and political changes during Japan’s enduring recession. The book’s title refers to the various ways that the inability and unwillingness of Japan’s children to be well-behaved and untroubled is interpreted as inscrutable by their parents and teachers. The work is a long essay with focused research and lived experience from 1999 to 2014. Author Andrea Gevurtz Arai argues that the role of what she calls “neoliberal patriotism,” a program of governmental policy and influence, both contributes to “strange” behavior in children and offers solutions based on developing individual flexibility in facing the uncertainties of modern Japan. In addition to her status as a scholar sponsored by Tokyo University, Arai’s role as mother of two young daughters coping with the Japanese school system provided her with valuable access to schools, teachers, parent groups, and the business of private supplementary schooling.

The book interrogates the intersecting roles of government and private educational efforts in drawing public attention and discourse to the “child problem,” and away from the intractable problems caused by the economic and political stagnation that have contributed to the difficulties of raising and educating children. The 1997 case of the 14-year-old “strange child” who engaged in murder amidst Kobe school children is seen as an exemplar for creating a general diagnosis of the child problem. The author conducted her own study of the case to demonstrate how atypical the child and the circumstances were. The media aftermath and official response encouraged a new application of psychology to public discourse and public policy in Japan. The figure of Kawai Hayao looms large in this effort as he moves from Jungian therapist to government spokesperson for reforms intending to herald a new era based on individual achievement and risk-taking. The announcement of that era arrived as schools and families were faced with the continuing loss of old guarantees of employment and economic stability. Schooling could no longer be trusted to launch students on reliable trajectories towards advancement. If, as directed by government educational reforms, the individual must now discover her or his hidden talents and independence, the highly standardized public school system loses its relevance while alternative private services proliferate, offering assistance to those who have the necessary self-discipline and finances. The national reforms included reducing the school week to five days and requiring a new study of interdisciplinary topics. This combination was seen by parents and teachers as further weakening public schools and further challenging teachers trained and experienced in an earlier era of collective work and common standards. One chapter provides a close look at the exam prep industry that has blossomed into an all-purpose product for guiding parents in the choice of schooling for their children. The industry has achieved increased effectiveness through social media and targeted marketing. The juku business has become both supplement and substitute for public schooling, including guidance towards attendance at private and, often, Christian schools as a “better fit” for a child.

As the author moves us through her rather dense analysis of how state education policies reflect a Japanese version of neoliberal capitalism with a patriotic flavor, we interrogate the increasingly sophisticated spin provided by the government that blames weaknesses in the home and child-raising for the child problem, and see that the primary result of privatization has been to drain the once-lauded public school system of essential resources and respect. Teachers are the principal victims of this process and face increased chaos in their classrooms as students move their energy and time to private exam prep and related services or, just as often, simply towards disengaging from school and entering the world of part-time employment along with their elders.

When the national authorities decreed that all classrooms should start the day singing the national anthem, the patriotic thrust of an otherwise detached national regime was made clear while the exam system continued to exercise its traditional sorting mechanism. All and all, the book is not an attractive portrayal of a once “strange,” complex, but admirable society. Late in the book, the author alerts us to a small but engaging alternative among young adults in a reverse migration from their experience of urban nightmare to the establishment of various utopian efforts in the villages and farms of long-suffering rural Japan.

The author’s work was well-served by parenting her two daughters in partnership with her Japanese husband and his extended family, although this role also circumscribed the range of her observations. One crucial gap in that range is the significant role of preschool in Japan. Three years of pre-schooling is designed to socialize children for the demands not only of schooling but also to develop proper attitudes and dispositions expected for survival in a society that has traditionally placed a significance on hierarchy, respect, homogeneity, and group performance. The success or lack thereof of this preparation would have provided a valuable addition to the work. As useful as the many ethnographic insights in this work are, the lack of statistical information to provide context is notable. The work stretches the definition of ethnography to cover many forms of lived experience over several years in Japan. While the author’s aim is more conceptual than empirical, the process could be seen as opportunistic while based on many years of preparation and study of the various topics necessary to carry out the project. The book is a valuable contribution to the ongoing debates within Japan and scholars of Japan regarding the role of public policy and corporate strategies in overcoming the apparent weaknesses in Japanese governance and schooling.

June A. Gordon

University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

Last Revised: August 29, 2019