1. The history of science and technology education in Japan shows a segregation between different communities like the history of science, philosophy of science, and science education. 2. The Japanese government determined the academic contents of education through curriculum guidelines and university entrance exams, which did not include the nature of science (NOS) as a subject. 3. As a result, the idea that science is fallible and shaped by human factors was not officially recognized in the Japanese education system, despite being discussed in some alternative media and popular science publications.

1. NOS/HPS in Japan
Yuko Murakami
Tohoku University
Joint work with Manabu Sumida (Ehime University)
Partially supported by PSSJ, PHSJ, and Science Council of Japan

2. East Japan Earthquake (March 11,
2011) and its consequences

3. Not just nuke
• Restoration from Tsunami
disaster is still under
planning
• Safe places of high
altitude are hard to move
in: already used or
inappropriate for living
• Declining and aging
population
• Harmful rumor: debris
contaminated of
radioactive particles

4. Sendai
• Basic infrastructure
almost recovered in
months

5. November 2012, Minami Sanriku

6. stranded decision making
• Miscommunication?
– Depopulated areas and tsunami/nuke
• Organizational malfunction?
• Public misunderstanding of science?
• Focus here: Historical development and
educational implementations of the very idea of
science and technology in Japan
– Sumida: elementary and secondary education
– Murakami: tertiary education

7. Backgrounds
• Pre-modern Japan: Edo era (-1868)
– Isolated policy (1633-1854)
– Ban of Christianity (1587-1858)
• Eagerness for independence
• Usefulness of technology recognized as well as
curiosity of science

8. Science and technology under
isolation policy
• High literacy rate in all classes
– Samurai class: Dutch and Chinese
• Scientific discovery
– Astronomy
– mathematics
• Technological interests
– flood control
– Earthquake-proof architecture

9. Each “han”(local government) has Its
own policy

10. Diplomatic policy and technology
• Students sent to Europe from various areas of
Japan in the late Edo period
– Satsuma
– Choshu
– Saga
– Central government
• They imported knowledge of western science and
technology to Japan under the new government

11. Oyatoi gaikokujin: recruited foreign lecturers
• Erwin von Baeltz
• Patrick Lafcadio Hearn
• Alexander Georg Gustav von Siebold
• Raphael von Koeber
• Ernest Francisco Fenollosa
– German philosophy
• Taught in early universities and later replaced by
Japanese
• Teaching language shifted to Japanese

12. Introduction of modern education
system
• Elementary school: lower (4y) and higher (4y)
• Multi-track middle/higher education
• Science was taught in higher elementary and
upper
• Most went lower elementary only
• Government, not teachers, determined academic
contents of each subjects in elementary and
secondary schools

13. (why am I telling the old story?)
• The same structure remains in spite of
educational reform after the WWII under
American influence
• NOS has been excluded from the official
education system
• ONLY RECENTLY (April 2012!) a slight sign of
change was issued

14. Science and Technology
• Ministry of education: Edo governmental school -> UT
science and technology
• Ministry of Industry: Industry school (under Scottish
influence) -> UT Engineering
• Later merged and restructured at University of Tokyo
– School of science: pure science
– Engineering: also covered applied science
• Kyoto, Tokyo Tech…

15. Aim of S&T education
• The first item of the Imperial University Law
explicitly states that Imperial Universities
aimed to teach and research arts and science
for the country's needs
– To catch up the Western countries by science and
technology, no matter what S&T mean
– “What is science?”--- never taught nor asked in
the official educational system

16. School math and sci goal in WWII
• Patriot statement.
– “To train ability of precise thinking and processing
normal events and phenomena and to apply the
ability to everyday practice and to nurture rational
and creative mind in order to prepare for
contribution to the prosperity of the nation.”

17. S&T in WWII
• Waiver of military service
– STM students were considered to contribute to
the nation via their specialization
• Workforce allocation
– STM graduates were allocated to government and
industry according to the central plan.
– The system continued even after WWII in the form
of “recommendation by laboratory” until 1990s

18. Prioritized Education of Science and
Technology in HE after WWII
• 1952:142,546
• 1957: 202,334
– New economy plan: first forecast of personnel
need in S&T
– 1960: +8,000 (210,000)
– 1963 plan: +20,000 (230,000)
• 1963: 273,098
• 1975: 598,872
electronics
Nuclear engineering
Babyboomers in college age
In late 1960s
The idea of S&T for nation still alive

19. Status of HPS in HE up to the 1970s
• General education for non-S&T students
– as “inexpensive S&T teachers”
– Did not grow to the departmental level
• Who taught HPS?
– Retired researchers in S&T
– HPS researchers trained abroad (mainly in US)
• Graduate program of UT HPS: established in 1970
• Tokyo Tech? (Natsuhiko Yoshida taught 1969-1988)

20. Philosophy of science vs analytic
philosophy: institutional confusion
• UT Komaba: HPS department in liberal art
college
– Founding members: HPS-conscious S&T
researchers
– Then invitedf
• Philosophers
• Historians of science

21. History of Science
• Komaba
– Nakayama Shigeru 中山茂: History of geology and
astronomy
– Ito Shuntaro 伊東俊太郎: Greek science
– Murakami Yoichiro 村上陽一郎 history of physics,
science and religion

22. History of Science
• Tokyo Institute of Technology
– HPS lab eventually in management engineering
department
– Strong in Russian and east European science
• Historian of Science -> science education
– Tsukahara Syuichi 塚原修一
– Narisada Kaoru 成定薫
• Such personnel exchange extinguished…exactly when?

23. Philosophy in Japan
• Under strong influence of German philosophy
• Komaba became a reserve of philosophy of
the English-speaking world---still no
international Ph.D. in philosophy
– Omori Shozo 大森荘蔵 Quine
– Tsueshita Ryuei 杖下隆英 Hume
– Fujimoto Takashi 藤本隆志 Wittgenstein
– Hiromatsu Wataru 廣松渉 Mach, Kant (supporter
of student activities in the late 1960s)

24. Philosophy of science
• Hokkaido University, dept of physics
– Ishigaki Toshio
• Kyoto University, dept of ethics
– Uchii Soshichi
• Tokyo Institute of Technology
– Yoshida Natsuhiko
• Internationalization was relatively late compared
with history of science, although there were
researcher exchange (outbound, 1-2 years)

25. Science education (理科教育)
• 1947 The Society of Biological Sciences Education of Japan (日本生
物教育学会)
• 1948 Japan Society of Earth Science Education (日本地学教育学会)
• 1951 Society of Japan Science Teaching (日本理科教育学会)
• 1953 Physics Education Society of Japan(日本物理教育学会)
• 1975 Education Committee, The Chemical Society of Japan（日本科
学会教育部会）
• 1977 Japan Society for Science Education (日本科学教育学会)
• 1995 Council of Science Education Related Societies(教科「理科」
関連学会協議会)
– Association of the 6 societies above
• 1990 The Association of Basic Chemical Education in Japan

26. Split of 理科 and 科学
• 理科
1. (opposite of 文科) S&T in general
2. (as in 理科大学) natural science
3. (in school curriculum) physics, chemistry, biology,
geology [notice it usually does not cover NoS as a
subject]
• Cf. 理科 in Chinese（百度） includes
mathematics

27. Communities seggregate
Preschool Science
education in a
world standard
COVERS ALL
Sci edu aka科学
教育Elementary
education
Sci edu aka 理科
教育
Secondary
education
Higher education
Lifelong
education
Distance
education
Public
understanding
Science
communication
科学コミュニケー
ション
Communities
divided

28. No official recognition of
“indeterminacy of science”?
• Official idea of science: naïve!
– [naïve progressive view of history of science]
Scientific research has no limit and will reach at
the truth in principle
– [naïve platonism] Science is absolute and
independent from human activities
– [clear cut] Scientific question is true or false
– [??? Infallibility of science] Science gives the right
answer

29. Restrictions in secondary education
• Conservative teaching system
– Teacher training given under segmentation of
“subjects”
– Governmental guideline of education
• Optimization of educational contents and
emphasis in university entrance examinations
– No exam questions, no mention in classroom
– Exam questions are designed to be easily scored
• NOS never appears in university entrance
examination (exception: essay exams)

30. Alternative?: NOS popularized
• “what is science?” ---a natural question
• Alternative media of NOS---out of school
classroom
• Essays on science and society
– Terada Torahiko (geophysicist)
– Ishihara Jun (physicist)
– Miyazawa Kenji (novelist, also teacher of
agriculture)

31. Alternative
• After WWII:
– magazines
– Yukawa Hideki (physicist, Nobel award winner):
responsibility of scientists
– Anime and comics: mixed message on science
(both optimistic and pessimistic)
• Sci-Fi, “Fantasy”
– More focus on social effects of science without
“what is science” being explicitly asked

32. Pseudo-science
• Positive side: Creationism is not popular
– Science and Christianity is totally disconnected
(clearly by history)
• Moral education appeals to science?
– Primary school teachers: without self confidence
in science (due to teacher training program
admission)
– Attracted to “scientific” metaphors in moral
education
• Talk kindly to water and it crystalizes beautifully

33. Summary
• Discommunication between segregated
HPS/NOS communities
• Governmental curriculum and entrance
examination system