Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Currently, the number of students who study Geography is roughly half of all
high school students. This wasn't always the case until Contemporary Society was
designated as a compulsory social science subject in 1978. Prior to this period,
almost all fi rst-year senior high school students studied Geography, however, the
enrollment numbers declined sharply after the policy change. Another education
policy revision followed in 1989 in which Social Studies was divided into two
categories: (1) Civics and (2) Geography and History. World History remained a
compulsory subject, while Japanese History and Geography remained elective.
Students could choose to study one of the two options, which further reduced the
enrollment in Geography. Geography is again under threat as local governments,
including that of the Tokyo Metropolis and the Kanagawa Prefecture, have recently
proposed a plan to make Japanese History a compulsory subject in senior high schools.
This is directly related to the low enrollment in geography. Despite the increasing
importance of understanding international issues, global environmental issues, the
mechanisms of natural disasters, and disaster education, geography is neglected in the
Japanese school system. This is a problem that must be rectifi ed promptly.
In 2006, 'the problem of students not studying World History' was taken up by
the mass media, and it became a big issue. The Science Council of Japan set up the
Subcommittee on Geography and History Education Senior High School in May
2007 to develop solutions. The committees for history, regional studies, geography
and pedagogy were combined and governed by the membership and led by a chair-
person (world history specialist), a deputy committee chairperson (geography spe-
cialist), a secretary (Japanese history specialist), as well as committee members
specializing in pedagogy and archaeology/anthropology. Each fi eld had an equal
number of committee members represented.
To begin, the council recognized 'education with the right balance of temporal
awareness and spatial awareness' as the guiding principal. World History has been a
compulsory subject for over 20 years, and Geography has been relegated to elective
status equally as long. The challenge at the moment is that a growing number of
Japanese lack a minimum level of geographic knowledge. Many factors contribute to
this, for example an increasing number of schools either do not teach geography or
only teach it to students who aspire to study science. There is a disproportionate focus
on passing university entrance examinations, and teachers spend little time teaching
geography. To change this situation, the premise of education with the right balance of
temporal and spatial awareness is especially important, and this has remained the
focus throughout the subcommittee's activities (Yui
2011
).
Initially, there were strong opinions about the combination of geography and
history into a single subject (Sakurai
2011
). Over meetings at two symposia and
several exploratory investigations, the committee decided to create a consolidated
reform plan, whereby two subjects—Basic History and Basic Geography—would
be established as compulsory courses. The plan was proposed to the Science Council
of Japan in 2011.
The proposal of Basic History would resolve the fragmentation of World History
and Japanese History as it currently exists in the senior high school history curricu-
lum. This change would also integrate Japanese History into World History, within
