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Social Justice and Job Distribution in Japan: Class; Minority and Gender

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Abstract

Japanese schools have a mechanism for helping their students to find jobs, rather than leaving this function to market forces. The system embodies three principles. First, it tries to ensure that every graduating student within a school obtains a job. Second, it gives special assistance to students who are seen as "vulnerable" in the job market. Third, it takes into account individual merit (i.e. academic marks, school attendance and extra-curricular activities). The system recognises that a young person's initial full-time employment is crucial in obtaining an adult identity; that high school graduates are still immature and vulnerable, needing professional adult assistance to find "suitable" employment, and that they have unequal access to such assistance in their families. A key role is played by the teachers, who strive to obtain what they consider to be the most suitable employment for all their graduating students.

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  1. Department of Asian Studies, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia, 3083

    Kaori H. Okano

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Okano, K.H. Social Justice and Job Distribution in Japan: Class; Minority and Gender. International Review of Education 46, 545–563 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026574827232

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