1 Japanese Educationin a Global Age: An Introduction -- Part I How have Japan's Education Policies been Discussed by Social Scientists? -- 2 A Comparative Perspective of Attitudes toward Educational Inequality -- 3 Universal Participation in School Education as a Historical Process in Modern Japan -- 4 Borrowings, Modernity, and De-Axialization: Rethinking the Educational Research Agenda for a Global Age -- Part II What Contemporary Challenges is Japan's Education Facing? -- 5 Gender and Sexuality in Japanese Education: From Gender Disparity to Intersectional and Multiple Gender/Sexualities -- 6 School-to-Work Transitions for Japanese Youth in a Globalized Era -- 7 Are Children who do not go to School "Bad", "Sick", or "Happy"?: Shifting Interpretations of Long-Term School Non-Attendance in Postwar Japan -- 8 Sociological Studies on Universities in Japan: Focusing on the Academic Profession -- 9 Growing up in Multicultural Japan: Diversifying Educational Experiences of Immigrant Students -- 10 The Growing Influence of Political Leadership on Teacher Education: Radical POlicy Reforms in the Absence of Opposition Forces -- 11 Learning Opportunities since the Great Earthquake of 2011 -- 12 (Column 1) New Pathways to Economic Participation? Youth, Labor Policy and Entrepreneurship in Japan -- Part III How does Japan's Sociology of Education go beyond the National Boundary? -- 13 Internationalization of Japanese Higher Education: Incremental Change in a Dynamic Global Environment -- 14 Beyond National Frameworks: Patterns and Trends in Articles in Japanese Researchers published in International Journals of Sociology of Education and related Fields since the 1990s -- 15 Achievements and Future Challenges in Japan's Sociology of Education: Sociologization, Pedagogization, and Resociologization -- 16 (Column 2) East Asian Networks in the Sociology of Education -- 17 Meritocracy and Modernity, and the Completion of Catch-up: Problems and Paradoxes.

This book highlights recent education research on Japan based on sociological and other related approaches to historical developments and accomplishments. Written primarily by members of the Japan Society of Educational Sociology, it brings to light concerns and viewpoints that have grown out of the Japanese educational context. By focusing on uniquely Japanese educational research phenomena, the book offers international readers new insights and contributes to the international debate on education. It may help sociologists and social scientists outside Japan gain a deeper understanding of ongoing changes in education in Japan as well as its historical and structural contexts.