There are various materials available for studying the history of education in Japan, including the following:

1. Basic Bibliography (Japanese)

1-1. X-year History of the Modern Educational System

Each of the following materials summarizes the Japanese school education system from 1872 to the year of publication.

• Gakusei gojunen-shi (Fifty-year history of the modern educational system) (Ministry of Education, 1922, NDL Call No. 373.2-M7535g) (NDL Digital Collection)
• Gakusei nanajunen-shi (Seventy-year history of the modern educational system) (Ministry of Education, ed., 1942, NDL Call No. 372.1-M753g) (NDL Digital Collection)
• Gakusei hachijunen-shi (Eighty-year history of the modern educational system) (Ministry of Education, ed.,1954, NDL Call No. 373.2-M7535g2) (NDL Digital Collection)
• Gakusei kyujunen-shi (Ninety-year history of the modern educational system) (Ministry of Education, ed., 1964, NDL Call No. 373.2-M7535g2) (NDL Digital Collection)
• Gakusei hyakunen-shi (A hundred-year history of the modern educational system) (Ministry of Education, ed., 1972, NDL Call No. FB14-65) (NDL Digital Collection)
• Gakusei hyaku-nijunen-shi (Hundred-and-twenty-year history of the modern educational system) (Authored by the Ministry of Education, 1992, NDL Call No. FB14-E133) (NDL Digital Collection)
• Gakusei hyaku-gojunen-shi (Hundred-and-fifty-year history of the modern educational system) (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 2022) (NDL Digital Collection)

1-2. Historical Sources on Education

• Meiji iko kyoiku seido hattatsu shi (The history of the development of the educational system since the Meiji era) (Kyoiku Shiryo Chosa kai, 1964-1965, NDL Call No. 372.1-Ky9945k-(s)) (NDL Digital Collection)
  These are historical materials related to the education system in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Kwantung Leased Territory, Karafuto(South Sakhalin), and the South Seas Islands from 1868 to 1932. They include administrative materials, imperial edicts, laws, ordinances, subject-specific hours of instruction, and a separate volume index.
  They are reprints of Meiji iko kyoiku seido hattatsu shi dai 1-12 kan (The history of the development of the educational system since the Meiji era, volumes 1 to 12) (Ryuginsha, 1938-1939, NDL Call No. 256.1-143) (NDL Digital Collection).

• Kindai Nihon kyoiku seido shiryo (Historical materials on the modern Japanese educational system) (Dai Nippon Yuben kai Kodansha, 1956-1959, NDL Call No. 373-Ki234-K) (NDL Digital Collection)
  This contains historical materials on the education system from 1932 to 1952. It also includes study guidelines, timetables and materials on the educational systems of Taiwan, Korea, and the South Seas Islands at the time. Volume 35 contains a general index and a chronology of the education system from 1868 to 1952.

• Shiryo Nihon gendai kyoiku shi (Materials on the history of modern Japanese education) (Sanseido, 1974, NDL Call No. FB14-90) (NDL Digital Collection)
  Shiryo Nihon gendai kyoiku shi. Tsuiho (Materials on the history of modern Japanese education: Supplement edition) (1974-1979) (Sanseido, 1979, NDL Call No. FB14-90) (NDL Digital Collection)
  This material compiles data on school and social education trends from 1945 to 1973. It includes administrative materials as well as excerpts from newspapers, publications, and research reports.
  The supplement edition contains key documents from 1974 to 1979.

1-3. Historical Statistics on Education

• Kyoikugaku koza. Bekkan (Lectures on education: Supplementary volume) (Gakushu Kenkyusya, 1980, NDL Call No. F5-17) (NDL Digital Collection)
  This contains statistics related to school education from 1948 to 1978, including data on educational expenditures, average height and weight by age, and average results of physical fitness and motor ability tests.

2. Visual Materials (Japanese)

• Shashin zusetsu Nihon gakusei no rekishi (A pictorial history of Japanese students) (Kodansha, 1970, NDL Call No. FD37-71) (NDL Digital Collection)
  This material explains the conditions of students and schools from 1868 to 1970 using photographs. It includes photographs from the time of the establishment of institutions such as the University of Tokyo, Tokyo Senmon Gakko (currently known as Waseda University), Sapporo Agricultural College (Hokkaido University), Gakushuin (Gakushuin University), Tokyo Fine Arts School (Tokyo University of the Arts), and several normal schools.

• Zusetsu kindai hyakunen no kyoiku (An illustrated guide to 100 years of modern education) (Kokudosha, 1967, NDL Call No. 372.1-Ka486k) (NDL Digital Collection)
  This includes photographs of school buildings, students' clothing, classroom scenes, textbooks, teaching materials, stationery, and school equipment from 1872 to 1966.

3. Dictionaries and Chronology (Japanese)

3-1. Dictionaries

• Nihon kindai kyoiku shi jiten (Encyclopedia of the history of modern Japanese education) (Heibonsha, 1971, NDL Call No. F2-53) (NDL Digital Collection)
  This is an encyclopedia covering topics on Japanese education from 1868 to 1965. There is a subject index and a name index at the end.

• Kyoiku jinmei jiten (Biographical dictionary of education) (Risosha, 1962, NDL Call No. 370.35-Ky9942) (NDL Digital Collection)
  This is a biographical dictionary that includes not only educators but also philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, economists, and natural scientists. It also features individuals from outside Japan.

3-2. Chronology

Follow materials are comprehensive chronologies of educational matters since 1945. They record policies, laws, administrative and financial practices, and legal cases related to education alongside social conditions in Japan and internationally. Summaries of relevant council reports and recommendations are also included.

• Shin Nihon kyoiku nenki dai 1-4 kan (Chronicle of new Japanese education, vols. 1-4) (1945-1964) (Research Institute for School Education, 1966-1968, NDL Call No. 372.1-G14s) (NDL Digital Collection)
• Shin Nihon kyoiku nenki dai 5-11 Kan (Chronicle of new Japanese education, vols. 5-11) (1965-1999) (Research Institute for School Education, 1973-2001, NDL Call No. FB14-219) (NDL Digital Collection)
  *Vol. 11 (1995-1999) has not been digitized.
• Shin Nihon kyoiku nenki dai 12 kan (Chronicle of new Japanese education, vol. 12) (2000-2004) (Research Institute for School Education, 2006, NDL Call No. FB14-H180)
• Shin Nihon kyoiku nenki dai 13 kan (Chronicle of new Japanese education, vol. 13) (2005-2009) (Research Institute for School Education, 2011, NDL Call No. FB14-J242)

4. To search the NDL Search

The National Diet Library's collection can be searched on NDL Search.
Please use keywords like "education”, "educational history", or "educational systems" combined with "Japan". To narrow your search to English-language materials, specify "eng" (ENGLISH) as the Text Language Code in the detailed search options.

5. Internet resources

5-1. Searching Official Publications

• Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
  The English versions of the White Paper by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology are archived (volumes to 2017) (volumes from 2018).
  In addition, JAPAN'S MODERN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM, which is a summarized and revised English version of Gakusei hyakunen-shi (A Hundred-year history of the modern educational system), is also available.
  On the Japanese version of the white paper page, the full texts of Gakusei hyakunen-shi (A hundred-year history of the modern educational system), Gakusei hyaku-nijunen-shi (Hundred-and-twenty-year history of the modern educational system), and Gakusei hyaku-gojunen-shi (Hundred-and-fifty-year history of the modern educational system) are available for viewing.

• Chiho kyoiku tsushi 2018 nen ban (Catalog of historical overview books in Japanese local education 2018) (National Institute for Educational Policy Research, 2019) (Japanese)
  This is a catalog that investigates the publication status of comprehensive histories of education by prefectures, municipalities, and regions (including domain- and level-specific histories, such as Hokkaido shogyo kyoiku shi (The history of commercial education in Hokkaido) and Miyagi-ken yochien kyoiku hyakunen-shi (A hundred-year history of education in kindergartens in Miyagi prefecture) ), with bibliographic information arranged by prefecture. Comprehensive histories of education in former overseas territories are also included. It is part of the National Institute for Educational Policy Research Results Archive.

5-2. Searching Historical Sources

• Sengo kyoiku shiryo digital archive (Documents of Post-war education digital archive) (National Institute for Educational Policy Research) (Japanese)
  This includes materials related to educational reforms from the end of the World War II to the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty (September 1945 to May 1952), as well as materials on the U.S. Education Mission to Japan and the Educational Reform Council. For some materials, full-text images are available for public viewing.

5-3. Searching Images

• The Meiji and Taisho eras in photographs (National Diet Library)
  In the "Education" section under "Search by Category," photographs of schools are included. The link leads to pages from past digital exhibitions collected by the National Diet Library's Web Archiving Project (WARP).

Link to related reference cases (Collaborative Reference Database)

• National kindergartens established or abolished between 1876 and 1992 (Japanese)
• Literacy rate in Japan since the Meiji era (Japanese)

Related Search Guides

• Researching about the history of education in Japan (Japanese)