Cooperation and Control in Japanese Nursery Schools

Abstract

permanent employment have been attributed to Japanese child rearing. Yet, there is remarkably little English-language evidence on early socialization in Japan. This article provides observational data from 15 Japanese nursery schools. It is not my intention here to draw generalizations about Japanese nursery schools or to demonstrate differences between Japanese and American schools. The substantial variability in nursery schools within each country makes such systematic comparison an ambitious undertaking. Rather, the behavioral and ethnopsychological data of the present paper are intended to identify potentially interesting areas for future research on nursery school socialization and to stimulate American thinking about two aspects of early education: school practices which influence the development of cooperative behavior in children and adult strategies for controlling children's behavior.