Philosophy for Children in Japan : History and Prospects

Abstract

The beginning of the interest in philosophy for children in Japan seemed to be in 1983, when Gareth B Matthews’ Philosophy and the Young Child (1980) was translated into Japanese. His Dialogues with Children (1984) was also translated into Japanese in 1987, and it was followed by the Japanese translation of Matthews’ The Philosophy of Childhood (1994) in 1997. It seems to be able to say that philosophy for children spread out in Japan with the name of Matthews. Since the end of 1990s, the researchers in educational studies and in the academic discipline of philosophy in Japan have published articles regarding philosophy for children. This paper tries to grasp the outline of the situation of philosophy for children in Japan and describe its prospects. The possibility of the development of philosophy for children in Japan would be; firstly, raising the problem of the transformation of the academic philosophy, secondly, applying philosophy for children to moral education at school, and thirdly, contributing to nurturing the children’s abilities of logical thinking, critical judgment and expression of their own.