Early Childhood Care and Education Practices in Japan for the Era of Society 5.0

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.201205.080How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Early childhood, care and education, Japan, society 5.0

Abstract

With a backdrop of a decreasing and aging population along with advancing technologies, the Japanese government envisioned “Society 5.0” in the fifth science and technology basic plan issued in 2016. This paper aims to outline characteristics of Society 5.0 and skills considered necessary for the proposed future, and further discusses what is expected for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in Japan. Government policies and reports as well as other studies on Japanese ECCE are used for review and analyses. The country aspires to build a human-centered society by integrating cyberspaces and physical space, so as to attain both economic growth and solutions to issues. Skills needed for Society 5.0 encompass digital literacy built upon basic academic and social skills, scientific and mathematical knowledge, critical thinking, autonomous learning, curiosity, inquisitiveness, rich sensitivity, perseverance, and entrepreneurial spirit, among others. For materializing Society 5.0 in the country, quality ECCE should be universally provided to all young children. ECCE practices including teachers’ roles should remain the same, however, since its unique characteristics and principles are unchanged regardless of societal changes. More ICT may be applied in future ECCE, and yet only in a manner to improve their practices without undermining important principles such as child-centeredness, play-based learning, and holistic development through direct experiences.

Copyright

© 2020, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Chiaki Miwa
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/12/11
TI  - Early Childhood Care and Education Practices in Japan for the Era of Society 5.0
BT  - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Early Childhood Care Education and Parenting (ICECCEP 2019)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 27
EP  - 32
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.201205.080
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.201205.080
ID  - Miwa2020
ER  -