Borrowings, Modernity, and De-axialization: Rethinking the Educational Research Agenda for a Global Age

Abstract

This chapter invites readers, both non-Japanese and Japanese alike, to contemplate how Japan’s educational sociology can take its rightful place in the global conversation but in ways that avoid being reduced to either comfortable commonality or incommensurable uniqueness. It argues for greater attention to the themes of “borrowing” and the processes of externally driven modernity. It deepens this discussion with reference to rich comparative-historical sociological work that has long argued that Japan constitutes a civilization distinct in its non-axial premises. It concludes with reflections on the current state of the field and an appeal, particularly aimed at younger scholars, to remain committed to de-axialization as the way forward in this new Global Age.