Education and Childhood in Japan: Lessons to be Learned? Review of Merry White, The Japanese Educational Challenge: A Commitment to Children, and Harold W. Stevenson, Hiroshi Azuma, and Kenji Hakuta (Eds.), Child Development and Education in Japan

America's increased concern about its economic productivity has led government and public officials to start searching for policy responses. Some suggest economic remedies tied to interest rates, tariffs, and the like. Others have sought to link the current malaise with a number of differences that distinguish America from its most obvious economic rival, Japan. Representing the latter perspective, the former Secretary of Education, William Bennett, has suggested that is is education that is the critical factor in producing different human capital between the two industrial powers. He, and many others, claim that the Japanese culture in general, and Japanese education in particular, provide the sort of stimulation that leads to higher rates of literacy, greater mathematical achievement, more social control in the classroom, and, subsequently, a more productive work force.