Concerning the Education System for Music Therapists in Japan: A Comparison between Curricula of Schools Certified by the Japanese Music Therapy Association

In order to resolve the issues surrounding Japan's current music therapy education, it is necessary to re-look at the education system used by its educational institutions that train people to become music therapists. Therefore, I will review the curriculum in these institutions, and make appropriate suggestions. In particular, I will look at those institutions that train its students to become certified by the Japanese Music Therapy Association, which is one of the qualifications music therapists in Japan can obtain. The purpose of the study is to ascertain the current situation in the music therapy education industry, as well as to identify areas of reconsideration in the modality of future education institutions. To that end, I will analyze the curriculum and lecture contents of such institutions. The analysis has revealed that each educational institution has a different curriculum & pedagogy. This is because the Curriculum Guideline, which sets the teaching standards for these educational institutions, is not comprehensive enough - it only mentions subject names, classifications & credit requirements. While it is natural that there would be some tendency for variability among the educational institutions because of different policies & circumstances, I think that the Japanese Music Therapy Association should set a more clear and detailed standard in the Curriculum Guideline. And this should be presented to all of the relevant educational institutions in order to guarantee that the graduating music therapy students have at least obtained a certain minimum standard