Extracurricular Club Activity Reform in Japanese Public Junior High Schools: The Case of Takarazuka City

This paper examines the current state of Extracurricular Club Activities (ECAs) in Japan, focusing on the case of ECA reform in the Takarazuka City Board of Education (TCBE) and junior high schools in Takarazuka City. First, we provide an overview of the current status of ECAs in Japan. ECAs originated in the Meiji period (1868-1912) and grew out of the newly established Free Study subject under the post-war education reform. Furthermore, in the modern era of nuclear families and declining birthrates, ECAs have played an essential role as an educational activity that provides students with opportunities to engage in group activities with students of a variety of ages and to develop their communication skills. At the same time, the government has been promoting reform of ECAs with the aim of reducing the burden on teachers under the principles of the ‘school as a team’ and ‘work-style reform’ efforts. Next, we describe ECA reforms that our research group has implemented in cooperation with TCBE. In FY 2020, we conducted a questionnaire survey of students, parents and teachers to ascertain the status of ECAs in Takarazuka City. The results of this survey contributed to supporting the formulation of several education policies. We also recommended measures for ECA reform that TCBE should implement. First, the school board should allow students to commute out of the school district if a secondary school within a designated school zone does not have an ECA of their choice. Second, the school board funding for ECAs in each school should ensure that there are at least two instructors supervising each club. Third, the school board should encourage each school to train junior and senior high school students to become volunteer personnel in ECAs. We need further research into how local education boards and schools could train junior high and high school students for these volunteer roles.departmental bulletin pape