Japanese Conception of and Research on Human Intelligence

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511616648.011

10 - Japanese Conception of and Research on Human Intelligence

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012

Juko Ando and

Edited by

Tatsuya Sato: Affiliation:
Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan
Hiroshi Namiki: Affiliation:
Waseda University, Tokyo
Juko Ando: Affiliation:
Keio University, Tokyo
Giyoo Hatano: Affiliation:
The University of the Air, Chiba, Japan
Robert J. Sternberg: Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut

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Summary

It is very hard to describe in a comprehensive way how intelligence has been treated in Japanese psychology and related areas in just a short chapter. We limit ourselves to three topics that highlight the contribution of Japanese psychology to our understanding of human intelligence, after briefly reviewing the Japanese history of intelligence research: (1) the development of indigenous intelligence tests, (2) the interaction between heredity and environment in intelligence, and (3) how “intelligence” is viewed in the Japanese culture.

INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH IN JAPAN: A HISTORICAL REVIEW

This review covers mainly the period of the 1860s to 1960s, but we will mention very briefly how education was pursued in the period preceding the Meiji Restoration. There was a fixed social stratification system in the Edo Era (age of feudalism), with no mobility. However, education was taken seriously in each stratum. Toward the end of the Edo Era, there were nearly 300 fief schools (hanko) in the country, and although no accurate statistics are available, several times that number of private academies (shijuku) existed (Amano, 1990). Children in the samurai stratum (the ruling class of warriors) usually were given moral education, rooted in the Chinese Confucian classics, at the fief schools. People in other strata learned the “three Rs” at private academies. Generally speaking, education was structured to preserve the shogunate ruling system. Only at the end of the Edo Era were innovative private academies established; these attracted ambitious students and offered foreign languages and modern, technical knowledge.

Type: Chapter
Information: International Handbook of Intelligence , pp. 302 - 324

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511616648.011 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2004

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