A Comparative Study of the Framework of the Basic Education Act - Focusing on Taiwan and Japan -

Education has functioned as a foundation for national development, social integration, and the enhancement of citizens’ basic rights. Especially in the context of economic development, the trends of democratization and globalization have established the autonomy and diversity of education, as well as political neutrality, and the guarantee of citizens’ rights to learn and receive education as important educational values required by modern society. These educational values are legitimized as educational ideals in the constitutions of various countries, and to implement them, each country enacts basic education laws that reflect their own educational environments and social and cultural specificities.<br/> Taiwan’s Basic Education Act has established an educational administration system that emphasizes democracy and diversity by stipulating equal opportunities for education, guaranteeing autonomy, and ensuring political neutrality in education. This shows a distinct difference when compared to the centralized educational administration of Korea and Japan. Japan’s Basic Education Act focuses on the purpose of education as the development of character and the cultivation of creative talents, which, unlike Taiwan, places an emphasis on training individuals that contribute to the development of the nation and society rather than on political neutrality in education. It can be characterized by the system in which the state extensively manages the educational curriculum.<br/> On the other hand, Korea’s “Basic Education Act” stipulates the purpose and ideology of education, the guarantee of the rights to learn and receive education, and the autonomy of education. Similar to Taiwan’s Basic Education Act, it aims at the ultimate goals of personal development and the nurturing of democratic citizens, but it does not specifically state the political neutrality of education as per Article 2 and Article 4 of the Basic Education Act and maintains a centralized educational administration system by the Ministry of Education, which marks a difference.<br/> This paper analyzes the main contents and characteristics of the education basic laws of Taiwan and Japan, and examines them in comparison with Korea’s education basic law, focusing on the legal frameworks for educational autonomy, political neutrality, the right to learn, and the guarantee of educational rights. Such research can contribute to suggesting directions for legal improvements in the democratic nature and protection of fundamental rights of the education laws in East Asian countries influenced by Japanese legislation.