Book review: Gakko ni ikanai kodomo no shakaishi: Futoko to free school no genryu [A Social History of Children Not Attending School: The Origins of Non-Attendance and Alternative Schools]

Yuya Tanaka’s A Social History of Children Not Attending School is a thoughtful depiction of the issue of children not attending school in Japan and the changing awareness thereof, as handled largely by private-sector organizations and individuals, from the 1960s through the 1980s. Its focus is on the process through which the phenomenon of children not attending school came to be viewed as a problem and the changing understanding of that problem, as well as on the complex interactions among diverse actors in the process of creating measures and alternatives to address the situation. The author, himself at one time the proprietor of an alternative school, writes with well-informed sympathy and clarity about the issues of the times, detailing the multiple viewpoints and actors involved with thorough reference to contemporary documents, newspapers, magazines, and other materials.