Attendance without schooling: certification, family resources and public support for school non-attendance in Japan

Japan's public education support centres are counted as places of learning. This article argues that their distinctive product is a record. Japanese law requires guardians to have their children attend school, and education at home does not meet that duty. A day at a centre can therefore count as attendance in the pupil's file, while the ministry's own survey counts the same day as an absence. The record lets the state keep a duty it no longer enforces. Drawing on Weber and Etzrodt, the article separates two family capacities: reaching a centre and replacing what it offers. Three propositions follow. The public centre is the most reliable route to the record. Families who can replace the centre use it only for the record, and leave once the record stops mattering. As routes to the record multiply, centres are left to families who can reach them but cannot replace them.