Role of International NGOs in Education Sector Recovery in Japan

Abstract

After the Great East Japan Earthquake, Japan received international assistance. In the education sector, major international children’s support organizations helped the Japanese schoolchildren to return to schools as early as possible and to secure their safe and healthy learning environment. Though they have been actively involved in many educational recovery operations in post-disaster countries, it was the first time in almost 50 years that disaster recovery operations by these organizations were conducted in Japan. This chapter found that those international child-support organizations played supplemental roles to respect the Japanese educational structure and ownership of the Japanese school. At the same time, they introduced internationally experienced “child-centered” approaches in the Japanese education sector. These supports were realized through abundant global financial contributions, which they independently decided to use, along with building a capable and trustful team among the internationally experienced and locally familiarized Japanese staff. The involvement of international child-support organizations had the potential to strengthen the governance and resilience of the Japanese education sector by encouraging the educational authorities to collaborate with external organizations. Challenges include how to support local civic organizations to continue to work on the ground to maintain working relationships with schools after their support programs have ended.