Lifelong Education Policy In Japan And UK: A Comparative Perspective

The concept of lifelong education which was proposed by Paul Lengrand on the third International Adult Education Conference of UNESCO on 1965 holds that education should be a continuous process all through one's life and combine with life. Thanks to works of UNESCO, OECD, ILO and EU, this concept has been widely accepted around the world. At present, principles of lifelong education has been adopted as the guiding rules of education reform in many countries, and since 70s and 80s last century, various countries has been promoting lifelong education by publishing reports, constituting policy outlines and laws /regulations. The efforts of these countries are making the idea of lifelong education a reality, and the bridge connects the idea and reality was the lifelong education policy.Because of the differences in social, economic, and cultural background and in demands of the nation, society and individuals, lifelong education policies varies form country to country. Japan and UK are two countries who are forerunners in lifelong education practice. Lifelong education policy of Japan aims at meeting the people's needs for spiritual enjoyment and self-fulfillment while UK sees lifelong learning as the approach to better vocational skills and stronger economic competitiveness. Japan and UK, therefore, represents the two aspects of value in lifelong education. This paper tries to describe the formation, development and innovation of lifelong education policy in Japan and UK, to find their common ground and differences and analyze the reasons behind, in order to gain beneficial enlightenments for the lifelong education policy making.This paper uses literature analysis as its main methodology. That is found out how lifelong education policies evolved in Japan and UK and the driving forces, aims and strategies of the evolvement by analysis of the lifelong education policy literature. Through the compare, the author concludes that the process of the development of lifelong education policies in a certain country is a process that lifelong education transforms from an idea form to a reality, which means the lifelong education idea conflicts and combines with the demand of the nation, the social foundation, and existing education system continuously. In this process, lifelong education policy in every country will form its own features. In that sense, the development of lifelong education has no universal model, so that the lifelong education policy makers in China should have better investigation into the real needs of the society and individuals, and use the principles of lifelong education as their guide to a policy framework that coherent with the specific situation in China.