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It highlights a nuanced contrast in Japan, where LLE for older adults is premised on social engagement, personal enrichment, and “social education,” alongside structured local initiatives supporting employability and re-employment. The review considers how goals and educational provisions are developed, enacted, engaged with, and evaluated, and concludes Japan does not fully embrace an economic employability imperative.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & 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global imperatives have shaped adults’ lifelong education and learning (LLE)?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"The paper states that neoliberal reforms and an emphasis on employability and economic outcomes have increasingly shaped the purposes and implementation of LLE across countries.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How does Japan’s approach to LLE differ from the general global trend?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Japan is described as focusing LLE—especially for older adults—on social engagement, personal enrichment, and “social education,” rather than wholly centering education on employability imperatives.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What does the paper review about LLE in Japan?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"It reviews how Japan develops, enacts, engages with, and evaluates LLE goals and educational provisions, including structured support for sustaining adult employability and re-employment at the local 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education in Japan  \nAnh Hai Le  \nStephen Billett  \nThe purposes and implementation of adults’ lifelong education (LLE) has been shaped by two imperatives: i) neoliberal reforms and ii) focuses on employability and economic outcomes. This has led to LLE taking similar pathways across many countries, i.e., away from a focus on personal and cultural betterment, to one associated with promoting individual employability. However, policies and practices in Japan offers a nuanced contrast to the general trend. That is, the overall focus on LLE, particularly for older Japanese is premised on social engagement, personal enrichment and often captured in ‘social education’. There is also a focus on sustaining the adult employability, including the re-employment of retirees, in structured ways and tailored to meet their needs and enacted at the local level. This paper reviews the manifestations of LLE in Japan to examine how its goals and educational provisions are being developed, enacted, engaged with and evaluated. Overall, it is suggested that Japan has not wholly embraced the tight economic focus on promoting and supporting LLE associated with employability imperatives. Perhaps through the electoral power of the aged population, the provision of educational experiences is focused on longevity, cultural betterment, further education and reducing the social isolation of older Japanese.  \n32 Anh Hai Le and Stephen Billett  \nKeywords: adult education, lifelong education, employability, Japan, aged population, social education  \nAdult and lifelong education: policy and practice  \nOn 1 September 2021, in launching Adult Learners’Week, the Australian Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business, the Hon.Stuart Robert repeatedly made frequent references to adult education primarily being directed towards the employability of working age Australians.This was no coincidence or exception to the increasingly consistent governmental imperative focusing educational effort on achieving economic goals being its primary objective. Indeed, across countries with both developed and developing modern industrial economies, the purposes and implementation of adults’lifelong education (/LLE) has been increasingly shaped by two imperatives:  \ni) neoliberal reforms and ii) focuses on employability and economic outcomes.This has led to purposes for and processes of LLE taking similar pathways across many countries.Moreover, the origins and distinctiveness of the adult education sector as being that derived from and for members of the adult community premised on their social and economic needs has been eroded as its purposes.That is, moving away from a process on personal and cultural betterment, to one associated with promoting individual employability (Billett & Dymock, 2020). Although, concerns about becoming more employable have long been a purpose of adult education, this has become the primary focus,  \noften ata cost of other purposes.Globally, since the European Year of Lifelong Learning in 1996, and the subsequent two education reports commissioned by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Learning to be, known as the Faure report (1972) and Learning: The treasure within, known as the Delors report (1996), there has been a global push for adult education to be primarily aligned with promoting employability.It emphasised the need for ongoing educational engagement across individuals’working lives for them to remain currently competent and employable (Organisation of Economic and Cultural Development [OECD], 1996), and expectations that working age adults would need to actively contribute through their learning to national economic well-being and be prepared to partially  \nLifelong learning and adult education in Japan 33  \nsponsor their ongoing development themselves.This emphasis is usually ","cbCaimJ6OsdGwXPt","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaimJ6OsdGwXPt","pdf",163206,25,"English","# Adult and lifelong education: policy and practice\n## Purpose and global imperatives shaping LLE\n## The Japanese contrast: social engagement and local implementation\n## Policy initiatives and adult employability support in Japan","[{\"question\":\"What global imperatives have shaped adults’ lifelong education and learning (LLE)?\",\"answer\":\"The paper states that neoliberal reforms and an emphasis on employability and economic outcomes have increasingly shaped the purposes and implementation of LLE across countries.\"},{\"question\":\"How does Japan’s approach to LLE differ from the general global trend?\",\"answer\":\"Japan is described as focusing LLE—especially for older adults—on social engagement, personal enrichment, and “social education,” rather than wholly centering education on employability imperatives.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the paper review about LLE in Japan?\",\"answer\":\"It reviews how Japan develops, enacts, engages with, and evaluates LLE goals and educational provisions, including structured support for sustaining adult employability and re-employment at the local level.\"}]","Lifelong learning and adult education in Japan - Adult and lifelong education: policy and practice | PDF",1792076561,63]