Yoshioka Kazushi

The purpose of this study is to examine the social background to the boom in school ghost stories in Japan in the 1990s, in the light of the latest psychological research on the paradox of fear. Until now, the reason for children to seek out scary stories has been explained as them overcoming the crisis of adolescence. However, recent psychological research has proposed a coactivation-based model of fear and enjoyment. In the light of this, this study indicates that in contemporary society children are not allowed to enjoy experiencing fear. The study concludes that the school ghost story boom was a result of children being deprived of opportunities to experience fear in their lives.

“Introduction to Lifelong Learning” is a common and compulsory subject required by librarians, curators, and social education directors for certification in Japanese higher education. However, no research has been conducted on the contents of this subject. Thus, this study aims to clarify the knowledge acquired in the subject based on an analysis of index terms in textbooks. The primary results are as follows: (1) this subject is connected to adult and community education; (2) the subject contents depend on the type of certificate; (3) there are few common terms in the indices; (4) indices contain many terms specified in law as well as the names of foreign people; and (5) there are fewer words related to educational administration or learning support than to lifelong education or educational facilities.