Abstract

Japan has been one of the nations where music education is not grounded on its own indigenous music. The universal slogan that school music education should be based on each country's own music has mainly remained unpracticed here. This essay is to clarify the exing questions raised by the above discussion--why Western music is still the core of public music education in Japan and how this came to be so. I then offer my views on the future of Japanese public music education: how Japanese traditional music should be dealt with in school music education. The responsibility of Japanese music educators might be concerning this issue.