A Comparative Analysis of Public Opinion on the Role of Government in Education in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan

• In Event: Global Educational Discourses, Policy Diffusion, and National Models in East Asia

Proposal

Introduction
Privatization of education has been globally expanding; in the US, a federal-level law that funds private school voucher programs has been planned to be proposed (Turner, 2025). Similarly, in Japan, private high school tuition voucher programs have been recently introduced in major metropolitan cities, such as Tokyo and Osaka (Fukushima, 2023; Toda, 2023).
Neoliberalism pushed for privatization of education, and an economist, Milton Friedman, particularly influenced the framework that promotes privatization of education. In his essay, “The role of government”, Friedman (1955) argues that the government monopolizes the provision of schools, which impedes the improvement of the quality of schools induced by competition among schools. The role of government is a key concept that has been used to push for privatization of education. As we have seen a wave of privatization of education, understanding the public attitude toward the role of government in education is necessary to deepen our understanding of how people view privatization of education in terms of who should provide education.
Therefore, this paper explores public opinion on the role of government in education and examines what sociodemographic characteristics shape people’s perceptions of the role of government in providing education. This study compares three East Asian societies, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, since East Asia has been experiencing an expansion of privatization of education, accompanied by high household expenditure on education, including private tutoring. The study originally conducted a cross-national analysis that included 34 countries; however, as exploring societal contexts can give a deeper insight, the current study focuses on East Asian societies.
This study is relevant to the CIES 2026 theme“Re-examining Education and Peace in a Divided World”, since it allows us to revisit a core concept of privatization of education in the current time, in which societies are politically and economically divided.
Research Questions
To what extent do sociodemographic characteristics predict the public opinion on the role of the government in providing education in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan?
Theoretical Framework
This study is built on utilitarianism theory in which people are placed differently according to their social standings and they develop an attitude toward policies based on whether they benefit or are disadvantaged from them (Durant & Legge, 2001). Therefore, individuals’ sociodemographic characteristics are the key predictors of their perceptions of the role of the government in education.
Methodology
This study uses an international public opinion survey, ISSP The Role of Government 2016 in which 35 countries participated. Japan, Korea, and Taiwan were the only East Asian societies that participated in this survey.
Analytical Approach
This study employs multinomial logistic regression analysis. Missing observations or observations that included an answer “don’t know” were removed from the dataset with a listwise deletion. After removing missing observations, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan respectively, included 1,425, 1,031, and 1,849 observations.
The outcome variable in this study is the people’s attitude toward the role of the government in education. The variable derives from a questionnaire item that asks respondents which sector they think should be responsible for providing education for children. The answer options include five categories: the government, private companies/for-profit, NPO/charities, religious organizations, and family, relatives, or friends. The explanatory variables are related to sociodemographic characteristics of survey respondents, and the variables include age, sex, education, location, degree of religiosity, and placement.
Preliminary Findings
Descriptive statistics of the outcome variable, education provider, indicate that in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, respectively, 90.04 percent, 82.93 percent, and 87.07 percent of people believe that the government should be responsible for providing education to their children. This pattern is not exceptionally deviant from the average of all study participating countries. On average, 88.48 percent of respondents who participated in this survey from 34 countries believe that the government should be responsible for providing education.
Multinomial logistic regression analysis shows that many explanatory variables in this study are not statistically significant. However, in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, age is constantly a statistically significant predictor that shapes public opinion on the role of the government in education. When comparing “Private and for-profit” to “the Government” as a reference category, in Japan, age and location are statistically significant predictors, and these two are negatively associated with a log odds of believing private and for-profit should be responsible for offering education instead of the government. This result means that people who are older and are in urban areas are more likely to support the government as a responsible education provider. Since opportunities to use private education services are more likely to be found in urban areas, this finding is surprising. However, as prior public opinion research shows that older people are more likely to oppose privatization, the finding partially supports prior findings. The same pattern is also found in Korea and Taiwan. Older people are more likely to believe the government should be responsible for education instead of private companies. Yet, interestingly, in Korea, when comparing “Families/Relatives or Friends” to “the Government” as a reference category, older people are more likely to support families as education providers instead of the government. In sum, the preliminary findings show that age is a significant predictor that shapes the public opinion on the role of the government in education across three East Asian societies.
Study Contribution
Despite the expansion of the privatization of education, public opinion on privatization of education has been understudied. Therefore, this study can fill the literature gap by exploring public opinion on the role of the government in education in three East Asian societies. Furthermore, revisiting a core pillar of the privatization of education; the role of the government in education through exploring public opinion can help us enrich our discussion on where the public stands in terms of their support for privatization of education.

Author

• Hinako Miyazaki, Michigan State University