A Critical Review of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Japan: Beyond the Practice of Pouring New Wine into Old Bottles

Japan stands as a rare country in which ESD has been incorporated as mainstream policy. However, looking back on the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD), ESD has not brought about the transformation in Japan that one expects ESD to aim for, despite this support at the policy level. The cause may be that pouring the “new wine” of ESD into the “old bottle” of the traditional educational system has diluted the dynamism contained in ESD.