Hito-zukuri: It is Not Just Human Resources Development

This chapter aims to examine and clarify the Japanese concept of hito-zukuri, paying attention to international and internal development policies of the Japanese government. Hito-zukuri has been generally translated as “human resourses development” related to technical cooperation in the context of international development. However, hito-zukuri also includes an element of formal and nonformal moral education to nurture “Japaneseness” both for Japanese youth, especially historically in the postwar high economic growth period, and for people in developing countries through international development and cooperation. Hito-zukuri holds two types education: technological and moral. In hito-zukuri, practitioners see its targets for education not only as technologically but also as morally developing people. Therefore hito-zukuri cannot be translated directly as human resources development without extensive qualification. Moreover, the restriction of hito-zukuri operations to the developing world betrays a stratified perspective on who is in need of moral development, which is problematic given the particular aim of moral education to promote “Japaneseness.”