To cope with some social problems, Japanese educational planners are drafting some proposals for research into innovations in the educational system. This paper reports on some research recently done which looked into the relationships of the Japanese educational environment and the reasoning/thinking skills and process skills of students in science. Following a discussion of the different variables investigated, a number of positive correlations are reported. These include findings on very distinct relationships between: (1) measures of students logical thinking and science process skills; (2) students' extent of participation in science activities and their extent of participation in scientific investigation; (3) students' attitudes and their extent of participation in scientific investigation; (4) students' extent of participation in investigation and their feelings about nature; (5) students' attitudes and their extent of participation in science activities; and (6) students' extent of participation in scientific investigation and the measures of their science process skills. (TW)