Since the late 1980s, school curriculum revisions in Japan have sought to promote capabilities and dispositions that transcend subject boundaries and are often labelled 'competencies' in international curricular discourse. This study examines policy documents over the period, showing how Japanese policymakers have sought to navigate pressures…

Purpose: The article offers a progressive reading of ESD with a teaching example to decolonise SSE despite constraints set by the school system. Design/methodology/approach: The article presents ESD's idea of thought within 'the big picture' of global education. After that, a description of an expert group is given, tasked with developing a…