In junior high school social studies curriculum guidelines that have been revised recently,
description on private law has been stated for the first time ever.
Private law including the contract concept is not about determining the compliance based on
the existing rules, but it is all about a philosophy that will continue to build the legal relationship
independently based on rational judgment among individuals who have freedom and equality.
This complies with the idea of social studies education that aims to build democratic society
where everyone mutually respects each other’s personalities, achieves social responsibilities, and
judges with justice.
The curriculum development on private law has been focusing on understanding of private law
concept and on problem-solving, however this way does not have a point of view on developmental
stage of children, and does not consider what and how to train private law in each school
education stage such as elementary, junior high and high schools.
While private law education will be enhanced in social studies education in the future, it will
gradually be a challenge to determine what private law (law knowledge) should be educated in
what kind of way at which developmental stage of children. We will also need to discuss in the
future what extent they should know on private law at the graduation stage from high school.
This paper proposes a model of private law education in each school stage of elementary, junior
high and high schools, by utilizing the research results of developmental psychology in recent
years.