The purpose of this study is to review the role of government in the current trends of vocational qualification system for building life learning society in Japan and to provide useful suggestions for the future directions to develop vocational qualification system in Korea.
The vocational education and training system of Japan has been operated on the basis of ministry of education(Munbuso) and ministry of labor(Nodouso)is responsible for human resource development. But there has not been any partnerships between them to operate vocational education and training.
Recently, Japan has been tried to actualize lifelong learning society at large. So ministry of education and ministry labor have supported and developed it's own vocational qualification system toward the lifelong learning society. In relation to that, they begin to take little partnerships and form a loose alliance. This is reason why lifelong learning society needs strong links between general and vocational education, vocational education and vocational training, learning and work.
Nevertheless, Japan's dual vocational qualification system is limited for actualizing lifelong learning society. Korea's vocational education and training system and vocational qualification system are similar with those of Japan. So, it is necessary for us to understand the implications of the current trends of vocational qualification system in Japan to build and develop vocational qualification system toward lifelong learning society.