Meritocracy, Motivation, and Inequality in Japanese Education: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective

Introduction

Meritocracy, the belief that educational success should be determined by individual ability and effort, has long been a defining principle of modern education systems. In theory, meritocracy promises fairness and equal opportunity by rewarding persistence, discipline, and achievement rather than social origin. In practice, however, meritocracy often operates within structural conditions that systematically advantage some learners while constraining others, particularly along lines of social class (Brown & Tannock, 2009; Entrich, 2018; Lareau, 2003). Even when reforms are explicitly designed to promote equality, disparities in access to economic, social, and cultural resources tend to persist across generations, limiting the extent to which effort alone can determine educational outcomes (Araki, 2025; Samuell, 2023).

This tension between meritocratic ideals and structural inequality is especially pronounced in Japan. Japanese educational culture has historically emphasised perseverance, self-discipline, and sustained effort as moral virtues closely tied to academic success (Shingleton, 1989). Achievement is widely understood not as a product of innate talent or chance, but as the result of diligence and personal responsibility (Samuell, 2023). Empirical evidence illustrates the depth of this belief: Takeuchi (1995) found that nearly 90% of junior high school students identified effort as the most important factor in passing high school entrance examinations. This reflects a deeply internalised meritocratic ethos in which success is framed primarily as an outcome of individual endeavor rather than structural or familial advantage.

At the same time, sociological research has consistently shown that Japan’s education system has never been fully insulated from inequality. Postwar reforms sought to democratise education through standardisation, centralised curricula, and merit-based examinations. However, households with greater financial, social, and cultural capital have remained better positioned to navigate competitive academic pathways (Kariya, 1985; Kariya & Rappleye, 2020). More recent reforms emphasising creativity, global competence, and differentiated performance have further intensified these disparities, producing what Kariya (2013) terms the incentive divide. This term refers to a growing gap between students who can capitalise on reform initiatives and those who cannot. As a result, meritocracy in Japan risks functioning less as a mechanism of fairness than as a system that legitimises inequality through the rhetoric of effort-based equality (Nakanishi, 2019). This interpretation is consistent with previous scholarship on Japan that critically examines the persistence of educational inequality, particularly in relation to policy reforms and access to resources (e.g., Entrich, 2018; Kariya, 2013)

While these dynamics have been well documented at the structural and policy levels, less attention has been paid to how students experience meritocracy psychologically. Educational success is often framed as a combination of motivation and effort. However, structural inequality raises important questions about whether students are equally supported in their capacity to act autonomously, feel competent, and experience belonging within meritocratic systems. Research in educational psychology suggests that students’ engagement and well-being are closely tied to the satisfaction of these basic psychological needs. This suggests that unequal systems may generate uneven motivational outcomes even when expectations of effort are uniformly applied (Ryan & Deci, 2000; Wang et al., 2024).

To address this gap, this paper adopts Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a conceptual lens for analysing meritocracy in Japanese education. SDT conceptualises motivation as a socially embedded process shaped by the extent to which learning environments support autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Deci & Ryan, 2000, 2012). This framework is particularly well-suited for examining meritocratic systems, which explicitly link effort to outcomes while often obscuring the structural conditions under which motivation is cultivated or constrained. By applying SDT to Japan’s educational context, this paper explores how meritocratic ideals may promote perseverance for some students while undermining intrinsic motivation, engagement, and well-being for others.

This paper is a theoretical and conceptual analysis rather than an empirical investigation. Drawing on existing sociological, psychological, and policy-oriented scholarship, it synthesises research on meritocracy, inequality, and motivation to reconceptualise Japanese education as a motivational system shaped by historical, institutional, and global forces. The paper’s contribution is threefold: first, it extends SDT beyond individual-level explanations by situating psychological needs within structurally unequal educational contexts; second, it reframes meritocracy as a socially conditioned motivational environment rather than a neutral principle of fairness; and third, it offers a conceptual framework for understanding how educational reforms may generate divergent motivational experiences across social groups.

This paper begins by presenting SDT as a framework for understanding motivation in educational systems. It then examines the historical foundations of meritocracy in Japan and its implications for students’ psychological needs. Next, it analyses how neoliberal reforms and globalisation have intensified inequalities in motivational experiences. Finally, it discusses implications for educational policy and practice, advocating a more equitable approach to supporting student motivation and engagement.

Theoretical Framework: Meritocracy and Motivation through Self-Determination Theory

Developed by Deci and Ryan beginning in the 1970s, SDT conceptualises motivation not simply as an individual trait but as a dynamic process profoundly influenced by social, cultural, and institutional contexts (Deci & Ryan, 2000). This makes SDT particularly well-suited for analysing meritocratic systems, which explicitly link individual effort to outcomes while often obscuring the structural conditions under which motivation is produced. Recent research highlights the relevance of SDT for understanding motivation in high-stakes, competitive educational environments similar to Japan’s (Yang et al., 2025).

According to SDT, optimal motivation and psychological well-being depend on the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Autonomy refers to self-endorsement of one’s actions; competence involves feeling effective in interacting with one’s environment; and relatedness concerns a sense of belonging and connection with others. These needs are universal, yet their satisfaction is contingent upon the social environments in which individuals are embedded (Deci & Ryan, 2000, 2012). When educational contexts support these needs, learners are more likely to experience their efforts as self-determined. Conversely, when these needs are frustrated, motivation becomes externally controlled, fragile, or disengaged (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

Meritocratic educational systems, such as that of Japan, are often justified on the assumption that they foster motivation by rewarding effort and perseverance. From an SDT perspective, this emphasis on effort appears to support the need for competence by encouraging students to believe that success is attainable through sustained work. However, SDT complicates this assumption by highlighting how structural inequality conditions the experience of competence. When students repeatedly encounter failure due to unequal access to resources, such as private tutoring or familial cultural capital, their sense of competence may be undermined despite high levels of effort (Samuell, 2023). In such cases, the rhetoric of meritocracy may exacerbate motivational harm by attributing failure to individual deficiency rather than contextual constraint. This dynamic contributes to the individualisation of failure within school contexts (Kariya, 2013).

Meritocratic discourse frames educational success as the result of individual choice and responsibility, implying high levels of autonomy. Yet in highly competitive and examination-driven systems, students’ behaviour is often shaped by intense external pressures, including parental expectations and institutional norms. SDT distinguishes between genuine autonomy and compliance driven by control or fear of failure. When students pursue achievement primarily to avoid negative judgments or social exclusion, their motivation is better understood as controlled rather than autonomous.

The need for relatedness further illuminates how meritocracy can produce unintended motivational consequences. Competitive educational environments that rank and sort students may weaken social connectedness, particularly for those positioned as low achievers. SDT suggests that sustained motivation is difficult to maintain in contexts where individuals feel marginalised or disconnected. In Japan, where academic performance is closely tied to moral evaluations of effort, students who struggle academically may experience not only diminished competence but also compromised relatedness, reinforcing feelings of isolation and exclusion.

SDT may help explain how meritocratic ideals can simultaneously promote perseverance among some students while generating disengagement, anxiety, or withdrawal among others. Crucially, SDT foregrounds the role of context, allowing this paper to move beyond individualistic explanations of success and failure. By integrating SDT with sociological analyses of inequality, this paper reveals how motivational processes are shaped by broader structural forces; in doing so, thereby reinforcing the paper’s central argument that meritocracy in Japanese education functions less as a neutral mechanism of fairness than as a socially conditioned system that differentially supports or frustrates students’ capacity to experience their efforts as genuinely self-determined.

Historical Foundations of Japanese Meritocracy

The postwar reconstruction era marked a pivotal transformation in Japan’s educational system, heavily influenced by American democratic ideals aimed at expanding access and promoting equality (Kariya, 1985). Reforms implemented post-war sought to democratise education, emphasising not only academic outcomes but also cognitive aptitude and potential. These reforms can be seen as an attempt to support students’ competence by establishing clear benchmarks for achievement and promoting measurable academic growth. At the same time, the broader goals of democratisation and standardisation reflect an effort to create educational environments in which all students could experience a sense of efficacy and mastery (Araki, 2025).

A significant outcome of these reforms was the 1958 Educational Standardisation Law, which mandated maximum class sizes and established a national curriculum (Nagai, 1983). These measures were intended to mitigate regional disparities and provide a uniform educational experience. Centralised control over curricula and entrance examinations positioned academic performance as the principal determinant of social mobility. High-stakes exams for both high school and university became the primary gateway to occupational prestige and socioeconomic advancement. While these structures supported competence, SDT highlights that they also constrained autonomy, as students’ educational paths and learning experiences were tightly regulated by externally imposed standards (Kariya, 2013). Analyses of postwar standardisation in Japan further emphasise how centralised curricula and examination systems reinforced uniformity while limiting student agency (Entrich, 2018; Nagai, 1983).

Aizawa’s (2005) historical analysis of English language education from 1957 to 1969 illustrates how meritocratic ideals were operationalised in pedagogy. Teachers were expected not only to impart academic content but also to instill a moral ethos consistent with meritocratic principles, conflating scholastic achievement with moral virtue. While this moral framing reinforced effort and perseverance, it had complex implications. For example, students who struggled to meet standardised benchmarks often felt socially marginalised, weakening peer connections and reinforcing classroom hierarchies. The prioritisation of testable knowledge and linguistic precision demonstrates how well-intentioned meritocratic reforms could inadvertently undermine the psychological needs central to motivation and engagement.

Despite the system’s nominal commitment to meritocracy, Japanese education continued to privilege students with the resources and cultural capital necessary to navigate a competitive and rigorous structure. According to Kariya and Rappleye (2020), early postwar reforms, though egalitarian in intention, largely failed to address deep-seated social inequities. Recent research emphasises that socioeconomic status continues to shape educational attainment and aspirations in ways that policy has struggled to redress in Japan (Matsuoka, 2019). While advantaged students could experience competence, autonomy, and relatedness, disadvantaged students were often denied these needs, experiencing external control, repeated failure, and social isolation.

The Rise of the Divide

Beginning in the 1990s, a new wave of educational reform sought to cultivate individuality, creativity, and global competence among Japanese students. These reforms represented a marked departure from the rigid standardisation that had characterised the postwar education system. Influenced by broader neoliberal trends, these reforms emphasised market logic, competition, and differentiation, assuming that students would be more motivated by external incentives and performance-based rewards.

While the policies rhetorically promoted autonomy by encouraging creativity and self-directed learning, the simultaneous intensification of competition often shifted students’ motivation toward controlled rather than self-determined behaviours (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000). Students were compelled to pursue achievement primarily to meet institutional expectations and parental pressures, rather than intrinsic interest or personal growth. Consequently, the reforms may have undermined autonomy for many, even as they appeared to valorise it.

The rhetoric of fairness and opportunity masked a reality in which access to educational success became increasingly stratified along class lines. According to Brown and Tannock (2009), reforms grounded in global competitiveness often reinforce social stratification. This is particularly relevant in systems, such as Japan, where educational credentials serve as gateways to employment and social mobility. In Japan, where admission to prestigious universities remains fiercely competitive, an overemphasis on elite pathways and global skills risked disrupting students’ sense of competence. Those with access to financial, social, and cultural capital are better positioned to meet these new demands, enhancing their self-efficacy, while disadvantaged students frequently struggle, experiencing repeated failure and diminished confidence.

This paradigm also impacted relatedness, a central SDT need. Heightened competition and differentiation fostered social hierarchies and peer comparison, isolating students who could not access the same resources or achieve the same outcomes. Households with greater capital could leverage school choice, elite institutions, and supplemental education such as cram schools and private tutoring, further reinforcing connections and networks among advantaged students, while leaving others socially and academically marginalised (Kariya, 2013).

These dynamics can be illustrated through the role of juku (private cram schools) in Japan. Students from higher-income households are significantly more likely to attend juku, where they receive additional exam preparation, personalised instruction, and strategic guidance for navigating competitive entrance systems (Entrich, 2018). These environments can enhance students’ sense of competence through structured academic support, while also reinforcing relatedness through peer networks of similarly advantaged students. In contrast, students without access to these resources may experience repeated academic difficulty despite sustained effort. This may undermine their sense of competence and increase their reliance on controlled forms of motivation. This divergence highlights how access to supplementary education contributes to the incentive divide (Kariya, 2013).

While such dynamics are not unique to Japan, similar patterns have been observed in other highly competitive education systems, such as South Korea, where shadow education and high-stakes examinations likewise amplify socioeconomic disparities (Choi & Park, 2016; Ku et al., 2024). However, according to Matsuoka (2019), Japan’s strong cultural emphasis on effort and the moral evaluation of achievement may intensify the psychological consequences of these inequalities.

The rhetoric of meritocracy perpetuates the illusion that academic success is solely a function of effort, obscuring the structural conditions that impede self-determination for underprivileged students. Nakanishi (2019) reinforces this critique, arguing that meritocracy in Japanese higher education is largely a myth, with systemic inequalities deeply embedded in institutional structures. While some students’ psychological needs are supported, others experience frustration across competence, autonomy, and relatedness, with detrimental effects on motivation, engagement, and well-being.

Meritocracy in a Globalised Context

Globalisation has introduced additional layers of complexity into Japan’s education system. As Brown and Tannock (2009) argue, education policy worldwide has increasingly been reframed in terms of global competitiveness and talent cultivation, positioning education as a key asset for maintaining international standing in the knowledge economy. Recent studies suggest that global pressures often intensify existing inequalities by privileging students with greater access to resources and support (Araki, 2025; Wang et al., 2024; Yang et al., 2025). This global meritocratic discourse heightens the focus on measurable performance, credentials, and employability, shaping the extent to which students’ psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness are supported. For some students, access to resources enables mastery and self-efficacy, whereas for others, these same pressures can undermine motivation and engagement (Samuell, 2023).

Japan’s engagement with globalisation has further complicated internal educational dynamics. According to Kariya and Rappleye (2020), the country’s response has been marked by ambivalence. Initiatives such as curriculum internationalisation, expanded English instruction, and promotion of overseas study frequently clash with Japanese cultural norms and institutional inertia. While these reforms promote autonomy by encouraging creativity and global perspectives, the externally mandated nature of the policies often results in controlled motivation. This leaves students with limited agency over how they meet new expectations. Similarly, the focus on elite global skills enhances competence for advantaged students while disadvantaging those with fewer resources. Relatedness is also affected, as competitive differentiation fosters social hierarchies and limits the sense of connection among peers.

In response to domestic and global pressures, policymakers have launched a series of reforms to foster creativity, critical thinking, and global competence. Programs such as the Super Global High School initiative (Shimojima, 2020), the Global 30 Project (Hollenback, 2019), and the Top Global University Project (Smith & Colpitts, 2022), along with ongoing revisions to university entrance examinations, reflect an effort to move beyond rote learning and narrow benchmarks. While these initiatives aim to enhance autonomy and competence, their benefits are often unevenly distributed, favoring students with prior preparation and access to supplementary education.

Implications for Japan

Understanding meritocracy as a socially conditioned motivational system has important implications for educational policy and practice in Japan. While meritocratic principles have long emphasised effort, perseverance, and individual responsibility, this analysis suggests that such ideals can only function equitably when the institutional conditions necessary for supporting students’ psychological needs are in place. From an SDT perspective, policies that prioritise competition and differentiation without addressing structural inequality risk undermining autonomy, competence, and relatedness for substantial segments of the student population.

At the policy level, this framework highlights the limitations of reforms that rely primarily on performance-based incentives and standardised evaluation as mechanisms for fairness. When access to academic success is mediated by unequal financial, social, and cultural resources, students’ opportunities to experience competence are unevenly distributed. Conceptually, this suggests that meritocratic systems require complementary equity-oriented policies, including reduced dependence on supplemental education, expanded access to academic support within public institutions, and the development of multiple, socially valued pathways to success beyond narrow credential hierarchies.

From a curricular and pedagogical perspective, the analysis underscores the importance of learning environments that support students’ sense of autonomy. Although recent reforms rhetorically promote creativity and self-directed learning, externally imposed expectations and high-stakes evaluation often constrain students’ actual agency. An SDT-informed perspective suggests that autonomy is more likely to be supported when students are provided with meaningful choices, transparent rationales for learning activities, and opportunities to connect academic tasks to personal and social relevance. These practices are particularly important in meritocratic contexts, where compliance and fear of failure can easily replace self-determined engagement.

The need for competence further highlights the motivational consequences of persistent inequality. When students’ sustained effort fails to produce success due to structural barriers, repeated experiences of failure may erode self-efficacy and engagement. Conceptually, this points to the importance of instructional practices and assessment systems that emphasise mastery, formative feedback, and incremental progress rather than solely comparative ranking. Supporting competence in this way does not weaken meritocratic standards but instead aligns them more closely with students’ psychological capacity to persist meaningfully.

Relatedness represents a critical yet often overlooked dimension of meritocratic reform. Competitive sorting and hierarchical differentiation can weaken students’ sense of belonging, particularly for those positioned as low achievers. This framework suggests that fostering collaborative learning, peer support, and inclusive classroom cultures is not merely a social add-on but a foundational condition for sustained motivation. In educational contexts such as Japan, where academic performance carries moral and social significance, supporting relatedness may be especially important for mitigating disengagement and isolation.

These implications do not call for the abandonment of meritocratic ideals, but for their rearticulation. A meritocratic system that fails to support autonomy, competence, and relatedness risks reproducing inequality under the guise of fairness. By contrast, an SDT-informed approach offers a conceptual foundation for designing policies and practices that recognise effort as a socially supported process rather than an individual moral burden. Such a reorientation is essential if Japanese education is to reconcile its cultural commitment to effort with the goal of equitable and inclusive educational engagement.

Conclusion

This paper has argued that meritocracy in Japanese education cannot be understood solely as an ethical ideal or a neutral mechanism of fairness, but rather as a socially and institutionally conditioned motivational system. While meritocratic discourse emphasises effort, perseverance, and individual responsibility, these values operate within educational structures that differentially support students’ psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. By applying SDT as a conceptual lens, this analysis highlights how historical reforms, neoliberal policy shifts, and globalisation have shaped the motivational environments in which students pursue academic success.

From an SDT perspective, meritocratic systems may foster persistence and self-determined engagement for students who possess the financial, social, and cultural resources necessary to navigate competitive pathways. For others, however, repeated exposure to structural constraints can undermine feelings of competence, reduce autonomy through externally imposed pressures, and weaken relatedness by reinforcing social hierarchies and marginalisation. In this way, meritocracy functions not as a universal engine of motivation, but as a mechanism that simultaneously enables and constrains students’ capacity to experience their efforts as meaningful and self-endorsed.

These insights carry important implications for educational policy and practice in Japan. Efforts to promote fairness through competition, standardisation, or global differentiation must be accompanied by deliberate attention to students’ basic psychological needs. Policies that reduce reliance on supplemental education, diversify pathways to success, and foster supportive learning environments may better align meritocratic ideals with equitable motivational outcomes. At the pedagogical level, educators play a critical role in creating classroom contexts that support autonomy, affirm competence, and cultivate meaningful social connections for all learners.

As a conceptual study, this paper does not seek to provide empirical generalization. Rather, it aims to offer a theoretical framework that can inform future research. Empirical studies examining how students from different social backgrounds experience autonomy, competence, and relatedness within meritocratic settings would further illuminate the processes outlined here. Ultimately, rethinking meritocracy through the lens of SDT invites a shift from viewing effort as an individual moral obligation toward recognising motivation as a socially supported capacity. Such a reframing is essential for moving Japanese education closer to the ideal of a genuinely inclusive system in which effort and ability can be meaningfully recognised regardless of social background.

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Article copyright Adam Crosby.

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