The Transformation of Educational Competition in Japan Conceptual Framework and Problems OWAKI Yasuhirc School of Education, Osaka Kyoiku University, Kashiwara, Osaka 582-8582, JAPAN I intend to compose a conceptual framework of educational competition in this paper. Many researchers support the point of view that educational competition in Japan continues severely even today and that to deregulate competition is a policy problem. Diagrammatically, this can be shown as follows: "academic career oriented-society strenuous examination competition unhealthy situation school education plan to deregulate examination competition". However, while the scale of participation in examination competitions big, the degree of selection has become less stringent recently. The examination competition has polarized, so that the strenuous competition has become partial, and competition in general has eased. It is within stage of the "post-examination competition". I have composed a conceptual framework concerning the examination competition for analyzing its historical development and making comparative analysis the foreign countries and Japan. Firstly, I determined the strength of the examination competition by plotting on a graph where the historical axis represents the scale of participation and the vertical axis the degree of difficulty of selection. I then explain the characteristics by analyzing the resulting four quadrants. Secondly, I devised a diagram concerning the regulating factors of the examination competition. Thirdly, I present a hypothesis about the historical development of the examination competition, which I plan to revise after developing my historical analysis. Key Words : educational administration, advansing to higher learning, system sociology high school of education, competition for education, entrance examination