The purpose of this paper is to clarify the frameworks of Japanese educational thoughts in four different periods: the Meiji era, Taisho democracy, militarism, and the democracy after the war. This paper is a part of a larger research of the comparative study on Japan and China regarding the modern educational thoughts and the practice of school education under the thoughts. The viewpoint of "body education" is asserted by a Japanese scholar Satoshi Higuchi, which has four moments: sensation, expression, skill, and the whole human being. In the Meiji era, the belief that science should be useful was so important that the moments of sensation, expression and skill were emphasized. The moment of the whole human being was observed as the gaze to individual against the state. In Taisho democracy, the four moments had flourished. However, the activities in this period had limitations that mainly focused on fine arts. Even in the time of militarism, sensation, skill and the holistic aspects were emphasized, which supported the state. In the democracy after the war, both for the systematic education and the experiential education, the four moments were observed. It became clear from this paper that the moment of the whole human being was emphasized at any time and then skill was regarded as important in Japanese education. When we think about the education from now on, the skill should be connected with expression, and the moment of sensation should be considered from practical perspectives, not insisting the abstract notion of the whole human being.