This paper describes and analyzes the impact of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) on compulsory education policy in Japan to argue that global actors influence primary and secondary education as well as higher education. The article discusses three impacts on Japanese education. These are: 1) Policies directed towards developing children’s reading skills; 2) The national achievement test initiated in 2007; and 3) the modified national curriculum (Central Educational Council Japan, 2008) that emphasizes the PISA focus on thinking, judging and expressing.