The purpose of this study is to compare and analyze the social studies of special education curriculum in both Korea and Japan to reveal similarities and differences, and to obtain implications for the future curriculum development. To this end, the basic curriculum of special education in Korea and the special support school curriculum for intellectual disabilities in Japan were analyzed focusing on the identity of the curriculum, social studies-related organization, and the goals and content composition of the social studies in each country. The research results are as follows. First, the identities of the two curricular are similar as an alternative curriculum, but there is also a difference in the relationship between the school level in which social studies are differently organized and related subjects and educational activities. Second, the two curricular are similar, that is, they focus on fostering qualities through awareness of social phenomena and presenting detailed goals centered on competency, but in terms of the quality, the basic curriculum emphasizes learner’s aspect and the intellectual disability curriculum emphasizes national and social aspects. Third, in the two curricular, the contents of social studies are arranged to be deepened and developed according to the school level, and are presented in the form of achievement standards, but there are differences in the characteristics of the content, arrangement of contents, and way of presentation of achievement standards. These results suggest that if the current dual curriculum development system is maintained, in-depth discussions are needed on its organization, nature, goals, and contents of the curriculum in a way that can guarantee the identity of the social studies while considering the universality of the general curriculum and the specificity of the special curriculum.