 Ultra nationalist appointed as board of education member The Saitama Prefectural Assembly on December 20 approved an appointment of the former deputy chairman of a rightist group that praises Japan's past war of aggression to be a member of the prefecture's Board of Education. The Japanese Communist, Democratic, and Komei parties voted against. Takahashi Shiro (Meisei University professor) will be the first former executive of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, the group editing textbooks that distort history by justifying the war of aggression, to get the post in the Board of Education. Since Takahashi's nomination to the Board of Education, criticism has arisen in and outside the prefecture. According to the prefecture's public relations office, most of the 2,274 opinions sent to the prefecture were in opposition to Takahashi sitting on the education panel. In view of such public concern, the JCP demanded that the assembly discuss whether Takahashi is qualified to become a board of education member, but its call was rejected by all assembly members except for the JCP and the DPJ members. In the end, Takahashi's appointment was approved without any examination procedure. The JCP Saitama Prefectural Assembly members group on the same day issued a statement, "Together with experts in education and sensible people, the JCP will continue to do its utmost to promote democratic education in line with the Constitution and the Fundamental Law of Education." (end) |