Education ministry seeks to indoctrinate children in patriotism with Kimigayo

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Education ministry seeks to indoctrinate children in patriotism with Kimigayo

It was revealed once again that the government bill to adversely revise the Fundamental Law of Education is to deprive children of freedom of thought and creed in violation of the Constitution.

The Ministry of Education is pushing ahead with the revision of its official guidelines for teachers in conjunction with the revision of the education law.

At a House of Councilors special committee meeting on November 27, Japanese Communist Party representative Inoue Satoshi criticized the education ministry for opposing to replace a part in the current guideline stipulating that "Kimigayo should be taught at all grades" with the phrase that "Children should have appreciation of the beauty of Kimigayo and respect for Japan."

Inoue stressed that this ministry policy to inculcate the belief that Kimigayo is beautiful and that children must respect Japan as an objective to be achieved in compulsory education is state indoctrination.

He pointed out that this policy resembles the prewar education system that had forced children to sing Kimigayo and recite the Imperial Rescript on Education in order to foster blind loyalty to the state.

Inoue reminded Education Minister Ibuki Bunmei that forcing children to have a certain ideology must not be an education goal because it violates freedom of thought and creed stipulated by Article 19 of the Constitution.

He also demanded that the bill to revise the education law be scrapped on the grounds that the bill will cause such a problem.
- Akahata, November 28, 2006