Japan Press Weekly

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2012 February 22 - 28 [CIVIL RIGHTS]

Osaka City education board forgoes survey on political beliefs of teachers

The Osaka City Board of Education on February 21 decided to not conduct a survey questioning ideological beliefs of the city’s public school teachers ordered by Osaka City Mayor Hashimoto Toru.

The survey in question has already aroused criticism from the Japanese Communist Party, relevant labor unions, workers’ groups of both the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) and the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), and judicial circles because the survey infringes on the constitutional freedom of thought and conscience.

Yano Hirotoshi, the city’s education board head and a professor at Mukogawa Women’s University, stated, “Our decision result was inevitable.”

He said, “Any survey conducted by municipal authorities should clarify its purpose, how the results would be used, and what consequences would follow from responding to the survey. However, the city government offered no clarification whatsoever.”

The secretary general of a teachers and staff union of nursery, elementary, and junior high schools in the city of Osaka said that the union will demand that the city distroy all the collected data.