Japan Press Weekly

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2011 October 19 - 25 [EDUCATION]

Osaka governor uses abusive words toward P.E.N. Club

Osaka Governor Hashimoto Toru on October 17 verbally abused the Japan P.E.N. Club in response to its criticism against the political intervention he is attempting to impose on the public education system.

“The P.E.N. Club is an irresponsible organization. Do you think they can raise our children?” said Hashimoto at a prefectural assembly meeting in answer to Japanese Communist Party representative Kuchihara Makoto, who introduced protests against the governor’s education reform plan raised by various sectors, including the P.E.N. Club.

The governor said angrily, “How many children will be able to become writers and make a living? 99% will be hired by businesses for sure. In Vietnam or Thailand, they are doing the same job as Japanese young people with one tenth or one fifteenth of Japanese wages. Our responsibility is to develop children’s ability to compete with them.”

Osaka’s local party, “Osaka Ishin-no Kai (One Osaka)”, led by Hashimoto has submitted to the prefectural assembly the “fundamental ordinance on education” with the aim to “develop human resources with high competitiveness in international standard.” It proposes to allow the governor to impose an education target on public high schools and dismiss members of the education board who fail to reach the target.

The Japan P.E.N. Club in its statement points out, “Education needs a long-term approach. It is a job to nurture a wide variety of human beings and create a rich society and world.” It warns, “Education is not to control human beings by forcing them to follow a unified rule.”

The ordinance also calls for closure of high schools that are under-enrolled for three consecutive years.

Osaka has the highest high school dropout rate (2.3%) among 47 prefectures in Japan. In FY 2010, 5,191 students dropped out of their high schools in the prefecture.

Calling for withdrawal of the proposed ordinance, JCP member Kuchihara at a prefectural assembly meeting demanded that the Osaka government increase the number of full-time teachers and small-sized classes in public high schools so that they can play a role as a social safety net for students.