Japan Press Weekly

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2015 March 11 - 17 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Osaka education board chief secretary resigns over criticism for his abuse of power

The chief secretary of the Osaka Prefectural Board of Education resigned on March 12 after facing fierce criticism for threatening to dismiss a female board member who opposed the Japan Innovation Party’s education reform plan.

In a board meeting held in September last year, the education board secretariat head, Nakahara Toru, used a threatening remark to force the board member to agree with JIP’s plan to increase the upper limit of the number of children per prefecture-authorized childcare facility.

Following the revelation of the incident, the prefectural government set up a third-party investigation panel consisting of three lawyers. They published a report in February which acknowledges Nakahara’s remark as an illegal act of “power harassment”.

More than 6,000 people signed a petition calling for the resignation of Nakahara. Secretariat heads of Osaka’s 41 local education boards issued a joint statement demanding that the prefecture take a resolute attitude regarding the incident.

While in office, Nakahara pushed forward with neoliberal education reforms in line with policies of the JIP whose advisors are Osaka Governor Matsui Ichiro and Osaka City Mayor Hashimoto Toru. Nakahara tried to implement the JIP’s plan to close down seven public high schools, impose achievement tests on junior high school students, and carry out English study from the first grade of elementary school. The JIP’s plan, however, turned down people’s demand for smaller classes and slashed the number of teachers employed.

Nakahara misused his authority in order to make his opponents obey him. This closely resembles the autocratic style of leadership among other JIP politicians, namely Osaka Mayor Hashimoto.

At an education committee meeting of the prefectural assembly held on March 13, Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Kuchihara Makoto argued that Governor Matsui’s responsibility for appointing Nakahara should be called into question. He said a successor should be of good character and have a higher level of expertise in the field of education.