Japan Press Weekly

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2016 January 13 - 19 [POLITICS]

Move to discourage political education in schools should be prevented

Akahata editorial (excerpt)

The coming summer House of Councilors election will be the first election held after the minimum voting age was lowered from 20 to 18. How high school teachers teach students about politics and their role and responsibility as sovereign citizens has been widely attracting attention. However, Liberal Democratic Party and other conservative lawmakers are putting pressure on political education in schools around the country. Politicians should refrain from trying to discourage teachers’ efforts to raise the political consciousness of students.

An LDP member of the Yamaguchi Prefectural Assembly in an assembly meeting in 2015 took up the topic of a class on the “national security legislation” held by a high school in the prefecture. The lawmaker criticized the teacher in charge of the class for violating the need to maintain political neutrality, and the superintendent of education sided with the LDP lawmaker. However, in reality, the teacher did not impose a particular political opinion on students. Students in the class made presentations on their opinions on the security legislation after studying about political parties’ positions on the issue and cast a vote for the classmate whose opinion they thought was the most convincing. There was no problem concerning political neutrality.

If teachers keep receiving such unfair criticism from politicians and even from education authorities, they will hesitate to touch on political topics, and this would hamper development of political education. Teachers in other prefectures were also found to have received similar interference from politicians.

The current Basic Act on Education stipulates, “The political literacy necessary for sensible citizenship shall be valued in education.” This stipulation was included in the act based on the remorse over the fact that militaristic school education in prewar Japan resulted in having children blindly accept government policies. The act seeks to ensure that children will be able to obtain basic knowledge as well as develop decision-making and critical-thinking abilities regarding politics. Political education is essential to create a democratic society where all citizens as sovereigns actively take part in the political process.

The Education Ministry admits that to discuss topics regarding current political affairs is a good way for students to learn about politics. In many countries, teachers express their political views during classes without imposing their opinions on students. In schools in a democracy, teachers and students should be given the opportunity to freely discuss political and social issues.

Political education in schools has been insufficient under successive LDP governments, and it is often cited as a reason for young people’s indifference to politics. As the 18- and 19-year-olds will soon have the right to vote, promotion of political education is an important task for Japan’s democracy.