Dead girl's parents want killer to repent / 10-12-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The parents of a 7-year-old Nara girl who was kidnapped and murdered almost two years ago said in a written statement issued to the press Wednesday that they wanted her killer to show remorse for his actions.

"We don't want [Kaoru] Kobayashi to apologize because it won't bring Kaede back," they said. "We want Kobayashi to feel remorse for his crime before he is executed and to feel our anguish."

According to the police, Shigeki Ariyama, 32, and his wife Eri, 30, handed the statement to investigators in charge of the case Wednesday morning. They said Kobayashi had not directly apologized to them.

Kobayashi, 37, was sentenced to death by the Nara District Court last month and withdrew his appeal to the Osaka High Court on Tuesday.

Baby's life saved by family court's quick response / 10-24-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Osaka Family Court only took about a week to approve a request from a child consultation center last year to suspend the parental authority of a couple who refused on religions grounds to let their newborn baby receive a brain operation, it was learned recently.

A doctor at the hospital where the baby was born was temporarily named the child's legal guardian and performed the operation.

After the successful operation, the child consultation center withdrew its court application and parental authority was returned to the baby's parents, who are now raising the child.

It usually takes several months for a family court to approve the suspension of parental authority after a request is filed, and it was a rare case for a family court to make such a decision in only a week.

The fact that the doctor expressed a willingness to take guardianship of the baby helped the court reach its decision quickly.

According to sources, the baby was born last year in the Kansai region with a brain abnormality. The parents continuously refused operations and tried to take the baby home, saying, "You can't operate on a body loaned from god."

As medical treatment for children requires parental consent, the hospital contacted a child consultation center in Osaka Prefecture, claiming the parents' stance constituted child neglect.

(Oct. 24, 2006)

National go

Couple held after boy dies of starvation / 10-24-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A 28-year-old man and his common-law wife of Nagaokakyo, Kyoto Prefecture, were arrested early Monday on suspicion of starving the man's 3-year-old son to death, police said.

Mukomachi Police Station arrested Takamasa Sasaki, 28, who works in the trucking business, and Tomoko Nishimura, 39, who lives with him.

The police searched their home Monday morning.

According to the police, the couple did not give Sasaki's son, Takumu, sufficient food, resulting in his death Saturday night due to starvation. He weighed only seven kilograms and had several bruises on his face.

Nishimura told the police that the boy still needed diapers so she had disciplined him through beatings and by withholding food since mid-September.

Sasaki told the police that although he warned Nishimura that such treatment would kill the boy, she did not listen.

Nishimura rarely fed the boy between Sept. 21 to 28, and afterward provided only a light meal once every four or five days, as a result of which the boy become too weak to walk.

The boy's 6-year-old sister was picked up by the police in late March when she was found walking near her home before dawn. As she had bruises on her face, the police reported the case to the prefectural child consulting center in Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto.

(Oct. 24, 2006)

Father didn't want to 'spoil' starved son / 10-25-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A 28-year-old man arrested Monday on suspicion of starving his 3-year-old son to death told police he limited contact with his children because he did not want to spoil them, it was learned Tuesday.

After noticing his son's weakened condition, Takamasa Sasaki of Nagaokakyo, Kyoto Prefecture, reportedly claimed to have warned his common-law wife, Tomoko Nishimura, 39, who was also arrested on a similar allegation, that the boy might die if she continued to neglect him. However, Sasaki never sought medical care for his son, Takumu.

Mukomachi Police Station of the Kyoto prefectural police suspects the father totally abandoned his child-rearing responsibilities.

According to the police, Sasaki, who works in the trucking industry, typically left home at about 7 a.m. and came home at about 11 p.m., leaving all household duties to Nishimura.

Sasaki said Takumu's 6-year-old sister, who is in protective custody at a child consulting center, was sent to the center because he had spoiled her.

In September, Sasaki and Nishimura decided to begin withholding food from Takumu as a form of "potty training." Although Takumu grew weaker, Sasaki ignored his condition. About a week before Takumu died, he warned Nishimura that such treatment would kill the boy, but reportedly made no further efforts to remedy the situation.

(Oct. 25, 2006)

Student forced to dye hair gets settlement / 10-27-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A female high school student reached a court-mediated settlement with the Miyagi prefectural government Wednesday at the Sendai District Court over her complaint that teachers at the prefectural high school that she previously attended forced her to dye her naturally chestnut-colored hair black.

The prefectural government has apologized to her for having lacked educational consideration and will pay a settlement of 500,000 yen. The student, 17, claimed the actions of the teachers infringed on her human rights.

(Oct. 27, 2006)

Volunteer held in abduction of schoolboys / 10-29-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

YOKOHAMA--A 24-year-old volunteer at a primary school in Yokohama has been arrested on suspicion of abducting two boys from the school for about 20 hours, police said.

The police said Hidenori Sugiyama, a volunteer assistant at Hazawa Primary School in Kanagawa Ward, took an 11-year-old boy and his 8-year-old brother out of the school at about 3 p.m. Thursday and returned them at 10:50 a.m. Friday. Sugiyama was in charge of the elder boy's class. The police quoted Sugiyama as saying he wanted to be with them as they "were cute."

The Yokohama city government introduced a volunteer assistant program as part of a campaign to make schools more open to local communities. Under the program, local people and those who want to become teachers assist homeroom teachers by attending book-reading sessions and taking part in club activities.

The police said Sugiyama took the brothers out in a rental car and drove them around Yokohama and Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture. Sugiyama booked a hotel near JR Yokohama Station on Thursday night under a false name and stayed there overnight with the boys. The boys were not hurt, the police said.

About a week ago, Sugiyama took the brothers to a game arcade for about three hours and was warned by their mother not to take them out again, according to the police.

(Oct. 29, 2006)

Teacher suspended for molesting disabled girl / 11-1-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A 49-year-old male teacher at a school for disabled children in Osaka Prefecture has admitted to having molested a 16-year-old female student on Oct. 25, it was learned Tuesday.

The Osaka prefectural board of education is expected to punish the teacher after investigating the case.

According to the school, the teacher allegedly pressed himself against the first-year high school student and forced his hand inside her sweat pants in a classroom at the end of a class shortly after noon on Oct. 25.

The incident came to light after the student informed a school nurse. When the school's principal questioned the teacher, he admitted the allegation and said that he regretted his actions.

(Nov. 1, 2006)

Student arrested after 5th-grade girl molested / 11-16-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A 16-year-old high school student was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of molesting a fifth-grade primary school girl last month in Katsushika Ward, Tokyo, police said.

More than 10 indecent assaults on girls aged 7-12 have been reported in the ward and neighboring Edogawa Ward since August. The police are investigating whether the student had any connection with these cases, as he allegedly suggested that he had molested more than 10 girls.

He is believed to have threatened one 11-year-old girl at the bicycle parking area of a Tokyo metropolitan housing complex in Katsushika Ward around 1 p.m. on Oct. 22, saying that he had a knife with him, the police said. He is then alleged to have touched her in an inappropriate manner.

Child-welfare volunteer not told of murder suspect's past / 11-17-06

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

DAISEN, Akita Prefecture--The municipal welfare office here failed to inform a child-welfare volunteer about child abuse committed by a mother who was later arrested on suspicion of murdering her 4-year-old son, sources said. An official at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said that although the Daisen welfare office was under no legal obligation to inform the government-commissioned volunteer about the mother's history, it should have at least said, "The boy must be watched over very carefully." In July 2004, a child consultation center in Akita Prefecture found that the mother, Mika Shindo, now 31, was abusing her son, Ryosuke, and trying to make him take sleeping pills. The center concluded, "If the boy continues to be abused, his life could be at risk." The center temporarily separated Shindo from Ryosuke. At the end of last year, the mother and the son moved into the home of her 50-year-old common-law husband in Daisen. In February this year, officials of the Daisen municipal welfare office who were informed about Shindo's history told the nursery school Ryosuke was attending "to pay attention to the boy's condition, especially his body (for bruises.)" However, the welfare office did not explain the situation to the child-welfare volunteer, 69, in charge of the district. In Katagami in the prefecture, where the mother and son had once lived, the municipal welfare office asked a community volunteer in charge to check for any changes in the boy's condition, sources said. An official at the Daisen welfare office said decisions to inform commissioned volunteers about a mother's past are made on a case-by-case basis. "We figured that informing the fact to the nursery school was enough," the official said. "We were told that Shindo had stopped abusing her son. We did not see any signs of abuse against Ryosuke afterward, and there was no problem in our judgment." Shindo and her 43-year-old boyfriend, Hiroshi Hatakeyama, were arrested Monday on suspicion of murdering Ryosuke. They allegedly beat Ryosuke in a car on Oct. 23 and dumped the unconscious boy in an irrigation ditch where he died. The two have admitted to the allegations, saying they became violent after Ryosuke grew cranky, police said.(IHT/Asahi: November 17,2006)

Knife-wielding teacher reassigned to victims' class / 11-22-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A teacher who threatened three of his students with a knife in June last year was allowed to return to his Takehara, Hiroshima Prefecture, school in March to teach the same students, it has been learned.

The 46-year-old teacher at the joint Primary-Middle School received a three-month suspension for pulling the knife on the three boys, but was allowed to return on a trial basis, where he was assigned to teach the same class.

After the boys saw him on his first day back, they complained of diarrhea and other problems, triggering protests to the school by their parents. The teacher's trial return was canceled.

The city's board of education decided not to let the educator return to his job and has issued an apology, saying, "We didn't give the matter sufficient consideration."

The teacher had been suspended since August last year, after he was found guilty of having brandished a knife being used in class at the three boys, who would not stop arguing despite being warned, according to the prefectural board of education.

The city board of education had planned a one-week trial period in late March to observe the teacher, who was to teach the same class at the same school.

Due to the psychological trauma of the incident, one of the boys is regularly seeing a psychiatrist. "Sometimes he has dreams in which he's being stabbed," his mother said.

I don't want his wounds opened any further."

"The teacher has not returned to work, and we are currently considering other options, including transferring him to another school," the city board of education said.

Youth gets 12 yrs for killing teacher / 10-20-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Osaka District Court on Thursday sentenced an 18-year-old boy to 12 years in prison for murdering a teacher and injuring two other people at a primary school in Neyagawa, Osaka Prefecture, in February last year.

The focus of the trial was what type of punishment would be imposed on the man, who was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder, which inhibits a person's ability to socialize with others and communicate in general.

Presiding Judge Nobuyuki Yokota sentenced the youth, who was a graduate of the school, saying there were no extenuating circumstances that would mitigate the maliciousness of his crime.

The defendant, who was 17 years old at the time of the attack, entered Chuo Primary School at about 3 p.m. on Feb. 14, 2005, armed with a knife. He asked Michiaki Kamosaki, a 52-year-old teacher at the school, where the faculty room was and then stabbed him as the teacher escorted him to the room. The youth later stabbed two others in the room.

Yokota said, "It was an extremely malicious act, and the bereaved family members have demanded that the boy should be punished."

However, he added, "The incident has had a considerable impact on society, but there are circumstances, including the youth's peculiar mental state, that should be taken into consideration."

The prosecutors, who sought life imprisonment for the youth, plan to appeal the case to a higher court, while the defense counsel is also considering an appeal.

Concerning the prospects for the youth's rehabilitation, Yokota said: "I hope the youth receives individual treatment at juvenile prison, and I sincerely hope he will feel from the bottom of his heart the seriousness of the crime and the anguish that he inflicted on the bereaved family members."

Yokota examined the relationship between pervasive developmental disorder and the crime, saying, "The youth has felt like a victim since childhood due to his difficulties with social interaction and had a fantasy of stabbing someone.

"However, he tried to adapt to society in his own way and suffered stress as a result of his efforts. He soon developed mental emptiness, became obsessed with stabbing and committed a crime due to this persistent impulse, which is a distinct symptom of the disorder."

But Yokota also pointed out that pervasive development disorder is not associated with criminal behavior, adding that many people with the disorder lead normal lives.

He acknowledged the boy's intent to kill and capacity to take responsibility for his actions based on the nature of his crime and the results of psychiatric tests.

The defense counsel had asked the court to send the boy back to a family court, claiming that because the boy suffered from the disorder, he should be treated at a juvenile reformatory.

However, Yokota said, "There's no specific established treatment for pervasive development disorder, and probation is not enough for the youth to improve his interpersonal relationships after he passes school age."

He also said juvenile prisons have changed and now can provide individual treatment for prisoners.

Yokota further claimed the boy's level of responsibility could not be considered equal to that of an adult because his ability to control his behavior had diminished due to his disorder.

Addressing the boy's rehabilitation, Yokota recommended that an instructor with experience working at a juvenile reformatory draw up an individual plan for the boy.

Teen sentenced in fatal arson / Boy sentenced to custody at reformatory for torching own home / 10-27-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Nara Family Court on Thursday sentenced a 16-year-old boy to custody at a juvenile reformatory for a for killing his stepmother, brother and sister by burning down his family's house in Tawaramotocho, Nara Prefecture, in June.

Presiding Judge Hiroichi Ishida acknowledged that the boy had caused the deaths of his family members, but said his intent to kill was not strong.

Ishida said: "The physical abuse the boy suffered from his father is a factor in his delinquency, and his behavior suggests pervasive developmental disorder. Therefore, the boy is likely to be rehabilitated, and his behavior will improve by being placed in protective custody."

Ishida added that it would be necessary to keep the youth in custody for "a considerably long time."

According to the juvenile trial, the former first-grade high school student spread oil over the kitchen on the first floor of his home and other places at about 5 a.m. on June 20 and set fire to an area near the stairs on the first floor using an oil-soaked towel. The 140-square-meter, two-story wooden house burned down, and his stepmother, 38, brother, 7, and sister, 5, who were sleeping on the second floor, died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Ishida said the boy must have known that his family members likely would die in the blaze since the fire was set near the stairs, blocking an escape route.

However, the judge took into consideration the abuse the boy had suffered at the hands of his father, saying that it was not appropriate to put the blame only on him.

Ishida said the boy, in principle, should be sent back to prosecutors for a criminal trial, considering the impact the crime had on society. However, he said the boy's murderous intent was neither premeditated nor completely involuntary, adding that the boy decided to set the fire to escape his father's violent acts over a long period of time.

Ishida also said the boy had regularly apologized to the three victims before going to bed each night at a juvenile classification center, and the bereaved family--his father in this case--was not seeking severe punishment for the boy.

Consequently, he concluded that individual instruction at a juvenile reformatory to treat pervasive developmental disorder would be appropriate for the boy.

The Nara District Public Prosecutors Office sent the boy to the family court, suspecting he may have intended to commit murder. However, a psychiatric test conducted by the family court revealed that the boy had become depressed due to his father's violence and suffered pervasive developmental disorder, which can cause an obsessive focus on one thing.

The boy's lawyer insisted he did not intend to murder his family members, adding that he should receive treatment at a specialized rehabilitation facility.

Tsuyoshi Hamada, a lawyer for the boy, said the court's decision appropriately acknowledged the boy's potential for rehabilitation.

Hisako Nishiura, deputy chief prosecutor at the public prosecutors office, said it was regrettable the prosecutors' petition was not reflected in the decision because the incident had a tremendous social impact.

She said the prosecutors office would examine whether to file a complaint against the decision by Nov. 9 after a discussion with the high public prosecutors office.

(Oct. 27, 2006)

Nara police probe bullying at school / 10-09-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Police in Kashihara, Nara Prefecture, are investigating as a case of suspected assault the bullying of a 13-year-old boy, which started when he began middle school five months ago and has been so severe that the boy has become severely depressed, it has been learned.

According to the school and other sources, the boy was verbally abused daily by a dozen students, or more than half his class. Besides calling him "disgusting" and "stinky," they threw stones at him.

In early September, the boy started receiving text messages on his mobile phone three times a week that said he was "hated by everyone" and was "terrible."

Later that month, the boy stopped going to school after being told by a fellow student to stop attending school, and that he should "die."

Child suicides prompt probe into bullying / 10-17-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Student suicides in Hokkaido and Fukuoka Prefecture have prompted the Education, Science and Technology Ministry to conduct an emergency survey on bullying at all primary, middle and high schools across the country, ministry sources said Monday.

The ministry will, as early as this week, ask prefectural education boards, and private and national schools to conduct the survey, the sources said.

During the next academic year, the ministry will join forces with the police and other authorities to establish a system aimed at preventing student suicides, which will include a manual for teachers.

The ministry conducts a survey on bullying, suicide and truancy at public primary, middle and high schools every year.

According to the findings released in September, there were 105 student suicides in academic year 2005, a sharp fall from the peak of 380 in 1979, but since the survey did not list suicides caused by bullying, some experts said it did not reflect the changing situation in schools.

For example, a sixth-year primary school girl student who hung herself at her school in Takikawa, Hokkaido, in September last year, said in her suicide note that she had been bullied.

The Takikawa Board of Education released the note, but covered up the parts mentioning bullying. Initially, the board did not even acknowledge the bullying to the girl's family.

As such, the ministry believes the findings made public in September indicated that either the education boards did not have an overall picture of the situation or some of them intentionally failed to report bullying-related suicides.

The ministry will ask each education board to thoroughly investigate bullying occurring at schools.

The survey will also target state-run schools affiliated with national universities and private schools to get an overall picture.

In the next academic year, the ministry also plans to contact relevant organizations, including the police, to obtain more accurate suicide figures.

The survey will be conducted at all public, private and national primary, middle and high schools and will analyze each case to figure out the causes and enable discussions aimed at mapping out preventive measures.

The ministry has invited experts to discuss how to prevent student suicides and also plans to compile a manual listing concrete measures that can be taken to deal with students who have tacitly expressed an intention to commit suicide, and to detect signs that a child may be suicidal.

A 13-year-old male second-year middle school student in Chikuzenmachi, Fukuoka Prefecture, recently committed suicide, which was said to have been triggered by remarks by a male homeroom teacher a year prior.

The ministry will ask prefectural governments to gather city, town and village education board officials for an emergency meeting, as well as check student guidance methods.

Bullying leads Yamanashi teen to attempt suicide / 10-20-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A female second-year student at a Yamanashi prefectural high school allegedly tried to commit suicide on Oct. 6, saying she was bullied by her classmates.

She took a large amount of tranquilizers, but has recovered. She has been absent from school since the suicide attempt.

The prefectural board of education confirmed that a classmate posted defamatory messages on the student's blog and acknowledged that she had been bullied.

According to the board of education, a classmate had been posting defamatory messages on the blog intermittently since spring. She also received cell phone e-mails from several female students telling her she should quit school.

The student had complained of being bullied on the blog and in cell phone e-mails to her friends.

New rules eyed to get teachers to cut bullying / 10-28-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A spate of suicides committed by children and students suffering from bullying prompted the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education to announce a review on Thursday of the disciplinary procedures for teachers, which would allow those involved in bullying students to be fired.

The decision to rethink the maximum permissible punishment follows the recent revelation that a homeroom teacher's inappropriate remarks may have led to the suicide of a middle school student in Fukuoka Prefecture. The board hopes that allowing for the option of a more severe reprimand will help change the attitude that many teachers have toward bullying.

(Oct. 28, 2006)

Bullying, school subjects to top committee agenda / 10-30-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The issue of bullying and the recent revelation that some high schools have failed to teach compulsory subjects will likely be the main topics for discussion at a special committee meeting to be held after the Diet resumes discussions on a bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education on Monday.

However, opposition parties are expected to fiercely oppose changes, while the ruling bloc, in the hope of passing the bill during the current Diet session, is trying to set a date for a public hearing--a premise for voting on the bill.

On Monday, members of the special committee on the basic education law will hold a six-hour meeting to be attended by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

About 50 hours were spent discussing the bill during the previous ordinary Diet session.

After a senior Liberal Democratic Party member said lawmakers had already amply discussed the bill's most important points, others within the government and the ruling parties have voiced similar opinions.

Several issues related to school administration have recently come to prominence such as a spate of bullying--including some cases in which students have committed suicide--and a large number of high schools failing to teach their students compulsory subjects. Therefore, the committee is expected to focus on school administration.

Hoping the bill will be passed during the current Diet session, the government and the ruling bloc aim to have it passed by the House of Representatives in early November. However, the bill is expected to face resistance from the Democratic Party of Japan and the other opposition parties.

The opposition parties also will likely question recent comments made by Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hakubun Shimomura on "comfort women" on the grounds that his views indicate disunity in Abe's Cabinet.

On Wednesday, Shimomura said it was necessary to review the relevance of historical facts that led the government in 1993 to issue the statement, in which then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono officially acknowledged the Imperial Japanese Army forced women from the Korean Peninsula and elsewhere into sexual slavery for soldiers.

Abe said earlier this month that he accepted the statement.

The ruling parties have secured more than 70 hours of deliberation time for the committee discussions starting Monday, including time spent on it during the previous Diet session. A hearing will be initiated on Nov. 6 or later, with the hope of having the bill passed by the lower house on Nov. 10.

However, the opposition parties believe discussions on the bill will require more than 100 hours in the lower house, as was the case in the postal privatization bill.

Therefore, if the bullying and high school issues become complicated, it may delay the lower house's passing of the bill.

On top of this, the Fukushima Prefecture gubernatorial election, due to the resignation of former Gov. Eisaku Sato, and the Okinawa Prefectural governor race--in which the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan is seen as pivotal--will be held on Nov. 12 and 19, respectively.

In both gubernatorial races, a fierce battle is expected between the LDP and DPJ, and other parties, posing the question of whether the bill can be passed purely by the force of the ruling bloc.

If voting on the bill takes place after mid-November, it is feared there might be proposals aimed at extending the current Diet session.

As for a set of bills aimed at upgrading the status of the Defense Agency to a ministry, the DPJ has indicated that it will not oppose the content, which makes it more likely the bills will be passed during the current session.

However, DPJ members boycotted a meeting of the House of Representatives Security Committee on Friday, saying answers given during an intensive discussion on bid-rigging cases in the Defense Facilities Administration Agency were insufficient. DPJ members have also been calling for prudent and adequate discussions, leaving the fate of the bills uncertain.

(Oct. 30, 2006)

Suicide-bid coma girl loses life / 11-01-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A 15-year-old girl who had been in a coma after reportedly hanging herself Sunday in her high school in the northern part of Nagasaki Prefecture, died in hospital early Tuesday.

According to investigators, the girl left a brass band practice session telling friends she was going to the restroom at about 2:40 p.m. on Sunday.

About 15 minutes later she was discovered hanged in a restroom cubicle from a rubber hose tied to the upper section of the door.

The girl was reportedly troubled because there had been a disagreement over practice methods.

Her death was reported at an emergency meeting for the school's students Tuesday morning.

During the meeting, the school principal stressed the importance of life to the students, and urged everyone to help each other and make the school a happier place, school sources said.

(Nov. 1, 2006)

School admits bullies played role in suicide / 11-02-06

11/02/2006

Bullying continued after boy's suicide / 11-04-06

11/04/2006

Ibuki receives student's suicide-threat letters / 11-08-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

In a highly unusual emergency press conference held just after midnight Tuesday, an Education, Science and Technology Ministry official disclosed letters the minister had received in which a student threatened suicide as a result of bullying.

Masami Zeniya, head of the ministry's Primary and Secondary Education Bureau, told reporters education minister Bunmei Ibuki received the package of letters, which was addressed to the minister and dated Saturday, at midnight Monday. Inside the envelope were seven letters, including those for the minister, the author's homeroom teacher and classmates.

However, there was nothing in the letters that could identify the sender, such as name, location or school.

"If nothing changes by the 8th [of November], I'm going to kill myself," the letter to Ibuki read. "On the 11th, I'll prove it."

Immediately following a Cabinet meeting later Tuesday morning, Ibuki spoke through reporters to the author of the letters. "I want you to make it clear to someone how you're feeling," he said. "I want you to know the world won't just brush you aside."

A separate letter confronting the writer's classmates read: "Why'd you have to bully me? Is it because I'm 'gross'? Is it because I 'stink'? Why did you pull down my pants?"

The letter addressed to the writer's homeroom teacher asked: "Why don't you help me? I've told you time and again that I'm being bullied--and so have my parents."

Though the ministry said the origin of the letter was unclear, barely legible writing raised the possibility the letter originated in Toshima Ward, Tokyo.

Ibuki added, "Surely, if there's a teacher out there who knows something, they'll come forward."

Boy threatens suicide over bullying inaction / 11-08-06

Kyodo News

The education ministry has received a letter from a student saying he plans to commit suicide at school Saturday because he is being bullied, officials said Tuesday.

Education Ministry officials at a news conference early Tuesday release a letter from a student threatening suicide because he is being bullied at school. KYODO PHOTO

The letter, addressed to Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Bummei Ibuki, was delivered Monday.

Ministry officials said the letter, apparently written by a boy, included five other notes addressed to a local board of education, the school principal, his homeroom teacher, his classmates and his parents.

"Those who bullied me did not receive any punishment. I notified the teacher but nothing was done," he wrote without giving names. The student also said his classmates told him he was "sick" and stripped his pants off.

Ibuki said at a news conference the ministry decided to disclose the letter because the student threatened suicide if nothing is done by Wednesday.

"It concerns life. Getting (the letter) reported in the media is one thing that can be done," he said.

Ministry officials said the postmark indicates the letter was sent from Toshima Ward, Tokyo. Ibuki said he told boards of education in Tokyo and elsewhere to check for possible problems that fit the case and asked them to take emergency measures to prevent the suicide.

Ibuki pleaded with the boy at the news conference, saying: "You only have one life to live. Your mother and father gave you life when you were born. I know it may be difficult, but please tell your feelings to someone."

Children who were bullied have committed suicide recently in Fukuoka and Gifu prefectures.

Desperate search for suicidal student / 11-08-06

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Officials were scrambling Tuesday to locate a boy who wrote a letter to the education minister threatening to commit suicide at school this weekend because he was bullied. At a news conference Tuesday, the minister, Bunmei Ibuki, pleaded with the author of the letter not to give up. "You only have one life," Ibuki said. "When you were born, your father and mother embraced your life. Please carefully communicate your feelings to someone. Please understand that the community is not ignoring you." The letter arrived at the education ministry on Monday morning, ministry officials said. It is believed to have been mailed on Saturday. The envelope contained seven letters addressed to the minister, the local education board, the boy's school principal, the teacher in charge of the boy's class, his classmates, his classmates' parents and the boy's own parents. The letters said the sender had been bullied at school, and that if the situation did not improve by Wednesday he would commit suicide at the school this coming Saturday. Education ministry officials held a rare news conference at 12:15 a.m. Tuesday to announce the letter had been received. There was nothing in the letters to identify the sender, his address or the school that he attends. However, based on the handwriting, language and the characters used in the letter, the sender was likely a male in either junior or senior high school, Ibuki said. Ibuki admitted that there had been some hesitancy about publicizing the receipt of the letter over fears it could lead to copycat incidents. "Since the education ministry has been instructing teachers and education boards not to cover up or ignore incidents of bullying, we felt we had to take the initiative in expressing our stance on this matter," Ibuki said. Part of the postmark on the envelope bears the kanji character yutaka. Education ministry officials said an analysis of the postmark led them to believe there was a high possibility the letter was mailed from a post office in Tokyo's Toshima Ward. Toshima Ward education board officials were contacted Monday night by Tokyo metropolitan board of education officials. Around 11 p.m., ward education board officials sent out a fax to 31 principals of elementary and junior high schools in the ward asking them to investigate possible bullying. Other municipalities that have districts with the yutaka character were also taking steps to tell local schools to do likewise. Experts generally praised the education ministry for its quick response. "The reality is that there are children who are distrustful because they all feel similarly that the adults around them are shifty and only hiding things. In facing the problem head-on, the response of the education ministry has been praiseworthy," said Yasuyuki Shimizu, chief director of Life Link, a nonprofit organization that works to prevent suicide. "Having witnessed the poor response of schools and education boards to recent reports of bullying, (the sender) lost trust and felt he had to send an SOS to the education minister," said Naoki Ogi, a Hosei University education professor. "We give the response of the education ministry in holding a news conference and sending a message to 'live on' a grade of 150" out of 100, he added.(IHT/Asahi: November 8,2006)

Ministry grapples with bullying problem / 11-11-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Justice Ministry has demanded schools improve anti-bullying measures after concluding that homeroom teachers had not been supportive of bullied students in 15 cases from 2001 to 2005, it was learned Friday.

In these specific cases, the ministry concluded that the schools, far from protecting the students, had instead played a part in the bullying thereby infringing the students' human rights.

The number of serious bullying cases investigated by the ministry increased by about 50 percent during the same five year period.

Kodomo no Jinken 110-ban (children's human rights emergency number), established by the ministry's regional legal affairs bureau, receives calls from children in need of help, including many who are being bullied.

In serious cases, ministry officials, or former teachers entrusted by the ministry to promote human rights, are sent to the schools to conduct an investigation.

The hotline has been receiving a steady number of about 1,100 bullying-related calls per year over the past few years, but the number of cases requiring on-site investigation has been increasing. In 2001 the figure stood at 481, but by 2005 had risen to 716.

If a school was unaware of its bullying problem, which was often the case, it would implement several measures in the wake of the ministry's investigation, and, in the majority of cases, the issue was resolved.

However, in the more serious cases schools were aware of the bullying problem but failed to take proper measures, or the bullied students' homeroom teachers did not provide adequate support.

In such cases, the ministry requests the schools make improvements, or issues personal directives to principals and homeroom teachers on implementing appropriate measures.

According to the ministry, there were 15 such cases between 2001 and 2005--six requests for improvement and nine occasions on which directives were issued. Last year it issued five requests for improvement.

In one case, a female primary school student was bullied. Several classmates had verbally abused her and scribbled on her belongings. Although the ministry conducted an investigation, the student's homeroom teacher was unsupportive and the bullying failed to stop. The ministry asked the school to strictly supervise the homeroom teacher.

In another case, a student was hospitalized as a result of bullying. The ministry concluded that the school had failed to take appropriate measures and issued the principal with a directive.

Apart from these 15 cases, the ministry issued a directive to a school principal this year after a student was assaulted by classmates. Although the teacher disciplined those involved, the bullying continued.

"More and more human rights abuses in relation to bullying are occurring, and it's a serious problem in light of the protection of human rights," a ministry official said. "By conducting these investigations, we hope to nip discrimination in the bud."

===

Figures to be revised

The Education, Science and Technology Ministry has decided to revise its figures for student suicides related to bullying between academic year 1999 and 2005--currently standing at zero--after 16 cases came to light indicating the deaths may have been bullying-related.

The ministry has launched an investigation into these cases, asking the boards of education to supply details on circumstances surrounding the deaths; the way in which they reported the incident to the ministry; and how they view the situation in retrospect. The ministry also asks if bullying could have played a part in the suicides.

Currently, when a student commits suicide, a school selects one of 15 possible causes on a questionnaire, including among others "bullying," "academic failure," and "others."

Recently, the Sakai Municipal Board of Education in Osaka Prefecture decided to change the cause of a female high school student's October 1999 suicide from "others" to "bullying." The student left a note indicating she had been bullied.

The Hokkaido Prefectural Board of Education also intends to revise its report on a sixth-grade primary school student of Takikawa, who attempted to kill herself in September 2005 and who died January this year from related injuries. In its original report, the board of education had selected "others" as the likely cause of suicide, but now intends to change it to "bullying."

Among 105 student suicides in school year 2005, 60 percent of the submitted questionnaires were marked "others," as a possible factor in the suicide. However, some of the answers, believed at the time to be temporary pending school investigations, were never updated, even when bullying was discovered to be a factor in the suicide.

===

Board calls for precautions

The Toshima Ward Board of Education held an extraordinary principals meeting Thursday and called for precautions after the education ministry received a letter in which the writer--possibly a student in the ward--threatened to commit suicide Saturday.

Principals and vice principals from the ward's 31 primary and middle schools were instructed to attend school Saturday, and three police stations in the ward are to dispatch officers for patrol duty early Saturday morning.

Suicide threat boosts police school patrols / 11-11-06

Kyodo News

Three police stations in Toshima Ward, Tokyo, will increase patrols near schools because a letter received by the education minister Monday in which a student threatened suicide appears to have come from the ward, officials said Friday.

The Ikebukuro, Mejiro and Sugamo police stations will patrol near elementary, junior high and high schools Saturday, the day the sender of the letter threatened to commit suicide inside a school because of bullying.

The letter was addressed to education minister Bummei Ibuki and appears to have been written by a boy in elementary or junior high school. The envelope had a Toshima Ward postmark.

Ibuki received a similar letter Thursday, thought to be from a high school girl, in which the writer also threatened suicide over bullying.

Girl jumps to death

KITAKYUSHU (Kyodo) A 17-year-old girl died Thursday in an apparent suicide leap from the junior high school she graduated from in Kitakyushu, police and local officials said.

The girl was found lying in the schoolyard of the municipal junior high school in Kokurakita Ward at around 9:15 p.m.

Schools on suicide watch / Tokyo ward on alert after letter sent to education minister / 11-12-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Schoolteachers, principals and board of education staff members in Toshima Ward, Tokyo, have been on alert at 31 primary and middle schools since Saturday morning to prevent the possible suicide of a student.

The unidentified student, thought to be from one of the schools, threatened to commit suicide the same day in a written letter sent to Education, Science and Technology Minister Bunmei Ibuki. The student cited bullying as the cause.

At midnight Monday, Ibuki received a package of letters from a student addressed to the minister and dated Saturday.

The envelope contained seven letters, including ones addressed to the minister, the student's homeroom teacher and classmates. One letter complained about bullying by classmates and another voiced discontent about a homeroom teacher's failure to help the student.

"If nothing changes by the 8th [of November], I'm going to kill myself," one of the letters reads.

In response, principals and teachers at the 31 schools stood on alert early Saturday morning, and the ward's education board, which had members stay overnight, sent staff to check every school.

At 9:30 a.m., after visiting a primary school, at which the principal and three teachers were on patrol, board members inspected all the classrooms.

With the exception of the gym, which is open to the public, and some classrooms, all classrooms at the school were locked and all items except fire extinguishers in the corridors were removed.

Schools notified the board one by one that there was nothing unusual at the schools. The board then asked the schools to check emergency stairways.

As of 1 p.m. Saturday, there were no reports of any problems at the schools. The board will continue to keep an eye on the schools until Monday morning.

The three police stations in the ward also sent officers to patrol the areas near the school.

At 8:30 a.m., 11 police officers from the Ikebukuro Police Station rode in patrol cars or on bicycles in the rain to check areas around the schools.

A retired male police officer, 62, who is now a member of a volunteer group, checked blind spots near one school. "I hope the student will treasure his or her life, knowing that he or she can only live once," he said.

Education boards and schools in other wards in Tokyo were also on alert in case anything happened.

Starting at about 8 a.m., principals and teachers at primary and middle schools in Chiyoda Ward patrolled their schools and the surrounding areas. In Sumida Ward, teachers and principals also found nothing wrong at their schools.

In the letters, the student did not give his or her name or the name of his or her school.

Since the postmark on the envelope is thought to be the kanji for "to," authorities have determined the letters could have been sent from Toshima Ward, after sending inquiries about school bullying to 39 wards, cities, towns and villages in 21 prefectures, whose post offices have postmarks with the kanji.

The ministry also notified education boards in other prefectures that it had received a letter from a student threatening to commit suicide.

The letters prompted Masami Zeniya, head of the ministry's Primary and Secondary Education Bureau, to hold a press conference shortly after midnight Tuesday.

3 schools hit by presumed suicides / 11-14-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Two middle school students, believed to have been bullied at school, apparently killed themselves in separate incidents Sunday, just days after it was revealed that the Justice Ministry has demanded that schools improve anti-bullying measures.

In Honjo, Saitama Prefecture, a third-year student, 14, appeared to have hanged himself in a storeroom at his home. He had apparently been bullied into giving money to another student.

In Tondabayashi, Osaka Prefecture, a first-year student, 12, is believed to have killed herself by leaping from a housing complex, after leaving a suicide note. The school is investigating the case on the assumption she was bullied.

The 56-year-old principal of a primary school in Kitakyushu was also discovered to have committed suicide Sunday, after being found to have failed to report a case of bullying to the board of education.

In the Honjo case, the boy's 39-year-old mother found him hanged with a rope around his neck in a storeroom at about 7:30 p.m. He was a student of municipal Honjo-Higashi Middle School. Police are investigating the case as a likely suicide.

According to the school, the boy spoke to a counselor the prefectural education board has been sending to the school on Nov. 6. He reportedly told the counselor that a student from a different class had on one occasion demanded 500 yen, while on another occasion, earlier this month, the student had pressed him for 20,000 yen.

The school said it had instructed the boy during a meeting Wednesday not to comply with the demands.

===

Dead girl was 'introverted'

OSAKA--In Tondabayashi, a female student from municipal Daiichi Middle School was found dead in shrubbery at a public housing complex at about 6:40 a.m.

The girl lived on the eighth floor of the compound. She had left a scribbled note on a desk in her room saying: "I'm going to commit suicide. Goodbye," and "I'll give my necklace to my elder sister."

According to the school, she was introverted and did not have many friends. Her homeroom teacher is said to have made a deliberate effort to speak to her over fears she might be being bullied.

Principal Yoshimasa Niimi said Sunday night, "We realized she should be protected, but we hadn't really grasped that bullying was involved."

===

Police assuming suicide

KITAKYUSHU--The principal of the municipal primary school was discovered at about 3 p.m., having hanged himself with nylon rope in Yahata-Higashi Ward, Kitakyushu.

Police assume he committed suicide.

The principal realized that two female fifth-grade students, aged 10 and 11, were being bullied into giving money to classmates. However, he did not report the case as bullying to the city education board, instead reporting it merely as a disagreement over money.

35% of bullying victims stay mum  / 11-14-06

2 students, school principal commit suicide over bullying / 11-14-06

Prefectural education boards take on bullying / 11-15-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Alarmed by the recent suicides of children who have been bullied, 22 prefectural boards of education have started or plan to take additional measures to try to stamp out the scourge of bullying, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

Measures include expanding consultation services for victims of bullying and compiling manuals for schools and students to help them detect and prevent bullying.

About 30 percent of senior board of education officials asked by The Yomiuri Shimbun about the bullying said several factors were to blame, ranging from the influence of the Internet and violent TV shows, as well as problems at home and at school.

Fifteen prefectural boards of education said they had introduced new measures, while seven boards said they were in the pipeline. The Aomori Prefectural Board of Education launched last Wednesday a seven-member task force to tackle the problem, and established Tuesday a telephone consultation service dedicated to handling queries about bullying.

The Gunma Prefectural Board of Education set up on Nov. 6 an office charged with preventing bullying. The office will extend advice and assistance to children and to teachers and parents who have concerns that children are being harassed by bullies.

The Shiga and Mie prefectural and Tokyo metropolitan boards of education said they have decided to distribute pamphlets containing contact details for consultation centers and other information to every student under their jurisdiction.

The Ishikawa Prefectural Board of Education plans to put teachers on the front line in the fight against bullies by compiling a pamphlet detailing steps to counteract the problem and distributing it to them before the end of the year.

The Yomiuri Shimbun survey also found that a majority of education boards had tried to make sure the schools had their eyes open to the bullying situation by sending notices to schools and convening emergency meetings on the issue.

"Teachers don't give enough instruction about how to develop children's communication ability," said an official of the Shiga Prefectural Board of Education, while a Niigata prefectural board representative pointedly said, "Some teachers think part of the blame lies with the kids being bullied."

The failure of parents to recognize their child as being bullied was touted by some officials as another underlying factor that had led to the current situation.

The survey of the prefectural education boards also revealed that factors outside school and the home might be contributing to the persistence of the problem.

"Many programs involve making fools of celebrities and laughing at them," an official of the Gunma Prefectural Board of Education said. A Chiba Prefectural Board of Education official highlighted the number of programs and manga in which people's lives--and deaths--are callously treated, while an Okayama official said some kids get so absorbed in video games that they become unable to discern between reality and fantasy.

Bullying does not necessarily involve physical intimidation, and one offical said that today's information society has made it harder to detect bullying in some cases.

"These days, bullying often occurs outside the classroom, through e-mail or on the Internet, so it can be difficult to notice such bullying early on," the official said.

Funeral held for bullied Osaka girl / 11-15-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A funeral was held Tuesday for a first-year middle school girl of Tondabayashi, Osaka Prefecture, who is believed to have leaped to her death from a public housing complex after reportedly being bullied.

After the girl's death and funeral schedule were announced in her neighborhood at about 10 a.m., her friends, teachers and others, all dressed in black, gradually gathered for the funeral at a local meeting place.

During the ceremony, which started at 11 a.m., her school uniform-clad classmates joined their hands in prayer.

"I remember she used to play happily with her elder sister," a 62-year-old woman who lived in the same housing complex as the girl tearfully said. "Every time I look at her portrait, the sorrow wells up. I hope she can rest in peace."

The 12-year-old girl reportedly became depressed and strongly resisted going to school about a week before she is believed to have committed suicide Sunday.

Although she was often absent in her primary school years, she had seldom missed a day since entering middle school.

However, she suddenly claimed she did not want to go to school about a week before committing suicide. Her mother encouraged her and began giving her a ride to school, but she strongly resisted and took a day off on Thursday, three days before she died.

One of her classmates said she began looking distraught and often kept to herself. She sometimes reportedly stood alone near a school gate until evening.

The municipal Daiichi Middle School that she attended is investigating whether she had really been bullied, including what had happened during her last week.

Meanwhile, her primary school was found to have recognized that the girl had been bullied by her classmates on at least three different occasions.

The primary school had warned the middle school that she might face difficulties because she was small in stature and mild mannered.

The primary school, however, did not provide any details of the three bullying incidents.

===

Calls to hotline quadruple

The Osaka Municipal Board of Education conducted 126 consultations--about four times more than usual--on a telephone hotline service that was extended for two hours a day over seven weekdays between Nov. 1 and 10 in an attempt to prevent students from killing themselves due to bullying.

In addition to four regular counselors, three more people from the board of education manned the hotline at the Osaka Municipal Education Center in Minato Ward from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Seventy-three, or nearly 60 percent, of the consultations concerned bullying. In one case, a primary school student confessed that she felt sad over being bullied. Although the student tried to tell a teacher about her situation, she reportedly was told the teacher was busy.

Of those calling for bullying consultations, 49 were primary school students, 18 were middle school students and five were high school students.

===

Nara student found dead

NARA--A 14-year-old male middle school student, believed to have committed suicide by hanging himself, was discovered by his family at about 6 p.m. Monday in Nara, police said.

He was a third-year student at a Nara municipal middle school.

The school principal said at a press conference early Tuesday that the school was unaware of any bullying problems, and that the student did not seem troubled about his future after leaving the school.

No suicide note was left. The police were asking his family for possible reasons behind his death.

The school reported to the Nara City Board of Education and held an emergency meeting of school teachers later Monday. The members of the board also commenced discussion of the incident at 9 p.m.

In a school meeting held Tuesday morning, the principal called for students to report if they knew anything about the alleged suicide, and to seek advice if they had any trouble.

According to the school, the student had belonged to a table tennis club until July, and was an eager and tenacious student, having no absences since April.

He returned home after school Monday. He looked his usual self on the day, his parents said.

Education bill likely to pass lower house Thurs. / 11-15-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito agreed Tuesday to have the bill designed to revise the Fundamental Law of Education passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday.

With the agreement, they intend to get the bill passed at a meeting of the lower house special committee on the issue Wednesday afternoon, allowing lawmakers to vote on the bill at Thursday's lower house plenary session.

With the discussion on Tuesday, the number of hours spent discussing the bill at special committee meetings have exceeded the 100-hour mark.

In view of the situation, the ruling bloc concluded that there had been sufficient deliberation on the bill.

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hakubun Shimomura also attended Tuesday's meeting of the secretaries general and Diet affairs committee chairmen from the ruling parties, which was held at the Diet Building.

Meanwhile, during its board of directors meeting Tuesday, the Democratic Party of Japan confirmed that the party, in cooperation with other opposition parties, will do everything in its power to prevent voting on the bill.

At Tuesday's board of directors meeting for the special committee on the fundamental education law, the ruling bloc proposed to carry out the final general interpellation and voting at the special committee's meeting on either Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning, but the opposition parties rejected it.

Boy, 14, found hanged; bullying link seen / 11-16-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A 14-year-old middle school student was found Tuesday night hanged in a warehouse owned by his family here, police said.

The boy, a second-year student of Kamihayashimura-run Hirabayashi Middle School, was confirmed dead about an hour after his mother found him at 9:30 p.m.

The police said the boy apparently killed himself.

The police and the local board of education said it was highly possible that bullying triggered his suicide as the boy told his friends that he wanted to die after one of his classmates pulled his pants down in front of other students.

According to school officials and other sources, the classmate pulled his pants and underwear down in front of several students--including girls--when he was cleaning the school building after the fourth class.

"It was hard to be watched by the girls [with his pants down]," he was quoted as telling one of his school friends.

He also told three friends when he parted with them on his way home that he wanted to die, they said.

The teacher in charge of the boy's class noticed his eyes were wet during lunch and asked him why he was crying, but the boy would not tell him the reason, they said.

After the teacher asked the students during the fifth class whether they knew what had happened, the student who pulled the boy's pants down came forward and said to the teacher, "I'm sorry."

When the teacher talked to the boy again, he said, "I'm all right," they said.

The student attended a student's committee meeting and activities of the wind-instrument music club that he belonged to, they said.

The school gave the students a questionnaire on bullying in May and November. In the questionnaire, the student did not report that he had been bullied.

"We haven't detected any bullying, but we take the incident quite seriously and we'll look into this case," the school's Principal Shuji Katsuma said at a press conference Wednesday.

===

Kin: Bullying led to her death

OSAKA--The father and elder brother of a 12-year-old girl who committed suicide in Tondabayashi, Osaka Prefecture, on Sunday said at a press conference Tuesday that she likely took her life as the result of bullying.

Kazuo Okawa and his son, Toshio, revealed the girl's name for the first time and showed mementos such as a picture, taken with a mobile phone camera, of Rie singing karaoke with her family on the day before she jumped to her death from a public housing complex.

They said they hope that by speaking publicly about Rie's death, they could encourage others who are suffering not to give up hope amid the recent string of bullied children committing suicide.

"I think she did it because she was bullied, but I want to know the truth," Kazuo, 49, said about the death of his daughter, who was a middle school student. He said Rie had said she was being bullied at school, but had not gone into any details.

Kazuo said Rie often came home looking depressed, but when Rie's mother asked her if she should speak with her teacher, Rie told her not to as she would get harassed again if others found out her mother had intervened.

"It's like a dream," he said. "I keep thinking that tomorrow I'll hear her say, 'Good morning, dad.'"

"[The day before the suicide] we all went to sing karaoke for the first time in a long time, and she really looked like she was enjoying herself. After we got home, she played with her elder sister and went to her room. That was the last I saw of her," Toshio said.

A classmate had said earlier Rie had been teased because she was short.

Kazuo said: "She had an illness that prevented her from growing taller. When she started middle school, she said, 'I'm going to get taller,' and had been receiving injections of growth hormone. Rather than worry about her illness, she tried to overcome it."

Toshio, 28, said: "She sometimes came home from school angry. When she was in primary school, she was always mentioning the names of her favorite teachers, but after starting middle school, she didn't say anything about her teachers. I wish we could have talked about this as a family."

"The thing I'm most angry about is the fact that the people who caused this haven't apologized. Their apology won't solve anything, but I want to get to the bottom of this," he added.

Over 40% of students bullies and victims / 11-16-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

More than 40 percent of high school students have been bullied and bullied others, according to a recent survey by Kyoto University and a federation of high school parent-teacher associations.

Masako Kihara, associate professor of the university's Graduate School of Medicine, and the Federation of All-Japan Senior High School Parent-Teachers Associations conducted a survey on psychological bullying, which includes verbal abuse and neglect, on about 6,400 second-year high school students.

According to the survey, the number of students who had been bullied and had bullied others amounted to 45.7 percent among boys and 46.6 percent among girls.

Until now, only a few nationwide surveys on bullying have been conducted.

Kihara and the federation picked five public high schools each from nine blocs in the nation from Hokkaido to Kyushu and conducted an anonymous survey in September.

They defined psychological bullying as behavior that causes discomfort through persistent teasing or neglect.

Of the students who had been bullied, 55.6 percent of male students said they were bullied in primary school, while 62.7 percent of female students said they had been bullied during the same period.

Moreover, 52.7 percent of boys were bullied in middle school, while the ratio was 54.1 percent for girls. The ratio of those who were bullied in high school was 38 percent among male respondents and 29.5 percent for females.

The results show that bullying has become customary among younger students.

One student wrote, "I was told that I was 'creepy' and should disappear and die." Another wrote, "My name and e-mail address were posted on an Internet dating site," while another complained, "A composite nude portrait of me was posted on an Internet bulletin board."

Of those who had bullied others in high school, the ratio increased among those who frequently used cell phones to send e-mail. Likewise, the ratio also increased in proportion to the time they spent on the Internet.

Couple to sue over daughter's death from alleged bullying / 11-18-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The parents of a girl who committed suicide last year after allegedly being bullied plan to file a lawsuit for damages of about 20 million yen early next month against the city of Kitamoto, Saitama Prefecture and the Education, Science and Technology Ministry, it was learned Friday.

Shinji Nakai, 56, and his wife, Setsuko, 52, hope that the case, to be filed with the Tokyo District Court, will establish whether it was bullying that caused their daughter to commit suicide, and what the school and state did to protect their daughter from bullies.

Their eldest daughter, Yumi, jumped to her death from their condominium in Konosu in the prefecture on Oct. 11 last year, leaving behind a suicide note that hinted she had been bullied. She was 12 and a first-year middle school student at Kitamoto Middle School when she killed herself.

Her parents said, "We asked the city's board of education to look into the matter, but we're still no closer to discovering the truth."

Setsuko reportedly obtained testimony from students at the school saying Yumi had been ostracized by a group of students, and was also bullied in other ways.

Yumi's parents claim that the school failed to detect the bullying at an early stage and did not take adequate measures to protect students. They also claim that the school did not undertake a full investigation into the matter or make a proper report after Yumi's suicide.

The parents also want to know what the government has done generally to tackle bullying, which is a matter of social concern at the moment.

Shinji said: "I want to know why I lost my daughter--I want to know the real reason. This kind of thing should never be allowed to happen again."

A spokesman for the school said, "We're investigating this matter, but we haven't yet confirmed whether bullying drove Yumi to kill herself."

===

27 letters threatening suicide sent

As of Friday, the education ministry had received 27 anonymous letters from students threatening suicide because of bullying.

The senders of seven of the letters have been identified and include primary, middle, high and vocational school students.

The ministry was able to identify the senders through information provided in the letters such as school and teacher names, and also the names of those of they accused of the bullying.

Both schools and boards of education are speaking with the senders of the letters.

(Nov. 18, 2006)

Poll: Bullying linked to bad parenting / 11-19-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Sixty-five percent of people believe that bullying at school, which is suspected to have driven some children to commit suicide, is caused by parents failing to teach their children social rules, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey.

Asked what major factors are believed to cause bullying at school, the highest ratio of respondents placed blame on parents from among eight choices.

Among the other choices, 55 percent thought an increasing number of children lack empathy for others. This was followed by 52 percent of respondents who said parents are not aware of the sufferings of their children.

The results indicate many respondents consider that education at home does matter.

Respondents who cited insufficient capabilities of teachers stood at 48 percent, while 45 percent blamed schools for evading their responsibilities by concealing bullying cases.

The nationwide survey was conducted on Nov. 11 and 12 through face-to-face interviews with 3,000 eligible voters randomly sampled, of whom 1,757, or 58.6 percent, responded.

Also in the survey, 59 percent of respondents gave positive responses to relief measures announced by the Education, Science and Technology Ministry following the discovery that a number of high schools failed to teach compulsory subjects.

But 36 percent of respondents expressed negative views, saying the measures were unsatisfactory. The relief measures allow students to take fewer hours of make-up classes, up to 70 hours, than initially expected.

(Nov. 19, 2006)

Two teens kill themselves in Fukuoka / 11-19-06

FUKUOKA (Kyodo) Two 14-year-old junior high school boys were found hanged Friday in separate and apparent suicide cases in Fukuoka Prefecture, police said.

In both cases, local education officials said there was no information on whether they had been bullied at school.

One of the boys was found hanged in a wooded area at around 10 a.m. in the town of Keisen, Fukuoka Prefecture, while the other was found hanged in the city of Munakata at around 5 p.m., police said.

No suicide note was found in either case.

The school the Keisen boy went to questioned all its students about what they may know about his death but has not been able to find out what led him to commit suicide, including whether he was bullied, school officials said.

"We have no idea what the motive was," one official said.

According to the school, he told a school librarian during a recess Monday, "If someone committed suicide at this school, I wonder if there would be a big fuss."

The woman said to him, "Don't tell me you are having strange thoughts," and he replied, "No way, I have no guts," according to the school.

He was last seen Wednesday morning when his mother and older brother left home, and his family asked police to search for him Thursday.

In the Munakata case, the local board of education, which said it had not confirmed if he had been bullied, said the boy went to school Friday and returned home at around 4 p.m.

IN THE NEWS / Bereaved father confronts bullying / 11-22-06

Makoto Miura / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

Alarmed by the recent spate of bullying-related child suicides, Noriyoshi Maejima sometimes feels helpless, asking himself, "How many more children must kill themselves before schools take the problem seriously?"

However, his determination to bring an end to such tragedies is unwavering.

As chief of the children's support department in the Nagano Prefectural Board of Education, Maejima deals directly with bullying problems by listening to the distressing stories of bullied children and their families, and informing the children's schools of his findings.

Maejima's commitment to his work stems from the death of his son Yusaku, who was a first-year student at Suzaka City Middle School when he killed himself in January, 1997.

Despite leaving a suicide note saying he had been bullied, Yusaku's school did not accept the claim, and reiterated its assertion that it was not possible to know the truth about the incident. It was while filing a suit against the city to establish the truth about his son's death that Maejima established a parents association that aims to eliminate bullying and violence in schools.

In 2004, Maejima quit his job at a corporation after being asked by former governor Yasuo Tanaka to work for the prefectural education board. Tanaka said the position called for someone who had suffered a personal loss.

Maejima took up his present position in April last year.

About 160 cases have been brought to his attention so far, and in each case, he personally visits the family home to talk with those affected.

"I fully empathize with parents' feelings. It's hard for me to go to schools and talk about the problems," Maejima said.

He also asks schools, which may be fearful of facing charges, not to conceal the facts. "If the school doesn't tell the truth, children who have bullied or who pretend not to know about it, are deprived of an opportunity for reflection or to apologize," he said.

Every time he hears news of a suicide caused by bullying, he addresses a portrait of Yusaku taken in school uniform and vows to do his best to make things better.

More bullying-suicide letters sent / 11-22-06

Kyodo News

The education ministry has received four more letters that warn the senders will commit suicide because they are being bullied at school, bringing the total to 36, ministry officials said Tuesday.

One of the letters, postmarked in Kimitsu, Chiba Prefecture, claimed to be from a second-year junior high school student and read, "I hate everybody. I will die," according to the officials.

The ministry did not disclose more information about the three other letters because they included the names of the senders and schools. It was trying to contact the schools via local boards of education, the officials said.

POINT OF VIEW/ Karin Amamiya: Advice of a bully victim: Stay away from school / 11/22/2006

One after another, in Hokkaido, Fukuoka Prefecture and elsewhere across Japan, school children are committing suicide because of bullying.

Schools and boards of education are under fire for the poor way they are dealing with the situation: continuing to turn a deaf ear to cries for help and pretending that the problem does not exist.

Sadly, nothing has changed from the time when I, too, was being bullied and thought of ending my life.

Not to say that all teachers are bad, but it is useless to expect schools and boards of education to do something to help you, because they almost always let you down.

Rather than being hurt and eventually killing yourself, my advice to bullied students is to stay away from school.

I became a target of bullying in the summer of my second year of junior high school, while a member of the school's volleyball club.

With the retirement of the third-year students, my teammates turned on me. They accused me of holding the team back because I was a poor player.

Soon, everybody was ignoring me. When I failed to receive or return the ball, they would hit it straight at me. They treated me as an errand girl and made me go buy canned drinks for them.

What I found most painful was when the girl who used to be my best friend turned against me overnight. Perhaps she had no choice, since unless she joined the bullies she would most likely have become another victim. School can become a world where the strong prey upon the weak. In such an environment, friendship is as fragile as glass.

The teacher in charge of the volleyball club was aware of what was going on, but turned a blind eye.

One time, another classmate who was being bullied asked him for help. The teacher appeared fed up, as though he frankly couldn't care less. He called over the bullies and told them and the victim to talk the matter over among themselves. Then he disappeared. As soon as he was gone, the girl was beaten up.

If we couldn't trust teachers, I couldn't confide in my family, either. I didn't want my parents and younger brothers to think I was the kind of person who let others bully me.

Before I knew it, I was sitting in room late at night whispering to myself, "I am not being bullied," as I repeatedly stuck a compass needle into the back of my hand.

One day, I nearly jumped from a bridge into a muddy stream. I only came to and stopped myself just as I was about to leap.

Or, riding a bicycle, I would unconsciously steer into the center of the road into the path of oncoming cars.

Death was a sweet temptation. Going to school was much more scary and painful.

My urge to kill myself stopped only when, several months after the bullying began, I quit the volleyball club.

But if I had forced myself to stay on the team, what would have become of me?

That is why I want to tell children who are being bullied at school: Do not put up with it any longer. If you cannot tell your parents about your troubles, you can pretend to be ill and stay home. If your parents try to force you to go to school, lock yourself in your room.

Of course, it would be better if your parents or family knew of your situation. When you are being bullied, you tend to think that the entire world denies your existence. Many people have stopped themselves from taking their own lives because their families recognized their troubles.

But even if your parents do barge into school to lodge a protest on your behalf, that will not necessarily solve your problems.

It would be far better if they took you on a trip, and told you in an unfamiliar setting how much they loved you no matter what.

The string of recent incidents has prompted the Education Rebuilding Council, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and various boards of education to study preventive measures.

I will not go so far as to say that debate is meaningless. But it takes a long time. And a change of systems is no guaranteed solution, either.

There is no right answer to putting an end to bullying. But there is one thing I can tell you: Looking back, I am really glad that I did not end my life for those unworthy people who bullied me.

65 high schools shirking vital subjects / 10-26-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

At least 65 high schools in 11 prefectures have failed to provide their students with all compulsory subjects, according to the results of a Yomiuri Shimbun survey.

At least 8,700 students will be required to take extra classes to graduate.

Many of these schools, which are deemed to be elite high schools, have submitted to prefectural boards of education falsified reports stating they had provided students with all compulsory subjects.

The Education, Science and Technology Ministry ordered prefectural boards of education Wednesday to confirm whether public high schools were teaching their students compulsory subjects as stipulated in the official curriculum guidelines and report the results to the ministry by Friday.

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun survey, 29 schools in Iwate Prefecture, 12 in Yamagata Prefecture, 10 in Fukushima Prefecture, five in Fukui Prefecture and two in Aomori and Tochigi prefectures failed to abide by the guidelines. There was one such school each in Toyama, Ishikawa, Hiroshima, Ehime and Miyazaki prefectures.

Except for three, all of them were public schools.

Of the two compulsory subjects in the geography-history category--which requires that world history and either Japanese history or geography be taught--most of the schools failed to meet the world history requirement.

The ministry suspects these schools used the extra class hours for English, mathematics, or other subjects deemed necessary for the college entrance examination.

As students are not allowed to graduate school unless they take all compulsory subjects stipulated in the guidelines, each prefectural board of education is expected to provide extra classes for the students during the winter vacation.

In Iwate Prefecture, one-third of the 76 prefectural high schools taught students only one subject in the geography-history category, but reported to the prefectural board of education they taught two subjects.

As some of the Iwate schools initiated the process in 1999, many of their graduates likely did not receive all of their compulsory subjects.

Some of the Iwate schools were found to have failed to provide such compulsory subjects as information and civics.

"As the graduates are not to blame, we don't think it's appropriate to annul their diplomas," the Iwate prefectural board of education said.

In Fukushima Prefecture, about 1,600 students in their third year at 10 prefectural high schools failed to take the required number of subjects in the geography-history category, information, art and science.

In Fukui Prefecture, about 690 students at one private and four prefectural high schools received only one of the two compulsory subjects in the geography-history category.

The ministry will order each prefectural board of education to submit reports on the number of high schools where "inappropriate practices" have been observed, the number of high schools that have presented the board of education fabricated reports, the names of schools with certain irregularities, examples of the irregularities and measures to improve each school.

Before the Yomiuri's survey, 85 schools in Hyogo, Kumamoto, Nagasaki and Hiroshima prefectures were found to have failed to meet the guidelines.

Each time such irregularities were found, the ministry ordered prefectural officials to draft curriculums based on the guidelines.

However, most of the boards of education have not checked whether each school had conducted classes according to the curriculums they had presented to the boards of education.

Ochanomizu University Prof. Hiroaki Mimizuka, member of the Central Council for Education, said: "As students' academic standards are said to be declining, the performance of elite public schools is closely watched by parents. That's why these schools made curriculums they think are effective at producing good results, believing that teaching subjects that have nothing to do with the entrance examinations is a waste of time."

"However, students' academic ability will be lacking if they put too much emphasis on subjects required for the examination. We need to discuss once again what children are supposed to be learning in high school," he added.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday: "I was surprised such a thing could happen. They [boards of education and schools] should take appropriate measures to prevent this sort of incident from obscuring our children's futures."

(Oct. 26, 2006)

Yomiuri probe: Mass cheating by high schools / Records faked for university applications / 10-27-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Nearly 250 high schools in 35 prefectures failed to teach students compulsory subjects government-mandated for graduation, according to the findings of a Yomiuri Shimbun investigation as of Thursday.

The probe found that at least 249 high schools did not teach some compulsory subjects, including the 65 schools identified Wednesday.

In addition, at least 20 high schools in five prefectures, including Toyama and Shimane, forged students' records on letters of recommendation for acceptance by universities, saying the students had completed the studies as required. These students have already submitted their applications for acceptance at universities.

According to the investigation, as of Thursday, the prefectures included: Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate, Yamagata, Akita, Fukushima, Miyagi, Tochigi, Toyama, Ishikawa, Nagano, Yamanashi, Gunma, Ibaraki, Niigata, Saitama, Tokyo, Shizuoka, Aichi, Gifu, Fukui, Okayama, Nara, Hiroshima, Tottori, Shimane, Yamaguchi, Ehime, Kagawa, Fukuoka, Saga, Oita, Nagasaki, Miyazaki and Kagoshima.

In Marugame, Kagawa Prefecture, it was found that all 509 students at Otemae High School, had not been taught at least one compulsory subject.

The private high school has 176 senior students, and 87 of them in the science course were not taught two compulsory subjects: "health" and "information technology." In the geography-history category, the school only taught "world history" whereas it is mandatory to study two out of three subjects offered in this category.

As a result, these students now have to take 210 hours to 280 hours of extra classes to make up for subjects they were supposed to have been taught.

The other seniors did not take "health" and "information technology" classes and have to take 140 hours of make-up classes.

At Hachioji-Higashi High School in Hachioji, Tokyo, 181 out of 320 seniors did not complete the stipulated number of hours for the "civics" category. The high school is run by the Tokyo metropolitan government.

At Toyama prefectural Takaoka Minami High School, five seniors have submitted applications of recommendation for admission to universities and vocational schools. However, whereas they took only one subject in the geography-history category, the school stated in the letters to support application that they took two subjects and gave the same grade for the subject not taken as that in the subject they actually took.

School officials told The Yomiuri Shimbun it would explain the situation to the universities and vocational schools and would correct the students' records in the applications after they finish supplementary lessons for the compulsory subjects they were not taught.

Matsue municipal Women's High School gave passing grades for compulsory subjects that were not taught. The high school has submitted about 80 applications with false records to universities and other higher schools.

At the privately run Kure Aoyama High School in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, 21 out of 48 graduates in March did not take "world history." Instead, the school gave these students the same grade in this subject as they received for "politics-economy" on students records used in applications for recommendation admission.

(Oct. 27, 2006)

Students hurt by fake reports / 10-28-06

Masami Murai and Yutaka Ogaki / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

Most of the high schools found to have failed to teach students compulsory subjects submitted fake reports to education boards to make it look like the students had been taught.

Why did the schools break official curriculum guidelines, which the government produced to ensure uniformity in the nation's educational standards?

The problem, according to several officials at cram schools, was caused by a discrepancy between subjects that are compulsory and those required for university entrance examinations.

The guidelines state that the compulsory subjects are for "teaching the knowledge and skills necessary for high school students." Currently, high schools have to provide compulsory subjects from each of 10 categories including geography-history, mathematics, science, art and foreign languages.

However, the number of subjects required in college entrance examinations has decreased year by year, meaning that many of the compulsory subjects are no longer essential for the examinations.

In the geography-history category, for example, world history and either Japanese history or geography must be taught. But among national and public universities, only Tokyo University requires two subjects from the category for its entrance examination. Most private universities require just one subject to be covered from this category.

"The high schools might have thought they were being helpful by only teaching subjects necessary for the entrance exams," a high school teacher in Tokyo said.

A number of people involved in education also suggest that the introduction of the five day week for schools may have contributed to the problem.

The subject that has suffered most is world history, with many high schools failing to teach it. This contrasts with curriculum guidelines in 1989, when world history was a compulsory subject because it "contributes to developing the ability of high schools students to understand changes in the world such as internationalization."

However, compared to geography and Japanese history, students studying world history are required to memorize more facts and figures. Sundai Yobigakko, a major cram school chain, said this has meant that, "students on math and science courses usually do not choose it, while students in humanities also tend to choose familiar Japanese history."

According to the National Center for University Entrance Examination, as of January, the number of students who chose world history was about 92,000 while about 150,000 chose Japanese history and about 117,000 picked geography.

"Because high schools thought they were putting their students before [the compulsory subjects], they failed to provide subjects such as world history," said Kazuhiko Toshikura at the Sundai Yobigakko.

Why are university entrance examinations so important to high schools?

According to an official at a major cram school, public high schools tend to publicize examination pass rates to differentiate themselves from their competitors. "High schools are now like cram schools," said Shuji Ichimura at Nagase Brothers Inc. in Musashino, Tokyo, which operates Toshin High School, another major cram school chain.

However, people in the cram school industry say learning basic subjects is important and argue that world history should be taught during the first year of high school so as not to place too much of a burden on students later on.

An official at the Education, Science and Technology Ministry said, "Each high school should recognize that the purpose of the compulsory subjects is to broaden student knowledge."

With these recent cases, it has become clear that education boards did not check shortcomings at the high schools.

Public schools have to submit their curriculums to education boards, most of which check the documents to see whether they are in accordance with the official guidelines. However, they do not generally examine whether each school is providing the subjects as reported, and in the recent cases, the forged reports meant the failures went unnoticed.

In Hyogo Prefecture in 2002, 59 prefectural high schools were found to have failed to provide compulsory subjects. In this case, the schools also submitted false curriculums to the prefectural board of education, which was unable to spot the failures for up to eight years.

After the failures came to light, principals at the prefectural schools insisted they did it for their students and their entrance examinations.

The prefectural board now has every school submit curriculums with time tables for teachers and students. Board officials also visit 157 prefectural schools once a year to check.

Private schools are also supposed to submit their regulations and curriculums to the prefectural government. But the Education, Science and Technology Ministry suspects that education boards do not closely check such curriculums out of respect for the independence of the private schools.

(Oct. 28, 2006)

Govt says 286 high schools omitted core subjects / 10-29-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Education, Science and Technology Ministry announced Saturday that 286 high schools in 31 prefectures have failed to teach subjects designated as compulsory for graduation.

All but two schools reported falsified curriculum to education boards, according to the ministry's survey that covered 3,892 public high schools across the nation, excluding Hyogo Prefecture, which did not respond to the survey by the deadline.

According to the findings of an earlier survey conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun, the number of schools that failed to teach compulsory subjects was 402, including private schools, in 41 prefectures.

According to the ministry survey, Iwate Prefecture outnumbered others with 31 out of 79 public high schools failing to teach compulsory subjects.

The figure was 29 in Hokkaido, 28 in Nagano Prefecture, 21 in Shizuoka Prefecture, 19 in Shimane Prefecture, 17 in Ehime Prefecture, and 15 in Fukushima Prefecture.

Hyogo Prefecture plans to report the number Tuesday.

In one case in Nagano Prefecture, the prefectural education board failed to notice an error in the school's curriculum, which was short of some compulsory subjects, and the school went ahead with the curriculum.

In another case in Okayama Prefecture, the curriculum was satisfactory but the school failed to give proper instructions to students when they made their course selections.

Schools are now scrambling to figure out ways to complete compulsory subject courses by the end of the school year.

At Osaka Toin High School, a private school in Osaka, about 70 third-grade students, in need of 70 Japanese history or geography lessons of 50 minutes each, will have to take a 60-minute lesson six times a day for 10 consecutive days, starting in mid-February after university entrance exams are over.

"It will be hard on students, but we count on them to get through," a spokesman of the school said.

Another private school, Kagawa-ken Otemae High School, in Kagawa Prefecture, will give extra sessions to students who need 210 lessons of subjects such as health education until two days before their graduation ceremony.

The school said all students will be able to graduate as planned by March 5.

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Schools may reduce class hours

Education boards and schools are considering reducing class hours as a way of reducing the burden on students who might have to take extra classes to meet graduation requirements.

The measure would be taken in accordance with the government's teaching guidelines and under the framework of systems for exceptional cases to allow, for example, for a reduction in the number of credit units that need to be achieved.

The measure may be reflected in relief measures the government is currently devising for students, according to sources.

Under the teaching guidelines, one unit of credit will be given to students on completion of 35 classes of 50 minutes each in a year. Students attend the classes once a week. Students must obtain at least two credit units in subjects designated as compulsory for graduation.

The guidelines, on the other hand, stipulate that, if necessary, the number of credit units that must be obtained can be reduced to allow other factors to be taken into account. Ibaraki Prefecture's board of education therefore is considering, for example, awarding three-credit units to students who take make-up classes, which would replace regular four-credit unit classes.

Bylaws allow schools to determine the number of attendance days deemed necessary for students to obtain credits. Many schools stipulate that students must attend at least two-thirds of classes throughout the year. Therefore, some schools in Gunma and Yamagata prefectures intend to offer supplementary classes that would meet the minimum requirements stipulated by their bylaws, but without overburdening their students.

(Oct. 29, 2006)

Scandal over compulsory classes grows / 10-31-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A total of 289 public high schools failed to teach compulsory subjects, which means 47,094 third-year students will not earn sufficient credit units for graduation unless they take extra classes, Education, Science and Technology Minister Bunmei Ibuki said Monday.

The ministry announced Saturday there were 286 such public schools in 31 prefectures, but it reportedly found three more offending public schools in Hyogo Prefecture.

According to the ministry, among the public third-year high school students who will not earn enough credits, 37,254 students need to have 70 extra lessons, 8,722 students need 70 to 140 extra classes, and 1,118 students need more than 140 extra classes.

Members of the House of Representatives special committee on the Fundamental Law of Education on Monday morning started deliberating a bill to revise the law, which is the focal point of the current Diet session.

At the committee, chaired by former Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama, Ibuki promised to take measures to assist graduates who were not taught some compulsory subjects and for students in the third year who have already been admitted to college on recommendations based on fabricated school records.

"This is a matter that might affect students' rights, so we're discussing it with the Cabinet Legislation Bureau," Ibuki said. "We'll come up with measures to address the problem as soon as possible."

The education ministry and the Cabinet Legislation Bureau have basically agreed that graduates who did not take one or more of the compulsory subjects will be retroactively permitted to do so. Working with existing legislation, the ministry will allow students to graduate from high school and enter college without taking all of the compulsory subjects.

"All the students in the third year are victims, but we have to take measures that are fair to both those who have taken all compulsory subjects and those who haven't," Ibuki said during the committee meeting in response to a question from Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Tadamori Oshima. "We'll consider necessary measures after we listen to opinions from the ruling and opposition parties [in the committee]."

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said Monday morning the government was trying to find out whether there were past cases in which high schools failed to teach students compulsory subjects.

"The government is looking into past records to determine whether there are people who graduated from high schools [without sufficient credits]," he said.

(Oct. 31, 2006)

Principal found hanged after apology / 10-31-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The principal of a prefectural high school in Daigomachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, who headed a school found to have failed to teach compulsory subjects, hung himself at 4:50 p.m. Monday.

Police suspect Yuichiro Takaku, 58, principal of Prefectural Satake High School in Hitachiota, Ibaraki Prefecture, committed suicide in a forest in Daigomachi.

The principal had left a note at the scene saying he was leaving before his time, officers of the Daigo Police Station said.

The school has 594 students.

According to the officers, the note also implied Takaku had worried about the situation his school was in.

This academic year, Satake High School was found to have replaced World History A and Basic Science with Japanese history, biology and physics for 80 of its third-year students.

The school has omitted Basic Science for the past three years.

The officers said the note did not directly mention the school's failure to teach compulsory subjects, but that they believed the motive for Takaku's suicide was highly likely related to the omission.

Takaku became the principal of Satake High School in April after serving as the headmaster of Prefectural Daigo Niko high school.

Regarding the omission of compulsory subjects, Takaku had told Satake High School teachers that the onus was on the principal and teachers to deal with the problem.

During a briefing for all the students Friday, Takaku apologized, saying he would try to help them graduate.

He told The Yomiuri Shimbun the school was eager to help students prepare for the university entrance examination and believed the omission was good for students.

"We taught science and history, although they were different from the subjects required. We had taken the matter lightly," he said.

When Takaku did not return home Sunday night, his anxious family contacted the police.

Officers found him in a forest about 1.7 kilometers from his home.

The head teacher briefed parents on the principal's death at the school at 6:30 p.m. Monday.

(Oct. 31, 2006)

Ministry details high school subject bailout plan / 11-03-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Education, Science and Technology Ministry announced Thursday that the bailout plan for third-year high school students who were not taught all compulsory subjects necessary for graduation will be implemented as a special measure for this school year only.

The ministry is allowing school principals to schedule up to 70 extra class hours--which students must attend--and to change school regulations at their own discretion when necessary.

The ministry was set to officially notify prefectural boards of education of the bailout measures later the same day.

Although school curriculum guidelines are legally binding, there is a stipulation in the School Education Law that states school principals are responsible for certifying the academic credits for each subject, meaning that each school has a certain level of discretion.

The ministry said this stipulation allows each school to implement the extra classes in a flexible manner.

Under the ministry's decree, students who were not taught compulsory subjects must take 70 extra 50-minute classes, in principle.

But for students who need 70 or fewer extra class hours, the ministry is permitting schools to cut the number of hours to 50 under internal rules that state students need to attend at least two-thirds of all classes to receive academic credits.

If students need more than 70 extra hours, the 70 class hours are distributed among the compulsory subjects that they were not taught. In such a case, students are required to submit reports or other work to make up the outstanding time.

Each school is allowed to alter their internal rules to implement this option.

The ministry has decided not to nullify the graduation certificates of students who have already graduated without completing all compulsory subjects, under another stipulation that states school principals hold the authority to certify graduation.

The ministry also announced the number of high schools in each prefecture, as of Wednesday, where compulsory subjects had not been offered. The total number was 540. Broken down by prefecture, numbers were highest in Hokkaido, 46, Shizuoka 41, Iwate 35 and Nagano, 34.

Numbers likely will swell further, as two high schools in Aomori Prefecture were also found Thursday to have failed to teach compulsory subjects.

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Variety of options

As the ministry is allowing schools to implement the bailout measure with a certain amount of leeway, high schools can offer students a wide variety of lectures and other activities in the extra classes.

For example, students who did not study five compulsory courses are supposed to take 350 extra class hours.

But the ministry's decision has cut the number to about 70. Such students will have to divide these 70 class hours among the five subjects. Thus it is possible they will spend relatively few hours in each class.

The extra classes may not necessarily be lecture-based. For example, if the extra class is art, students can attend an art exhibition; if the class is social studies, they can listen to a speech given by a celebrity.

The extra classes can also be held during the winter recess and after university entrance examinations. School principals are permitted to implement the measures in light of the situation at their respective schools.

However, some teachers have voiced objections to the way the extra classes are being implemented. A part-time teacher in Osaka Prefecture said: "The subjects should have been taught over a full year. If they are taught over such a short period, the students can't learn enough."

Students' views on ministry's measure mixed / 11-03-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Third-year students at a private high school in Morioka take an extra class in world history that started Wednesday.

Many third-year high school students whose schools did not teach them some compulsory subjects were relieved with the education ministry's decision to reduce the number of compensation lessons required for graduation to 70 or fewer.

However, some students who have completed all the compulsory subjects in line with ministry requirements are calling the bailout plan unfair.

"The plan will make my life a lot easier," a third-year high school girl in Hokkaido said. "I feel relieved."

Technically, she should take 210 extra lessons to graduate next spring, but the ministry's plan largely cuts this time.

But another third-year high student in Chiba Prefecture, who initially faced 140 extra lessons, had mixed feelings about the plan.

"I feel a bit guilty for being allowed to learn less than I should," he said.

Some students whose extra lessons will not be much reduced by the plan are not impressed.

A third-year high school student in Toyama Prefecture said: "I would have preferred it if the plan had cut the compensation hours to zero. I'll study other subjects or rest my brain during the compensation lessons."

However, many students who have covered all the necessary subjects are unhappy.

"We spent hours studying subjects not required for university entrance exams," a third-year student at a Gunma Prefecture high school said. "It's unfair that some students can graduate even though they studied fewer subjects than us."

"I don't quite get it if a student who has an advantage over me [in terms of the number of studying hours] is successful in a university entrance exam while I fail," a third-year high school student in Fukui Prefecture said.

One third-year student in Oita Prefecture expressed a more sympathetic view. "I feel sorry for students who have to take extra lessons from now," she said.

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Effective implementation

High schools that have failed to teach all the compulsory subjects have begun preparing extra lessons based on the bailout plan.

The plan makes it possible for schools to flexibly schedule extra lessons at the principal's discretion and will stretch teachers' ability to teach the new subjects in such a short time frame.

Satake High School in Ibaraki Prefecture--whose principal, Yuichiro Takaku, committed suicide following the revelation that his school failed to teach some subjects--initially planned to hold 140 extra lessons for 80 third-year students after school hours, during winter holidays and voluntary attendance days from February.

Since the bailout plan enabled the school to reduce the number of extra extra lessons to 70, the school will rewrite its schedule after receiving official notification from the prefecture's education board.

"The burden on both teachers and students will be reduced a little," head teacher Shigeru Nemoto said.

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Responses from universities

The ministry decided Wednesday to send a letter to all universities and colleges requesting that applicants who were not taught all compulsory subjects at high school are not placed at a disadvantage by the institutions' entrance exams, ministry officials said.

The universities' responses have been mixed. For example, Tottori University is planning to accept applications from students from schools that did not teach all the compulsory subjects and allow them to sit the entrance exam.

However, it will not allow a student to enroll if, after completing the university enrollment procedures, it becomes clear that he or she has not graduated from high school.

Ishihara lashes out at 'grade-grabber' teachers / 11-04-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara has criticized the 12 public and private high schools in Tokyo that failed to teach compulsory subjects necessary for students to graduate, accusing teachers of being too focused on short-term gains.

"Teachers have become grade-grabbers just to improve students' academic performance in the short-term," Ishihara said at a press conference Thursday.

Ishihara said that with many schools competing for the highest pass rate for students taking university entrance examinations, education is effectively being commercialized.

"I think they watered down [the curriculum] to get a good reputation. Their philosophy on education seems to have deviated from what it should be," he said.

Among the high schools cited as failing to follow the guidelines, there were a number of elite establishments that concentrate on preparing students for the university entrance examination, with many excluding compulsory subjects not on the exam from their curriculums.

On the bailout plan announced by the Education, Science and Technology Ministry, which proposes 50 to 70 supplemental classes, Ishihara said: "In the case of history, it's better to make students write a report after reading a few good books. But the ministry should also make teachers fulfill their responsibility."

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Approving curriculum 'a mistake'

The head of the Citizens and Cultural Affairs Bureau for the Tokyo metropolitan government has apologized for not noticing the failure to teach compulsory subjects at Komazawa University's affiliated high school in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo.

In an education committee session of the metropolitan assembly, Hisao Watanabe on Thursday said the metropolitan government made a mistake in approving the curriculum, and offered his apologies.

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Declining honors

A former principal and two former chairmen of the board of directors at three private high schools found not to have taught compulsory subjects have declined to receive honors that were to be conferred upon them this autumn, it has been learned.

According to Obirin Gakuen, which operates Obirin High School, it had been decided informally that Izo Shimizu, 79, who chaired the board from 1989 to 1999, would receive the Order of the Rising Sun, with Gold Rays and Neck Ribbon.

However, the school began to omit compulsory subjects from around 1995, when Shimizu was chairman. The school, which had recommended Shimizu for the order, indicated its intention to the Education, Science and Technology Ministry on Tuesday to retract the recommendation.

Hirobumi Chida, 71, former principal at Senshu University Kitakami High School in Iwate Prefecture and Takeshi Nagashima, 73, former board chairman at Yonago Nagashima Gakuen, which operates Yonago Shoin High School, in Tottori Prefecture, have also declined to receive awards.

EDITORIAL/ Curriculum scandal / 11-04-06

11/04/2006

Education boards take flak over scandal / 11-05-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The recent revelations that a large number of high schools failed to teach compulsory subjects required for students to graduate and that bullying is rampant at many schools call into question the functionality of the board of education system.

With some boards failing to respond to the issues appropriately, the need to revise the system is becoming the central topic during deliberations over a bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education.

The subject also is likely to dominate meetings of the Education Rebuilding Council launched at the initiative of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Education, Science and Technology Minister Bunmei Ibuki told a press conference Thursday: "Without sincerity and moral consciousness, problems can't be solved. I want them [local boards of education] to think again and respond to the voice of the people."

Ibuki also said he would send letters to the chairmen of boards of education urging them to give guidance to teachers as a matter of urgency.

Other ministers also have called for a reform of the system.

Sanae Takaichi, state minister for Okinawa, northern territories, science and technology policy, said: "Membership on a board of education shouldn't be seen as a honorary position. I want board members to tackle issues and work on them seriously."

The local board of education system was introduced in 1948 with the aim of keeping education independent from politics. Under the system, prefectural governors and mayors, with the approval of local assemblies, appoint members to the boards, and the members oversee the secretariats of the boards.

But critics say that recently this system has become a mere formality.

What is seen as the crux of the matter is how board members are chosen.

"Members of boards of education tend to be selected from among prominent figures in an area, and often chairmen of their [prefectural governors and mayors] election campaign organization are selected," a senior ministry official said.

According to other observers, many directors of secretariats, who are appointed by boards, are often former teachers, possibly inviting collusive relations between them and schools.

Given such criticism, it has been strongly suggested that individuals who are deeply concerned about education should be selected as board members.

Under the current system, when a problem such as a school failing to teach students compulsory subjects comes to light, it is difficult to pinpoint who is responsible--the school principal, the local board of education, or the education ministry.

The ministry compiles the teaching guidelines, while prefectural boards of education establish and run prefectural high schools, but the actual curriculum is decided upon by the principal of each high school.

To clarify who should be held responsible, the government's council for promoting regulatory reform and privatizing services and the Democratic Party of Japan have stressed that the system should be changed so that governors and mayors would be held responsible for the administration of education.

They also say the entire system should be revised, including considering the possibility of abolishing the board of education system.

In contrast, a report compiled in 2005 by the Central Council for Education, an advisory panel to the education, science and technology minister, proposed reforms that would maintain the current system's framework.

Abe has said, "Boards of education must address children's future responsibly."

This comment suggests the discussion on reviewing the current system will proceed on the assumption that the board of education system will remain in place.

However, some within the government and the ruling parties are saying the government should have more authority over education. Others say more authority should be given to boards of education, but want the responsibility of the boards clarified.

Schools slow to admit to skipping subjects / 11-06-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

More than 40 high schools have been delinquent in reporting on their failures to teach their students compulsory subjects, despite a deadline set by the Education, Science and Technology Ministry, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

While some schools apparently had not realized they had misread the ministry's curriculum guidelines, other high schools allegedly acted deliberately and hoped to avoid defection by the ministry.

As of Wednesday, the survey has revealed 540 high schools failed to follow the government-mandated curriculum. The results were based on reports received by Tuesday, the original deadline for the reports.

It is thought by many that this figure will continue rising for the foreseeable future.

A Yomiuri Shimbun survey found high schools continue to issue reports, with more than 40 received since Wednesday. The ministry had demanded such schools come forward through prefectural governments by Tuesday so that it could better understand the circumstances regarding high schools trying to avoid some compulsory subjects.

Tokushima Bunri High School, a private school in Tokushima Prefecture, reported to the ministry Wednesday its failure to teach six compulsory subjects. Yet in response to two surveys on the issue conducted by the prefecture in October, the school said it was teaching all compulsory subjects.

The school even submitted to the prefectural government class schedules for students that made it appear as if they were taking all the necessary lessons. The school also told its teachers to explain to the students they were being taught all the subjects required for graduation.

"I couldn't report [the truth to the prefectural government] because I feared it would cause a problem if we brought the matter to light," Hiroshi Toyosaki, the high school's principal, said. He also apologized to the students.

As of Oct. 26, Kiryu Daiichi High School, a private school in Gunma Prefecture, said it was aware there were compulsory subjects it was not teaching, but it was only Wednesday that the school officially acknowledged it to the prefecture.

The school reportedly decided to do so after learning some universities had begun to say they would not accept students on recommendation-based admission if reports on them compiled by high school contained fallacies.

"We initially hoped we could get away with it because we thought it would affect the students tremendously," a spokesperson for the school said. "But then we reconsidered, deciding we would be causing them more trouble if they try to get admitted to a university on recommendations."

Eishin Gakuen High School, a private school in Osaka, is one of those schools that took too long to realize they misunderstood the government guidelines. For the civics category, the guidelines require students to study one subject in the "modern social studies" subcategory or a set of two subjects of "ethics" and "politics-economics." Since fiscal 2003, however, the school has offered students only the politics-economics option.

When questioned by the Osaka prefectural government, the school initially replied there was nothing out of the ordinary. But the school learned Wednesday some schools doing the same thing were reported as failing to teach some of the compulsory subjects, and the school immediately reported to the prefecture.

Search on for ways to make up classes / 11-06-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Many high schools that failed to teach compulsory subjects required for graduation are coming up with various makeup classes after the Education, Science and Technology Ministry's green lighting of flexible contents for such classes.

Among schools taking advantage of this special measure is Hokuriku Otani High School, a private school in Ishikawa Prefecture.

Before the school's failures came to light, its students were required to take either world history or Japanese history in the geography-history category, but were supposed to take two compulsory subjects in the category.

In Thursday's makeup class for those having to take one of the world or Japanese history classes, the school showed a video of an episode of NHK's weekly program "Rediscovering History." The episode featured the final days of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Fukui High School, a private school attached to Fukui University of Technology, in Fukui Prefecture, also is considering using the program in a makeup class in order to make it easier for students to learn.

Nada High School, a well-known private school in Kobe with a high academic reputation, also is one of the schools that did not offer compulsory subjects, including home economics.

As part of makeup classes, the school is planning to send its students to Kiku-Masamune Sake Brewing Co.'s brewery for a study tour in which they will learn about sake production from a brewer. The high school is run by an educational organization affiliated with the sake company.

(Nov. 6, 2006)

Ministry knew of curriculum shortfalls years ago / 11-10-06

Kyodo News

The education ministry knew more than four years ago that 16 percent of university students had not taken high school world history, a compulsory subject, sources said Wednesday.

That figure is from a ministry-commissioned survey conducted between 2001 and 2002 of about 33,000 postsecondary students nationwide.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has claimed repeatedly, including once in the Diet, that the problem was only found in a few prefectures, so it did not conduct a nationwide investigation.

The survey, led by professor Haruo Yanai at St. Luke's College of Nursing, was conducted between November 2001 and February 2002 to gauge student academic preferences. Respondents studying in 600 academic departments at 408 public and private universities were polled.

In the survey, 5,400 students admitted they had not taken world history in high school. The subject became compulsory in the school year that started in April 1994.

According to the survey, 31 percent in dental schools and 26 percent in medical schools said they had not taken the subject. Twenty-three percent of the students at national universities and 13 percent of those at private universities said they did not study the subject.

"We compiled the results in a booklet and sent about 30 copies to the ministry, but because the curriculum issue was not the main subject of the survey, it drew little attention at the time," Yanai said.

The issue of high schools not offering world history and other compulsory classes first surfaced between 1999 and 2002 in several prefectures, including Kumamoto, Hyogo and Hiroshima.

The ministry only said the national curriculum guidelines had to be followed in 2002 and 2003 at national conferences of boards of education.

The current curriculum problem surfaced in October when it was discovered that several prefectures, including Toyama and Iwate, were not teaching all of the compulsory subjects, leading the ministry to conduct a nationwide investigation.

The ministry found that students at 540 high schools -- 10 percent of all schools -- were not being taught all the subjects required.

Curriculum mess known 4 years ago  / 11-10-06

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

The education ministry was informed four years ago that many university students had not completed their required high school curriculum, but it failed to respond, ministry officials admitted Thursday. In 2002, an expert panel found that a full 16 percent of university students had not studied world history, a mandatory subject, in high school. The ministry received the survey results, but did not take action to find out more about the problem. "We were not sensitive enough," Masami Zeniya, director-general of the ministry's Elementary and Secondary Education Bureau, told the Upper House education committee Thursday. "We feel responsible" for failing to act, he said. It emerged last month that many high schools do not teach mandatory subjects, opting instead to focus primarily on those needed for university entrance exams. More than 83,000 students at 540 high schools nationwide have failed to take at least one subject required for graduation. Between 1999 and 2002, similar problems were reported in Kumamoto, Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Hyogo prefectures. After the latest scandal broke, the ministry declared that it had not done a nationwide curriculum survey because it thought the problem was limited to just a few prefectures. But the 2002 survey had clearly indicated the problem was widespread. The education ministry commissioned the survey from a study group on academic levels in higher education. The survey received responses from 33,000 students at all levels at 408 colleges and universities, public and private, between November 2001 and February 2002. Sixteen percent of the respondents, or 5,400 students, said they did not study world history in their high school days, said group leader Haruo Yanai, a professor at St. Luke's College of Nursing. Thirty-one percent of dentistry students and 26 percent of medical students skipped world history. About 10 percent of literature majors did. World history was made a mandatory high school subject in 1994. The survey results were reported to the ministry's Higher Education Bureau in June 2002. But Zeniya said that officials there failed to pass those results on to the Elementary and Secondary Education Bureau, which is in charge of high schools.(IHT/Asahi: November 10,2006)

Osaka University to offer students remedial classes in world history / 11-18-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Osaka University will offer world history classes in its liberal studies program next year for students whose high school education was deficient in that field of study.

The university will teach world history using high school textbooks and give the students course credits.

An official of the Education, Science and Technology Ministry's university promotion division said the plan was unprecedented.

Under the plan, courses on European history and Asian history will be offered in April to freshmen as optional subjects in the liberal arts. The purpose of the courses is for the students to acquire knowledge basic to all members of society.

The university decided to offer the courses prior to reports of high schools across the nation failing to teach compulsory subjects.

Prof. Shiro Momoki, who proposed the idea, said he started to have a sense of crisis because students' knowledge of world history has drastically declined for five or six years.

He initially thought it was because students did not seriously study the subject since it now appears on fewer university entrance examinations.

"The quality of students hasn't dropped. They just weren't taught the subject. I was really surprised," Momoki said.

(Nov. 18, 2006)

Govt to tackle problem of 'free' school lunches / 10-22-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Education, Science and Technology Ministry will conduct the first survey on the nonpayment of school lunch fees at public primary and middle schools across the country, according to ministry officials.

Since school lunches are provided by city, town and village governments, the ministry will ask prefectural boards of education to compile reports on the situation in cities, towns and villages, the officials said Friday.

As there have been complaints about the increasing number of parents who fail to pay for their children's school lunches despite being able to do so, the ministry decided to study the extent of the problem because the school lunch meal program is not sustainable without payment.

Nonpayments have led schools to reduce food quantity and quality in accordance with the amount unpaid, and teachers and staff members have had to visit students' parents to urge them to pay up.

(Oct. 22, 2006)

Battle over education bill set to begin in Diet / 10-26-06 The Yomiuri Shimbun

Discussion on a bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education in the current Diet session is expected to involve fierce protests from opposition parties that are strongly against it.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has deemed the bill a key one, and discussions are finally set to begin.

In order for the movement to revitalize education to gain momentum, the government and the ruling parties hope to establish the government-sponsored bill in the current Diet session, which lasts until Dec. 15. Therefore, the government's tight schedule offers little room for prolonged discussion on the issue.

A similar bill drafted by the Democratic Party of Japan includes some ideas initially proposed by the Liberal Democratic Party, which could lead to some confusion during discussions.

The government and the ruling parties aim for the bill to be passed by the House of Representatives in early November.

Discussion over the bill in the House of Representatives lasted for 49 hours in the ordinary Diet session.

"The discussion on the law to promote administrative reform, which was also discussed by a special committee, required more than 60 hours in the lower house. So, another 30 hours should be enough for the discussion in the house on revising the Fundamental Law of Education. Five days would be enough if we could spend six hours each day," a member of a ruling party said.

However, a DPJ senior executive said, "We have a new prime minister and education, science and technology minister, so we should hold a thorough discussion on the subject with a new perspective."

Discussion of important bills in the House of Councillors is generally said to last two-thirds as long as in the lower house.

Under that presumption, if the discussion required 90 hours in the lower house, in the upper house, it is expected to last about 60 hours.

If the discussion in the upper house begins mid-November, there would only be about one month until the end of the current Diet session.

"There are five DPJ members in the upper house who belonged to the Japan Teachers' Union, so the discussion won't be easy," a senior LDP lawmaker in the upper house said.

===

'Patriotism' stirs more debate

Education, Science and Technology Minister Bunmei Ibuki said to reporters after a Cabinet meeting Tuesday: "I spoke with the prime minister to share the basic idea of the bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education since discussions will begin soon. We also talked about the DPJ's bill."

His discussion with Abe lasted for about 10 minutes at the Diet.

Ibuki's statement caused a stir, raising speculation that Abe has at least partially accepted the DPJ's counterproposal, which could alter the LDP's plan.

The reason for speculation is that the DPJ's bill includes some ideas initiated by the LDP, such as the definition of patriotism, which has become a focal point in the debate over the revision.

To compromise with New Komeito members who opposed using the word "patriotism" the expression in the government plan now reads, "to nurture an attitude to love our nation and homeland."

In the DPJ plan, it is defined as "the spirit to love Japan," which some LDP members have admitted is a better and clearer expression.

However, a senior ruling party official said: "The government's bill is the best. We won't make changes in the bill that has been discussed for a long period of time by the LDP and New Komeito."

The DPJ is expected to initiate debate with the ruling parties, causing time to run out in the Diet session.

(Oct. 26, 2006)

Govt mulling problems at high schools / 10-28-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Amid a series of reports on the failure of a large number of high schools to teach subjects designated as compulsory for graduation, the government on Friday started devising concrete measures to prevent students from being overwhelmed by having to take makeup lessons to meet their graduation requirements.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructed Education, Science and Technology Minister Bunmei Ibuki to come up with measures that would reduce the burden on such students.

The measures may include a reduction in regular class hours and the awarding of credits based on reports and examinations alone, sources said.

Speaking in Tokyo earlier the same day, Abe said, "Nothing is wrong with the children, and the problem should be handled in a way that there will be no trouble for the children in the future."

Abe also said he would take up the issue with the Education Rebuilding Council, which is an advisory panel to the prime minister.

"I intend to have the Education Rebuilding Council discuss what caused the problem and what should be done to prevent it from recurring," Abe said.

Secretaries general of the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito on the same day held the inaugural meeting of a consultative panel on rebuilding education. They demanded the Education, Science and Technology Ministry devise by Tuesday practical ways to ease the burden on students who were not taught the subjects required for graduation.

The panel also agreed to examine the government's teaching guidelines and compulsory subjects as well as the role of local boards of education. The panel intends to work toward an improvement of the system as a medium- to long-term target for preventing any recurrence of failures to teach compulsory subjects.

New Komeito Secretary General Kazuo Kitagawa said the burden on students should be reduced by such means as cutting class hours.

The panel is expected to hold meetings of working-level officials once a week or so. The panel will meet next to discuss the measures the ministry was given until Tuesday to hammer out, the sources said.

Ibuki said at a press conference Wednesday: "I urge schools to offer a mandatory curriculum until they issue certificates of graduation to students. There shouldn't be any unfairness between students who strive [to follow the requirements] and others who don't."

===

List of schools grows to 402

The number of high schools that failed to teach compulsory subjects grew to 402, including 120 private schools, in 41 prefectures as of Friday, according to the findings of a Yomiuri Shimbun survey.

The number of high school students to receive make-up classes exceeded 86,000.

Five schools have been ordered to give students more than 200, 50-minute make-up classes until the end of the academic year in March to meet graduation requirements.

The Education, Science and Technology Ministry, meanwhile, announced its urgent, interim survey results on public high schools. As of 9 p.m. Friday, 97 public high schools were listed as not teaching compulsory subjects and already have produced falsified reports on curriculums to prefectural boards of education stating they taught students the required subjects.

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun survey, the schools that failed to teach students compulsory subjects was 402 across 41 prefectures.

Hokkaido ranked top with 40 high schools on the list, followed by Iwate Prefecture at 36, Nagano Prefecture at 31, Shizuoka Prefecture at 29, and Fukushima and Shimane prefectures at 21 each. Chiba, Kanagawa, Mie, Tokushima, Kumamoto and Okinawa prefectures had no schools on the list.

The survey found a private high school in Okayama Prefecture where students have to take 350, 50-minute make-up classes as the school did not require students to take four compulsory subjects.

There were seven compulsory subjects found not taught--geography-history, civics, science, health, arts, home economics and information technology. No school was found failing to teach Japanese language, mathematics and foreign languages as mandatory subjects, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun survey.

As to when they began such a wrongdoing, 82 percent of 273 high schools that replied to the survey said they started after the beginning of the 2003 academic year. As the five-day school week system was fully introduced in the 2002 academic year, it is likely that high schools became anxious over a decline in academic ability due to reduced class hours.

Meanwhile, the ministry said that among 2,718 public high schools in 31 prefectures and 15 ordinance-designated major cities that replied as of 9 p.m. Friday, 97 schools in 16 prefectures and two major cities were discovered to be failing to teach mandatory subjects.

(Oct. 28, 2006)

Public should be part of educational reforms / 10-28-06

Shigeru Nakanishi / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

The Education Rebuilding Council, an advisory panel on educational reforms under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has begun full-fledged debates and will soon set up subpanels, but the primary issues to be discussed by the council remain unclear.

At its second meeting on Oct. 25, the council decided to set up three subpanels to discuss educational reforms; rebuilding public morals, family ties and educational functions of local communities; and rebuilding education in general, including educational systems.

The council's 17 members will belong to either the first or second subpanel. They will all take part in the third panel to discuss general education issues.

At roughly the same time the council was launched, incidents of primary and middle school students committing suicide after claiming they were bullied, including cases in Hokkaido and Fukuoka Prefecture, began attracting the public's attention.

Some members of the council said the suicides demonstrate the need to rebuild the nation's educational system.

Yuko Obuchi, parliamentary secretary of the Education, Science and Technology Ministry, prime ministerial adviser Eriko Yamatani, who heads the secretariat of the council, and Hiroyuki Yoshiie, a council member, went to Fukuoka to investigate a suicide there.

Teachers' qualifications and the actions of local boards of education have been questioned in the Hokkaido and Fukuoka suicides. In these incidents, an iron rule about bullying cases was ignored--if a student believes he or she is being bullied, the action should be regarded as bullying. Also, a school principal in one of the cases made a remark about the teacher's responsibility, which may have hurt the feelings of bereaved family members.

What will the council members learn from that reality? Debates in the council may differ depending on how that question is answered.

One of the council's main agendas is a renewal system for teacher licenses--another public promise made by Abe.

However, the ministry's Central Education Council already issued a report on the renewal system and work has begun to turn the idea into legislation.

Many critics of the renewal system proposed in the Central Education Council's report have also pointed out that it will not eliminate underqualified teachers.

Will the Education Rebuilding Council discuss how to eliminate underqualified teachers under the framework of the already proposed license renewal system? Will the council amend the system proposed by the central council in its interim report in January? Or will it consider other, tougher measures to eliminate underqualified teachers?

Yamatani said those are "issues to be discussed from now on."

Judging from a press briefing after the second meeting, the council's debates still revolve around basic questions: Is it necessary to form a common understanding of what mandatory education is, and what should be taught under mandatory education? Should the government utilize talented people from other fields in educational institutions?

As one of the members remarked in the debates that there should be a discussion on how universities and graduate schools will be in the future, it appears the range of council debates will be very wide.

The direction of the council debates is hard to understand, partly because the sessions are not open to the public.

Though the council pledges to later publicize detailed minutes of its discussions, it currently holds press briefings of only 15 to 20 minutes after meetings to explain what was discussed.

Government council debates have been open to the public--in principle--for many years. Though some of the councils, such as the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, remain closed to the public, debates in the Central Education Council, which had previously happened entirely behind closed doors, are now completely public.

I have never heard of any problems caused by such openness.

Ryoji Noyori, chairman of the Education Rebuilding Council, explained why the council's debates are not open to the public, borrowing a phrase from the musical, "Man of La Mancha," after the council's first meeting on Oct. 18.

He said, "Though I'm a scientist, there's a saying that fact is the enemy of the truth. It's important to explain the content of debates as concepts." But his words did not explain much to the public.

Many of the council members also belong to other government councils that have debates open to the public. Are they unable to have sufficient discussions in these open councils?

At a press conference Wednesday, Morio Ikeda, acting chairman of the Education Rebuilding Council, said, "Carrying out educational reforms will be difficult unless all members of society cooperate with us. This council will eagerly listen to the public and actively make proposals."

If he really believes that, should not the council be willing to hold debates open to the public? Especially with educational issues that the public are deeply interested in, hearing the actual voices of council members is the only way to observe delicate nuances and the enthusiasm of debaters.

Sooner or later, the subpanels will discuss a school voucher system, proposed by Abe, that is unfamiliar to the public, as well as changing the start of the university academic year to September, which will have a huge impact on people's lives.

When those debates begin, the public's reaction and support could differ greatly depending on whether transparency in the council's debates is sufficiently secured.

(Oct. 28, 2006)

Government planted backers in town meeting on education revision bill / 11-08-06

Kyodo News

The Cabinet Office apologized Tuesday for telling the Hachinohe board of education in Aomori Prefecture to plant people in a town meeting who would make remarks in support of a controversial government bill to revise the education law.

Cabinet Office officials also revealed during a Diet committee meeting that the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, which administers the education law, had written out questions and statements for those people to use at the Sept. 2 meeting.

The board enlisted three people, two of whom spoke at the meeting, using the ministry's prepared remarks.

"It is extremely regrettable that such a thing happened that could undermine people's trust in town meetings," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told a news conference.

"This happened because people in the field went too far. . . . As town meetings are a precious opportunity for local people and the Cabinet to communicate, we would like to continue and improve them."

Shiozaki also said that the Cabinet Office may have sent similar requests to local governments for other town meetings on education reform.

The revelation comes as the Diet is holding final deliberations on the bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education.

One of the points of contention is a clause saying that patriotism must be fostered in students.

The Cabinet Office said it would consider investigating whether there were any other cases of plants at any of the other 174 town meetings held during Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's term in office.

The Cabinet Office said the education ministry told it Aug. 22 that it would put together sample questions for participants "to spur active discussions" on revising the Fundamental Law of Education at the Hachinohe meeting.

The ministry forwarded the questions to the Cabinet Office on Aug. 30.

The Cabinet Office sent the document on to the Hachinohe board of education without any changes.

Three people were then chosen and told to say some of the comments on the document at the town meeting, according to a Cabinet Office report.

EDITORIAL/ Achievement rewards / 11-08-06

Starting from April in Tokyo, Adachi Ward has decided to link its public school budget allocations to students' achievement test scores. Under the financial incentive initiative, public elementary and junior high schools in the ward will be graded from A to D according to the results of the tests, which are to be respectively conducted by the Tokyo metropolitan government and the ward. The plan will raise the amount of funding for unique education initiatives at schools, while cutting funding for teaching materials and other basics. The amount each school receives under the program will be based on its grade, which in turn will depend on how well its students do on the tests. For example, elementary schools graded A will receive 4 million yen under the program, while schools graded D will receive only 2 million yen. The budget for this program is used to pay for such things as native-speaking instructors for foreign language lessons and helpers for supplementary classes. The new system means high-performing schools in Adachi Ward that bolster their students' test scores will get more funding than schools whose students don't perform so well on the tests. Adachi Ward schools belong to the bottom group among Tokyo wards and municipalities in academic ability test scores. Many parents in Adachi Ward must be hoping to see improvement in their children's academic performances. The ward's board of education has already pushed through measures to improve the situation, such as allowing students to choose which school to attend and introducing a two-semester system. The new incentive plan is another reform effort that reflects the education board's commitment to its mission. The chair of the board maintains that rewarding high-performing schools will give principals and teachers greater incentive to improve education and eventually raise academic standards across the ward. Encouraging competition among schools and students is no doubt needed. It is clear Japanese schools have lost much of their edge. But will this competition for funding truly raise the overall level of academic ability among students? Adachi Ward publishes the scores of individual schools on the achievement tests. This policy is designed to stimulate competition and enhance motivation to raise education levels. But the results show significant disparities between schools in the academic abilities of students. The gaps are especially wide among junior high schools. These disparities cannot be explained by differences in teaching skills and enthusiasm. The academic standards of schools also reflect the level of wealth among parents, how many students attend cram schools and what their overall attitudes toward education are. Since students have been allowed to choose which school to attend, schools rated as having high academic standards have attracted more top achievers. With incentive schemes geared toward rewarding high achieving schools with more money to hire assistant teachers and whatnot at the expense of the lower achievers, the gap will widen further. Certainly schools given an A grade will feel proud, but schools with a D grade, estimated at about 40 percent of the total currently, will end up feeling branded as underachievers. Such stigma will only worsen student attitudes toward their studies, not encourage them to try harder. Elementary and junior high school curricula are designed to offer opportunities to learn a wide range of subjects and develop physical strength. But achievement tests only measure students' abilities in a limited number of subjects. If school budgets are tied to these test results, any subjects not covered by the tests will likely end up receiving short shrift. If the ward wants to promote competition among schools through budget allocations, it would be better off using a different approach. Achievements could be rewarded not based on high test scores, but rather by measuring the amount of improvement over the previous year's test scores, for instance. This approach would give all schools, including low-achieving ones, an incentive to improve. It would also make the A-to-D grading system unnecessary. The primary objective of compulsory education is to raise the academic ability of all students to the level deemed necessary to contribute to society. The ward should reconsider its new budgeting plan from that perspective. --The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 7(IHT/Asahi: November 8,2006)

Adachi Ward scraps plan to base school budget allocations on students' test results / 11-08-06 The Asahi Shimbun Following a wave of criticism, Tokyo's Adachi Ward scrapped a plan to allocate funds to public elementary and junior high schools based on their students' academic achievement test results, officials said Tuesday. The plan was to take effect in April and would involve grading public schools from A to D according to the results of the students' tests. The size of budget allocations would be based on those grades. Parents and others complained to the ward's education board that such a system would further widen the academic disparity among the public schools, the officials said. Critics raised concerns the system would prompt schools to focus mainly on subjects on the tests at the expense of other courses, and that schools ranked A would attract all of the brightest children. In addition, students at D schools might become discouraged in their studies. Hiromichi Naito, superintendent of the ward's education board, announced the decision to scrap the plan during an education committee meeting Tuesday. "We thought that the initial system was apt to be misunderstood, as if we were labeling good schools with A and bad schools with D," Naito said. Instead, the ward intends to use the improvement rate of the test results from the previous school year as a main criterion for its financial initiative program from April, officials said. Earlier this month, the board came up with plans to differentiate school funding for "unique education initiatives," such as native-speaking instructors for language lessons, based on the results of two annual achievement tests, one held by the Tokyo metropolitan government and the other run by the ward. The ward initially planned to grade each school based on average scores, how they compared with other schools in Tokyo and the improvement rate from the previous year. Ten percent of the ward's schools would be ranked A; B schools would make up 20 percent; C schools would comprise 30 percent; and 40 percent would receive a D. A junior high school graded A would receive about 5 million yen ($42,500) under the financial initiative program, while an elementary school ranked A would gain about 4 million yen. Elementary and junior high schools graded D would receive only about 2 million yen each. Under the new measures, the education board will assess the scale of funding for each school based on the budget application submitted. Additional funding will be provided in correlation with the improvement rates of the test results. The education board will set up specific scales of improvement for each school.(IHT/Asahi: November 8,2006)

Funding plan fails the grade / 11-09-06

Government had plants in five town meetings on education bill / 11-10-06

By HIROKO NAKATA

Staff writer

The Cabinet Office admitted Thursday that it and the education ministry planted people at five out of eight town meetings on education reform to give government-authored statements supporting the controversial bill to revise the education law.

The Cabinet Office issued a report on its investigation into tampering with the town meetings, which were started in 2001 and were set up by then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to improve communication between the government and the public.

The five town meetings were held between Dec. 13, 2003, and September in Gifu, Wakayama, Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Beppu, Oita Prefecture and Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture. The Cabinet Office revealed the Hachinohe incident Tuesday.

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry asked local boards of education to put people in the meetings to give remarks from a list of questions and statements supplied by the ministry, hoping the comments would influence the audience to support the government-sponsored bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education.

One of the contentious points in the bill, which is expected to clear the House of Representatives next week, is that it would change the law to say that students should be instilled with patriotism.

The education ministry compiled a list of remarks for the participants to use at the meetings to show they supported the government-sponsored bill.

Between one and four participants at each of the five meetings spoke using the list.

The report indicated that the government might have used the same tactics in some of the other 166 town meetings during Koizumi's term in office, which was from April 2001 until this September.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki instructed the Cabinet Office to carefully investigate what happened at the 166 town meetings.

"Honestly, it is very regrettable," said Shunichi Uchida, vice minister at the Cabinet Office.

Uchida would not say at what level of the Cabinet the decision was made to plant people in the meetings.

EDITORIAL/ Rigged town meeting  / 11-10-06

This is outrageous. At a town meeting on education reform in Aomori Prefecture, many of the "citizen questions" asked were actually made by stooges planted there by the central government. What is especially disturbing is that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, which is responsible for educating our nation's children, was deeply involved in the arrangement. The meeting, in Hachinohe in September, was attended by about 400 people, including then Education Minister Kenji Kosaka. Six of the 10 people who posed questions were selected in advance by government officials to ask questions. Before the meeting, two of the questioners were even handed draft questions from the education ministry that were designed to paint in a positive light the controversial bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education that is now before the Diet. One of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's most important goals, he says, is to ensure enactment of this bill. The two questioners followed their draft questions to the letter, pointing out that changes in society mean that some laws need to be rewritten. They also mentioned the importance of parental influence on children's education in terms of morals and discipline. These plants were well-coached. They were told not to read their text in a singsong manner, but to pretend to be voicing their own views. The plot went so far as to ensure that an official at the hall followed the government's plants from the reception desk when they arrived to take note of which seats they were in, so that when it came time to choose a question from the audience, the emcee would be sure to choose the government's shill. This staged version of events is unbelievable. When former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi started this town meeting system immediately after taking office in 2001, he claimed it was a way to improve his communications with the public. Many cynics saw it as merely a government propaganda tool. In the last fiscal year, these meetings cost about 11 million yen each to stage. They offered a rare opportunity for voters to put their opinions directly before Cabinet ministers and other top government officials. If the government is simply feigning its interest in public opinion by injecting large amounts of tax money, it should not bother with these meetings. During Koizumi's five and a half years in government, about 170 town meetings were held. It is easy to assume that those, too, must have had their share of planted questioners. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki must quickly start a probe into whether similar arrangements have indeed taken place at past meetings. We must also investigate the meaning of one statement made by the Cabinet Office, which is responsible for organizing the events. Officials there have admitted asking citizens to raise questions, although they say they did not stipulate what questions should be asked. Such requests were intended to ensure the discussions were more lively, the Cabinet Office said. But we strongly suspect the government's real aim was to minimize criticism of its policies. If that is true, it would be completely opposite to the purported humble willingness to listen to citizens that Koizumi initially expressed. It is glaringly obvious the government cares little about public opinion. The fact that the education ministry asked the local board of education to help plant questions in the Hachinohe meeting via the Cabinet Office is another troubling point. This is fresh evidence that the nation's education boards are under the ministry's thumb. It is unsurprising to hear louder calls to get rid of education boards altogether. At the Diet, debate on the bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education is reaching a critical stage. The government's bill says education should be designed to respect the values of individuals and nurture a spirit of independence and self-discipline. Yet, the education ministry asked a local education board to fix the questions at its citizen forum, and the board did so. It is depressing to think that revision of this important law is in the hands of such people. --The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 9(IHT/Asahi: November 10,2006)

Purpose of 'town meetings' questioned after govt admits scripting them / 11-11-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policy of emphasizing dialogue with citizens has stumbled from the beginning because public forums--so-called town meetings--have been halted after it was discovered the government asked some people taking part to speak in favor of a proposed revision of the Fundamental Law of Education during a September hearing on the subject in Aomori Prefecture.

Explaining why questions were prearranged, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told reporters Thursday that major aim was to spark discussion. He said it was usual to consider measures to encourage discussion, but the measure this time was excessive, and the government made a mistake in deciding to energize debate in this way.

But the government supplied the chosen speakers with only questions that cast the revision of the basic education law in a positive light and nothing that could be considered criticism. That Shiozaki's explanation that the government aimed to stir discussion is unpersuasive cannot be denied.

According to the Cabinet Office, an official who has been temporarily dispatched from the Education, Science and Technology Ministry to the Cabinet Office was involved in organizing five town-hall meetings on education reform in which questions were prearranged.

The ministry's Vice Minister Akio Yuki said at Thursday's press conference he thought the official's action was based on cases in which there have been interruptions or no questions. Yuki indicated questions were prearranged to prevent confusion caused by those who oppose revision of the law.

As to responsibility, Shiozaki said the government would deal with the issue of determining who was responsible after its investigation of the meetings was complete.

The chief cabinet secretary is ultimately responsible for the town meetings and the September meeting in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, for which the questions were prearranged was held while Abe was still in the post.

It is assumed Shiozaki is dodging the responsibility issue because he fears Abe's will be asked about his role when deliberation on revision of the law enters its final stage in the House of Representatives.

Abe said Thursday night: "Naturally, I knew nothing about the prearranged questions. I'll make sure such a thing never happens again. I understand the original aim of the town meetings and I'd like to use them as an opportunity for dialogue."

But opposition Social Democratic Party Secretary General Seiji Mataichi said, "We must hear what Abe has to say in the budget committee."

He plans to try to get Abe to admit his responsibility.

The idea of town meetings was introduced by former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in June 2001 as a forum for direct dialogue between the government and the public on key policy issues. In principle, related Cabinet ministers speak about a specific policy issue and members of the public are also given a chance to give their opinions. In his policy speech in late September, Abe said he wanted to boost the role of the town meetings.

Education bill may not pass in Diet session / 11-14-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education--the focal issue of the current extraordinary Diet session--might not pass during the current session as the opposition parties called for further deliberation on the bill Monday.

Liberal Democratic Party Diet Affairs Committee Chairman Toshihiro Nikai and his Democratic Party of Japan counterpart Yoshiaki Takaki met Monday to discuss the handling of the bill, but the two chairmen failed to reach any agreement.

While the ruling parties want the bill to pass the House of the Representatives on Thursday so the bill can pass the House of Councillors during the current session, which is scheduled to end Dec. 15, the opposition bloc is seeking further deliberations on the bill in the lower house, according to Diet members.

Some members of the ruling camp said Monday the term of the current Diet session should be extended to ensure the bill passes.

The passage of the bill during the current session has become uncertain due to increased public interest in the education system, particularly in connection with emergence of a number of education-related incidents, including suicides related to bullying, the intervention of the government in the public questions at public hearings on eduction issues, and the failure by some high schools to teach compulsory subjects.

Some elements of the ruling bloc and the government have voiced concerns that if the coalition bulldozes the bill through this week in the lower house, it will boost DPJ assertions that there was not enough deliberation on the bill at a time when eduction issues are in the spotlight.

In a speech in Fukuoka on Monday, DPJ Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama said: "The issue of bullying has resulted not only in the suicides of children, but also of a school principal. In such a serious situation, why do we have to pass the revision bill?"

When the House of Councillors debates a bill, it usually takes about 70 to 80 percent of the time spent in the lower house. So the more time is spent in the lower house passing the revision bill, the more difficult it will be to secure the necessary hours to discuss the bill in the upper house.

Pre-arranged questioners present at half of 174 town meetings / 11-14-06

Half of the 174 town meetings held when Junichiro Koizumi was prime minister involved people posing questions who had been selected in advance by government officials, a Cabinet Office investigation showed.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki defended the practice, saying organizers simply wanted the question posers to initiate discussions.

However, he said the government will end the practice to quell allegations that the town meetings are staged.

Town meetings are supposed to give the public a chance to discuss or debate policies with government officials. But recent revelations have shown that some of the questions from the public were prearranged and designed to shed a positive light on the policies.

According to government officials, the Cabinet Office, the organizer of the town meetings, checked information exchanged between the ministries concerned and municipal governments where the meetings were held.

The in-house investigation found that Cabinet Office officials engaged in a practice called "digging up" to select questioners in advance. Their aim was to "ensure the discussions would be more lively," an official said.

But there were actually two groups of selected questioners: one group to initiate the discussions and the other group consisting of "plants" who asked questions that were drafted to ensure a positive spin on the government's policies.

The government now regards the use of those plants as "excessive interference."

In May, at a town meeting in Sapporo on "Second Chance" programs, the Cabinet Office asked the Hokkaido government to select a questioner in advance.

"We asked the Hokkaido government because we were afraid that no one would offer a question. I do not think there is any problem," Shiozaki said.

But in September, at a town meeting on education in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, two of the selected questioners were handed draft questions designed to shine a positive light on the bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education, one of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's most important goals.

The Cabinet Office has confirmed the practice of using plants at five of eight education reform town meetings held between December 2003 and this September.

The government will examine all the other cases and report the results to the Cabinet Office.

Based on the report, the government will decide its reform strategy for the town meetings.

Shiozaki also announced a plan to set up an investigation team that includes third-party experts to discuss new management policy for the town meetings.(IHT/Asahi: November 14,2006)

Govt admits money paid to meeting questioners / 11-16-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki admitted Wednesday that 65 people were paid 5,000 yen each to ask questions at 25 town meetings organized by the government between fiscal 2002 and 2004.

Shiozaki also said the questioners were selected in advance and introduced to the moderator before each meeting.

Forty-two people were paid at 14 meetings in fiscal 2002, 15 at seven meetings in fiscal 2003 and eight at four meetings in fiscal 2004, Shiozaki said at a press conference. Money also might have been paid to people who spoke up in public forums in fiscal 2001, but there are no documents that give definite evidence of this, he said.

No such money had been paid since procedures for running town meetings were changed in fiscal 2005, Shiozaki said.

The town meeting investigation committee of the Cabinet Office held its first meeting the same day and decided it would examine whether speakers at 174 town meetings held during the tenure of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi had been given financial rewards.

Opposition's reasons for boycott are baloney / 11-16-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Opposition parties say they boycotted a vote on a bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education because of the problems of staged questions at government-sponsored town meetings and bullying-induced suicides by schoolchildren, but their explanation sounds farfetched.

The bill was voted on at a meeting of the House of Representatives special committee on the education law Wednesday. It passed the panel by majority vote and is expected to pass the lower house plenary session Thursday before being sent to the House of Councillors.

Members of opposition parties did not attend the committee meeting in a demonstration of their intention to boycott the vote. As a reason for the planned boycott, they said priority should be put on getting to the bottom of the scandal over government-prompted staged questions at town meetings on educational reform.

The government has repeatedly said it submitted the bill after taking into consideration opinions expressed at the town meetings and other venues. Seizing on this explanation, the opposition camp claims the bill is defective as it was compiled based on the staged questions asked at such meetings.

===

2 bills very similar

The government said the questions were intended to facilitate discussion, but it is clear that it went too far.

However, it is a leap of logic to conclude that the revision bill is also problematic. As examples of "opinions voiced at other venues," the government mentioned discussions at the National Commission on Educational Reform and the Central Council for Education. It is quite unrealistic for the opposition parties to assume that the bill was compiled based purely on the results of the town meetings.

The Democratic Party of Japan also argues that the recent series of bullying-induced suicides by schoolchildren and the failure by some high schools to teach compulsory subjects are problems directly related to the revision bill. The DPJ says the bill needs to be debated further before it is voted on.

The DPJ's counterproposal submitted to the Diet stipulates nurturing patriotism and a sense of public morality, and contains an article referring to education at home. There are no major differences between the government and DPJ bills. Comparing the language on cultivating patriotism in the bills, some within the Liberal Democratic Party even say the wording in the DPJ bill is better than that in the government bill.

Both bills probably ended up very similar because the ruling parties and the DPJ share the same belief that enhancing children's respect for social norms and attaching importance to the role of the family will help solve problems schools face, such as bullying.

If the DPJ seriously thinks bullying-induced suicides are related to the contents of the bill, it should invite the ruling parties to hold discussions to amend it.

===

Political expediency evident

However, the DPJ has urged a boycott of a vote on the bill together with the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party, which are totally opposed to revising the law. It seems that the DPJ is trying to exploit the issue of bullying-induced suicides, which has distressed many people in the nation, as an excuse to delay a vote on the bill.

The bill has already been deliberated at the lower house special committee for more than 100 hours. If the opposition parties think more debate is needed, they should soon sit down with the ruling parties in the upper house to discuss the bill. However, the opposition parties oppose establishing a special committee in the upper house to discuss the bill and is set to prevent the upper house from beginning deliberations on the bill by refusing to recommend members for the committee from their parties.

They say the deliberations were not conducted satisfactorily, but at the same time they are blocking the deliberations. By taking such a contradictory attitude they show that what they have said so far was based on political expediency.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nov. 16, 2006)

Ruling coalition education bill nears passage / 11-16-06

By MASAMI ITO

Staff writer

The Liberal Democratic Party and its junior ruling bloc partner, New Komeito, rammed a contentious bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education through a key Diet committee Wednesday, as opposition parties boycotted the proceedings.

The ruling coalition endorsed the bill in the absence of the Democratic Party of Japan, the Japanese Communist Party, the Social Democratic Party of Japan and the People's New Party.

It is expected to clear the full Lower House session Thursday, and then will be sent to the Upper House for deliberation.

Passage of the bill is a key step in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's effort to revise the law, which he argues will promote more love of country and discipline in schools.

It still remains unclear, however, whether the bill will be passed before the Diet session ends on Dec. 15.

Opponents say the legislation will foster narrow nationalism at schools. Abe has said revising the education law is a key part of his educational reform drive.

"Rebuilding the education (system) is my Cabinet's priority," Abe told reporters Wednesday evening after the committee vote.

Yukio Hatoyama, secretary general of the DPJ, the largest opposition party, slammed the vote, which went ahead despite the opposition boycott.

"It is unbelievable that (the ruling parties) forcefully approved the education bill," Hatoyama told reporters afterward. "(We will let) the public be the judge" of the results.

Hatoyama said the Diet should address more serious problems at schools before revising the 1947 education law, such as the recent suicides of students who were alleged victims of bullying by classmates.

The opposition camp is expected to step up efforts to block the education bill by boycotting or disrupting deliberations in the Diet to draw voter attention to the issue.

LDP lawmakers brushed the opposition complaints over the committee vote aside, saying it debated the bill for more than 100 hours.

"It is disappointing that the opposition parties, which have been entrusted to (deliberate the bill) on behalf of the public, (did not) appear to debate and vote (on the bill)," education minister Bunmei Ibuki said after the vote.

The main point in the revision proposed by the government is to instill a sense of "patriotism."

The revision bill, among other things, calls for cultivating "an attitude that respects tradition and culture and love of the national homeland that has fostered them."

Conservative lawmakers often argued that the current education law, which embraces respect for individuality and the full development of one's personality, has allowed students and teachers to indulge in too much freedom at schools.

Abe, who is regarded by many as a conservative hawk, has long advocated education reforms to help nurture patriotism.

65 picked to speak out at meetings remunerated / 11-26-06

Kyodo News

The government paid a total of 65 people over three years through fiscal 2004 to take part in government-sponsored meetings aimed at fostering dialogue between officials and citizens, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said Wednesday.

Shiozaki claimed the payments, 5,000 yen per participant, were reasonable and denied the money was paid to get them to make statements in favor of government policies.

"There was a process whereby (people making) representative statements were selected beforehand. The money they were paid was to reward them for playing a visible role, such as being introduced by the master of ceremonies. It was not a reward for asking prearranged questions," Shiozaki claimed.

'Cooperators' paid ¥5,000 to ask prepared questions  / 11-16-06

The Asahi Shimbun

The government's hand-picked citizen questioners at town meetings were paid 5,000 yen each, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told reporters Wednesday, but he denied their questions were "staged." The government-organized town meetings were held between fiscal 2002 and 2004, ostensibly to feel out public opinion on key government policies, such as amending the Fundamental Law of Education. Shiozaki said the government paid the cash to 65 people who asked the opening questions at 25 meetings over the three years during the Koizumi administration. Shiozaki's admission came after Social Democratic Party lawmaker Nobuto Hosaka questioned the Cabinet Office about such payments in Tuesday's Lower House special committee on the Fundamental Law of Education. Hosaka showed committee members documents signed by Cabinet Office officials and the advertising agency contracted to organize the town meetings. The contracts stated that from the second half of fiscal 2002 to 2005, remuneration for private-sector experts appearing on town meeting panels would be 30,000 yen, and that people asked to address the meetings would be paid 20,000 yen each. The documents also said that "other cooperators" would receive 5,000 yen. Hosaka suspected that the cooperators were in fact ringers asked to pose questions on behalf of the government, which hoped to portray its proposed education law amendments in a positive light. Shiozaki told Wednesday's news conference: "I do not see any problem (with the payments). They are just like remuneration paid to people who were asked to give lectures." He said that records of payments for meetings held in fiscal 2001 no longer existed. The government confirmed that 42 people were paid at 14 town meetings in fiscal 2002, 15 at seven meetings in fiscal 2003 and eight at four meetings in fiscal 2004. But Shiozaki did not detail where those meetings took place. He added: "The payments are remuneration for fulfilling a role of starting a debate. It is my understanding that they were not staged questions." Earlier Wednesday, a government committee chaired by Yoshimasa Hayashi, the senior vice minister for regulatory reform, met to begin looking into whether any questions were staged at town meetings. It is investigating all 174 town meetings held so far. No deadline has been set for its conclusions. At the meeting, officials explained how a town meeting in Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture, which triggered the recent revelations, was organized. Hayashi said, "The amount (of remuneration) may be questioned, but there is little problem with the payment."(IHT/Asahi: November 16,2006)

Half of town meetings tainted  / 11-15-06

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Half of the 174 town meetings held when Junichiro Koizumi was prime minister involved people posing questions who had been selected in advance by government officials, a Cabinet Office investigation showed. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki defended the practice, saying organizers simply wanted the question-posers to initiate discussions. However, he said the government will end the practice to quell allegations that town meetings are staged. Town meetings are supposed to give the public a chance to discuss or debate policies with government officials. But recent revelations have shown that some of the questions from the public were prearranged and designed to put the policies in a positive light. According to government officials, the Cabinet Office, the organizer of the town meetings, checked information exchanged between the ministries concerned and municipal governments where the meetings were held. The in-house investigation found that Cabinet Office officials engaged in a practice called "digging up" to select questioners in advance. Their aim was to "ensure the discussions would be more lively," an official said. But there were actually two groups of selected questioners: one group to initiate the discussions and the other group consisting of "plants" who asked questions that were drafted to ensure a positive spin on the government's policies. The government now regards the use of those plants as "excessive interference." In May, at a town meeting in Sapporo on "Second Chance" programs, the Cabinet Office asked the Hokkaido government to select a questioner in advance. "We asked the Hokkaido government because we were afraid that no one would offer a question. I do not think there is any problem," Shiozaki said. But in September, at a town meeting on education in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, two of the selected questioners were handed draft questions designed to shine a positive light on the bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education, one of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's most important goals. The Cabinet Office has confirmed the practice of using plants at five of eight education reform town meetings held between December 2003 and this September. The government will examine all the other cases and report the results to the Cabinet Office.(IHT/Asahi: November 15,2006)

EDITORIAL/ Revised law of education / 11-17-06

A contentious bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education passed a special Lower House committee on Wednesday evening. The bill, which marks the first revision to the law since it was enacted in 1947, aims to instill patriotism in classrooms, among other things. Opposition parties boycotted the proceedings. The legislation spells out the government's philosophy and principles to help nurture children on whose shoulders the future rests. We are very disappointed that the ruling coalition voted alone on this bill. Revisions to such an important law should also have involved the opposition parties. In our editorials, we have repeatedly pointed out that the bill raises many questions. Granted, schools and the education system in general face many problems. But did those problems arise because of the law? How will the situation improve with the revision of the law? If there are reforms and policies that cannot be implemented unless the Fundamental Law of Education is revised, we urge the government to present them. With regard to incorporating "patriotism" into the bill, the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito had in-depth discussions on the matter and agreed to add the wording "show respect for other countries." We believe the wording is significant to prevent excessive patriotism. Still, if the law incorporates patriotism, wouldn't it push schools to teach children to love one's country in a standardized way? This is our question. More than 100 hours were spent on deliberations of the proposed revision from the time the bill was submitted to the last ordinary session of the Diet. In the present extraordinary Diet session, problems of not teaching compulsory subjects required for high school graduation, suicides caused by bullying and staged questions at government-organized town meetings were the focus of debate. The failure to teach compulsory subjects, along with bullying, demonstrate serious flaws in the education system. But how do they relate to the revision of the education law? Although it was a good opportunity to advance debate, no fruitful discussion took place. On the method of teaching "patriotism," we felt very nervous when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe commented on the issue. In answer to a question about whether students would be graded for developing patriotism, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told the previous Diet session that "there is no need for such an appraisal." But Abe took a different tack, saying students' attitudes and eagerness to learn Japanese culture and traditions should be taken into account in evaluating their performance. Wouldn't such a system cause children to compete against each other to demonstrate patriotism? Next year marks the 60th anniversary of the enactment of the Fundamental Law of Education. A good number of people feel the need to reflect social changes in the law. Even among people who question the propriety of having the law stipulate the teaching of patriotism, some must think that the concept of public good and tradition should be incorporated into it. Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) is also to blame for failing to advance the debate. Although it submitted a counterproposal on the controversial issue of patriotism, the contents differed little from the government bill. In fact, they were so similar it was hard to tell the difference except for Minshuto's call for local government heads instead of boards of education to take responsibility for educational administration. The preamble to the existing Fundamental Law of Education starts with the word "We." This is because it is also a declaration of the people's will about the way education ought to be in light of the fact that the law replaced the prewar Imperial Rescript on Education signed by the emperor. Leaving the people, who are the central players, behind in the debate does not bode well for the future. --The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 16(IHT/Asahi: November 17,2006)

Battle over education law moves to upper house / 11-17-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Fierce battles between the ruling and opposition parties over a government bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education look set to continue following the bill's passage to the House of Councillors after being passed in the House of Representatives on Thursday.

While the opposition camp is set to refuse to deliberate the bill in the upper house, the ruling parties intend to proceed without them. The outcome of the Okinawa gubernatorial election Sunday also may affect the course of the battle, according to sources.

Soon after the bill was passed by the lower house special committee on education law Wednesday evening, the ruling and opposition began criticizing each other.

Nobutaka Machimura, head of the Liberal Democratic Party members sitting on the special committee, said, "I strongly condemn the approach taken by [Democratic Party of Japan leader Ichiro] Ozawa on Diet affairs in that he is trying to turn every issue into a matter that will inflame the political situation."

Yuya Niwa, the chairman of the LDP's General Council, said, "The DPJ under Ozawa's leadership has been resisting for the sake of resisting and shows no intention of discussing this bill."

Toshihiro Nikai, the chairman of the LDP's Diet Affairs Committee, was equally vocal, saying, "Things are decided by majority vote--this is what democracy means, and this is taught even at school."

DPJ Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama, referring to a finding that the Cabinet Office had paid a person who asked an initiating question at a town meeting organized by the government, said, "It's unbelievable that [the government] has forcibly passed the education [revision] law by buying people's voices."

Mizuho Fukushima, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, added, "We'll make every effort to abolish this bill."

Chairmen of the Diet affairs committees of four opposition parties met Wednesday night with lower house speaker Yohei Kono, and asked him to both nullify the special committee's vote and return the bill to the committee for deliberation. Kono reportedly told them the voting at the committee had not gone smoothly, but that he did not think there was "any flaw in the steering" of the process.

Tetsuro Yano, the chairman of the LDP's upper house Diet Affairs Committee, met with his DPJ counterpart, Akira Gunji, on Wednesday evening. Yano asked Gunji for cooperation in deliberation on the bill, but Gunji refused, saying he could not talk about a timetable for deliberation, according to sources.

A senior upper house ruling camp member said the ruling parties would like to implement the following timetable:

-- Friday--Explanations on the bill be provided during the plenary session of the upper house. A special committee for deliberations on the bill be set up in the upper house.

-- By Monday--Special committee members to be selected by the upper house speaker, Chikage Ogi.

-- Tuesday--Special committee deliberations to start.

The opposition parties plan to boycott the plenary session as well as the special committee session.

A senior LDP official, however, said, "We'll have deliberations even involving the ruling parties alone so we can secure [enough] time for deliberation."

Sixty to 70 hours are expected to be available for deliberation before the current Diet session ends, once periods of time for an overseas tour by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other engagements are factored in.

The lower house spent 106 hours deliberating the bill. Time for deliberation in the upper house is set about 70 percent to 80 percent of that of the lower house. But a ruling camp member said, "Since the deliberation time was unusually long in the lower house, it would be enough for the upper house to deliberate for 50 to 60 hours." But another ruling camp member said it might be necessary to extend the session by about a week.

In a meeting with Hatoyama on Wednesday night in Tokyo, Ozawa reportedly said: "It's important that [the opposition parties] including the Japanese Communist Party have formed a united front. The DPJ has more influence in the upper house than the lower house. We can act quite aggressively."

The Okinawa gubernatorial election will be a focus of attention. The race is expected to be tight between two candidates one backed by the ruling parties and one by the opposition. Both camps have been making an all-out effort to win the vote to be held Sunday. Observers have noted that if the opposition-backed candidate wins, the opposition parties would likely harden their position in the Diet.

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Confusion over control

During the lower house special committee's deliberations on the education bill, discussions centered on such issues as a series of suicides committed by bullied students and the failure of a number of schools to teach compulsory subjects. Discussions centered on how the law could be revised to address those issues. Concern over such themes as patriotism, which has also attracted public attention, consequently waned in relative terms.

What was found problematic regarding the compulsory subject issue was the board of education system of local governments. It was said the responsibilities of the Education, Science and Technology Ministry, boards of education and school principals were not clear. The government bill stipulates that the central and local governments have "proper division of roles" and "mutual cooperation." Opposition parties pointed to this, saying, "It's not clear who has responsibility for what."

Education, Science and Technology Minister Bunmei Ibuki repeatedly defended the government stance, saying: "If the power of the central government were weakened, [the government] would be criticized for not providing proper instructions. If the power were enhanced, it would be hit for practicing state control. We're in a difficult position."

The DPJ's alternative reform plans stipulate that the central government take ultimate responsibility for the administration of education systems. The party also proposed that local governments' boards of education be abolished and that heads of local governments have the power over administration of education systems in their respective areas.

The government and ruling parties counterargued that the DPJ plans might cause negative results, and that it would be problematic to give the control of educational administration to local heads who might follow certain doctrines.

Regarding the initiative to instill patriotism, discussions at the special committee differed little from those made during the ordinary Diet session. The government bill stipulated that "attitudes to love our nation and home places should be nurtured." SDP and other lawmakers then argued there should not be no interference with students' beliefs. Abe said no school would evaluate students on their patriotism.

(Nov. 17, 2006)

Education bill passes lower house / 11-17-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education, a high-priority item for the government and ruling parties in the current Diet session, was passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday despite a boycott of the vote in the plenary session by the opposition parties.

The Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito voted for the bill to revise the law for the first time since its enactment in 1947. The bill now goes to the House of Councillors.

The opposition parties also boycotted sessions of Diet committees and committee directors meetings in the morning to protest efforts to push the bill through the lower house.

Some in the ruling camp said the Diet session, which runs until Dec. 15, should be extended to ensure the passage of the bill during the ongoing session.

The bill comprises a preamble and 18 articles. The preamble contains a phrase calling for respect for public-mindedness, and the articles include a new one about lifelong learning.

The bill calls for fostering an attitude in people of respect for the nation's traditions and culture, and a love for the nation and homeland that nurtured the traditions and culture as a goal of education.

In the wake of the bill's passage through the lower house, the ruling parties plans to move at a plenary session of the upper house Friday to set up a special committee to discuss the bill in the upper house.

Because of the opposition parties' boycott of committee meetings, the LDP decided also to proceed with deliberation of other bills only by the ruling parties, during a meeting of chairmen and deputy chairmen of Diet affairs committees of political parties.

At a meeting of senior members of its Diet Affairs Committee, the Democratic Party of Japan reconfirmed its intention to boycott deliberations at Diet committee meetings and other occasions in both the lower and upper houses.

In the morning, the opposition parties attended only two committee meetings--the lower house's special committee for youth affairs and subcommittee of the special committee for constitutional research--because they were interpellation sessions with unsworn witnesses invited.

At a press conference Thursday morning, Yoshiaki Takaki, chairman of the DPJ Diet Affairs Committee, reiterated his criticism of the ruling camp's vote on the bill at Wednesday's meeting of the lower house's special committee to discuss the basic education law without attendance of opposition parties.

"It was an absolutely reckless deed by the ruling camp by force of numbers. We demand the ruling parties exercise self-restraint also in other Diet committee meetings," he said.

At a later meeting of Diet affairs committee chairmen of both the ruling and opposition parties, the opposition camp demanded further debates be held about high schools failing to teach mandatory subjects, bullying in schools and the manipulation by government officials of questions at public hearings, called town meetings, on education.

The opposition parties demanded the bill be sent back to the lower house special committee, but the ruling parties refused, saying that sufficient deliberations had been held.

(Nov. 17, 2006)

Education minister's powers may be boosted / 11-21-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

In response to mounting criticism over the attitude taken by local boards of education toward the issues of school bullying and high schools failing to teach compulsory subjects, the government began considering plans Monday to strengthen the Education, Science and Technology Ministry's authority over the education boards.

Presently, the education, science and technology minister is limited to offering guidance and advice to boards of education. But the government is considering expanding the minister's power to allow him or her to control and supervise boards of education, and to order them to comply with the law.

As regards discussions currently under way in the Education Rebuilding Council, under the direct control of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the government is planning to submit bills aimed at revising laws on regional education administration, and other legislation, in ordinary Diet sessions, next year at the earliest

At present, the governor and mayor of a city, town or village appoint board of education members, after obtaining the agreement of a local assembly. The chairperson of the prefectural board of education supervises administration. The ministry merely offers guidance, advice and support.

The minister's consultative panel, the Central Council for Education, compiled a report last year that emphasized the importance of government responsibility, saying the government should set goals for compulsory education, develop the foundations of education, such as financial resources, and study the results of education policies.

The report outlines a policy aimed at raising the levels of authority and responsibility for city, town and village boards of education located near education establishments.

It has been pointed out that clarification is needed on the respective responsibilities of the ministry, boards of education and school principals over issues such as suicide-related bullying, and high schools failing to teach compulsory subjects.

The ministry has deemed it necessary that the minister be able to issue directives requesting change when schools are failing to teach classes as stipulated in the government's teaching guidelines.

Education bill's passage smoothens / 11-22-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education, the highest-priority item for the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has a high possibility of passing into law during the current Diet session that will end on Dec. 15.

Diet affairs committee chairmen from both ruling and opposition parties intermittently discussed the Diet proceedings Tuesday. As a result, opposition parties, which have boycotted all the Diet deliberations in protest against the adoption of the bill by the ruling parties at the House of Representatives, agreed to return to deliberations from Wednesday.

The special committee on the law of the House of Councillors will start discussing the bill Wednesday.

On the other hand, related bills to upgrade the Defense Agency to a ministry likely will be passed into the lower house within November. The ruling parties intend to pass both bills by the end of the current Diet session, but will also consider discussing the possibility of extending the session slightly, according to sources.

At a meeting of Diet affairs committee chairmen Tuesday, they agreed to hold a special committee meeting on the law at the lower house, at which Abe will be present, and give opposition parties three hours for questions. In response, opposition parties promised to join the Diet deliberations. As a result, Diet proceedings will be normalized after an interval of seven days.

At the board of directors meeting for the upper house's special committee on the law on Tuesday evening, it was decided to hold a committee meeting Wednesday for an explanation of reasons for the submission of the revised bill and a question and answer session.

The ruling parties intend to speed up deliberations at the special committee to pass the revised bill into law at the current Diet session. Toranosuke Katayama, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party caucus in the upper house, said at a press conference Tuesday: "It's a fact that we have to face a tightrope schedule. We'll try to get through the schedule most carefully."

Opposition parties, including the Democratic Party of Japan, judged that they would not obtain public understanding if they continue to protest by boycotting the deliberations, the sources said.

The bill, which aims to revise the Fundamental Law of Education established in 1947, was carried over from the previous ordinary Diet session, but as there is the prospect of it being passed into law during the current session, the Abe administration would be able to overcome the hurdle of the Diet proceedings, according to the sources.

Meanwhile, the DPJ intends to return to the deliberations for the related bills to upgrade the Defense Agency to a ministry. The Security Committee of the lower house started discussing the bills on Nov. 9, but opposition parties refused to join the deliberations, claiming that the bid-rigging case of the Defense Facilities Administration Agency had not been fully resolved. The lower house's security committee meeting will likely be held Friday at the earliest and the ruling parties intend to pass the bills within November, the sources said.

School suspends 151 students for drinking / 10-08-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

More than 150 high school students were suspended for four days for drinking alcohol at a party in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, last month, school officials said.

Students of Ogori High School in Ogori had a party to celebrate the end of their sports festival the previous day. The students, ranging from first year to third year students split into groups and went to three izakaya restaurants, where they ate and drank for up to three hours. More than half of the students drank beer and shochu-based beverages.

The school found out about the incident when a nearby resident called the school on Sept. 18, saying the students had been drinking.

Cram schools forced to change / Industry readjusts to declining population, new competition / 11-05-06

Kiminori Kurihara and Hisashi Kiyooka / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

Waves of mergers and acquisitions are reshaping the cram school industry as newcomers enter the only growing market--cram schools for middle school entrance examinations--while the nation's declining youth population caps the growth of the industry as a whole.

Existing cram school chains are set to counter the new rivals through scale expansion.

The number of cram and prep schools in the nation is estimated at about 40,000. Many in the industry predict the schools will be absorbed into fewer chains through elimination and realignment.

Fierce battles among the new and old competitors will likely escalate.

Nagase Brothers Inc., based in Musashino, western Tokyo, operates the Toshin High School chain of prep schools for university entrance exams. On Oct. 2, the company purchased the 5.8 billion yen Yotsuya Otsuka Inc. based in Nakano Ward, Tokyo--a chain of 15 cram schools for middle school entrance exams in Tokyo.

Nagase Brothers President Akiyuki Nagase said the aim of the acquisition was to "absorb knowledge on how to teach students to prepare for middle school entrance exams."

Yotsuya Otsuka is a pioneer in the cram school industry for middle school entrance exams, with high success rates of students passing exams at prestigious private schools.

Since its establishment in 1954, Yotsuya Otsuka has taught more than 200,000 students. The chain's success was due to its ability to give lectures and produce teaching materials based on abundant past data.

Different skills and techniques are required to teach students how to pass entrance exams for middle schools, high schools and universities. Merging or acquiring is an effective way for a prep school chain focused on university entrance exams to enter the field of middle school entrance exams.

Nagase Brothers has business tie-ups with about 800 prep and cram schools nationwide and distributes live and videotaped class lectures to partners using satellite broadcasting.

The company plans to sell Yotsuya Otsuka's teaching materials and mock examination service to its partners. Thus, the company will not change the Yotsuya Otsuka brand name after the acquisition.

Another aim of the acquisition was to acquire long-term clients while they are still primary school students. Nagase Brothers expects students who have attended Yotsuya Otsuka classes will continue using the company's service to prepare for university entrance exams--if it provides careful follow-up attention to former students.

In October, Gakken Co., a publishing firm that produces children's study books and other materials, purchased Tokyo Gakuen, a major chain of cram schools based in Arakawa Ward, for children taking entrance exams for primary schools.

Hiroaki Miyahara, head of Gakken's school business division, said: "The final goal is to enter the field of schools for middle school entrance exams. We also plan to purchase famous local cram schools with a 1 billion yen investment within three years."

Gakken is well known for its educational magazines for children--Kagaku (Science) and Gakushu (Studying)--but the declining youth population has been a drag on the company's educational publication sales.

As a result, Gakken aims to make the cram school business the new core of its management.

In the Kansai region, Gakken plans to establish a new cram school chain for preschool age children because famous private universities in the region will open affiliated primary schools in and after fiscal 2008. They include Kwansei Gakuin University in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, and Kansai University in Suita, Osaka Prefecture.

Meanwhile, existing cram school chains are rushing to set up more schools.

Yokohama-based Nichinoken Corp. opened new schools this year in Tokyo and its vicinity, including Koto Ward, and Kuki, Saitama Prefecture. A company spokesman said it plans to open several more next year.

Eikoh Inc., a Saitama-based operator of the Eikoh Seminar cram school chain, said it aims to attract 100,000 students from primary to high schools by creating a network of schooling facilities in and around Tokyo.

Osaka-based Nozomi Gakuen, a chain of cram schools in the Kansai region, has opened new schools in Tokyo and Yokohama since 2004, eyeing the increase of school-age youths in Tokyo and its vicinity, despite decreases on a nationwide level.

The merger and acquisition trend also is spreading among other fields in the industry.

Benesse Corp., an Okayama-based major publisher, purchased all shares in Ochanomizu Seminar, a chain of prep schools for high schoolers, for about 300 million yen on Tuesday.

Mitsugu Iwasa, president and chairman of Riso Kyoiku, the Toshima Ward, Tokyo-based operator of the Tomas chain of one-to-one style cram schools, said: "In several years, M&As will occur with the major chains. Eventually, only three to five of the stronger groups will survive."

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Middle school market thrives

According to Yano Research Institute, a private economic think tank, the cram and prep school market likely will shrink from 992 billion yen in 2002 to 950 billion yen in 2006.

University entrance applicants decreased to about 700,000 this year from a peak in 1992 of about 920,000, according to the Education, Science and Technology Ministry.

But the only cram school market still growing is the one serving students preparing for middle school entrance exams. According to Nichinoken, the number of children who took middle school entrance exams in Tokyo and its vicinity this year increased 12.8 percent to 53,000 from the previous year.

Total sales for the top five listed companies operating cram schools for middle school entrance exams in fiscal 2005 reached 110.1 billion yen, up 7.9 percent from the previous year.

The increase in the number of students taking middle school exams is partly because of the introduction of public middle and high schools with integrated curriculums in 1999, which increased opportunities to enter high-profile middle schools.

Private universities, fearing a future decline of applicants, also set up affiliated middle schools, in addition to affiliated high schools, to attract more students. As a result, the number of private middle schools has increased.

Katsuto Matsushima, senior research fellow at Yano Research Institute, said: "While the market is shrinking due to a declining youth population, many companies rushed to enter the only growing field of cram schools, which is for middle school entrance exams."

"As other companies, such as stationery, toy and video game makers, also struggle as the number of young people shrinks, it's possible that they also will enter the cram school business," he added.

POINT OF VIEW/ Shigeharu Suzuki：Prepare our youth for economic realities / 11-16-06

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Economic education is gaining currency in schools across Japan. The trend has been fueled by various programs launched by companies, financial institutions and local governments to teach students the basics of subjects like household budgeting, role of companies and financial markets. But programs for economic education are also drawing criticism, sometimes based on misunderstanding. Some critics say the classes foster the worship of money, while others contend they are simply business ploys to win future customers. The fact is that our society is awash with financial products, which are generating a rapidly increasing number of problems due to poor understanding of the risks involved among consumers. It is vital for us all to acquire the ability to make educated decisions on economic matters to live as active and responsible members of society. Japan should do more to educate children on economic matters, drawing lessons from the experience of the United States, which is far ahead in terms of economic education. A consuming public informed on economic issues and financial products and services would put greater pressure on suppliers of these products and services to improve their products. Providing effective economic education for young people is a responsibility of the whole of society and is also important for raising awareness about the need of effective life planning. From this point of view, we support economic education as part of our corporate social responsibility. One example that shows our commitment to the cause is our support of the "finance park" created in June last year at Jonan municipal junior high school in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo. A vacant classroom has been remodeled to house the booths of the 14 supporting companies and organizations, including banks and real estate firms, involved in the project. The booths serve as bank, real estate brokers and securities company "offices" for educational games to allow learners to have a simulated experience of obtaining a loan to buy a house under certain given conditions, such as annual income, the number of children and required tax payments. Some 1,500 students from 18 junior high schools learn about family budget management and mortgage financing at this facility. The booth operated by Daiwa Securities Co. has a stock price board to show the fluctuations of share prices. Ritsumeikan Senior High School in Kyoto introduced a "student company program" in October 2003 to help students learn about corporate management. Under the program, our employees served as outside directors for "companies" managed by students for 16 weeks. Both programs have been developed by Junior Achievement Japan, the Japanese branch of Junior Achievement, a U.S. nonprofit organization dedicated to economic education. Cooperation with this nonprofit organization has greatly improved the quality of our support to economic education. Junior and senior high school students who take part in these programs learn a lot from their efforts to solve various challenges, such as how to cut food expenses or how to manage the responsibilities that come with the job of serving as a board member. Some students show remarkably rapid progress. These programs apparently help students develop abilities needed for living in today's economic environment. People tend to assume that a securities company will offer a form of stock trading game to support economic education. But it doesn't make good economic sense to try to teach young people how to trade stocks when they don't know enough about the workings of an economy. In the United States, economic education at high-school level focuses on helping students master the basics of economics without too much pain. After learning about economic education in the United States, we translated a long-established economics textbook used by American high school students into Japanese for publication in September last year. The book's content is at a higher level than what is offered by the average economics primer for Japanese university students. We were also involved in the Junior Achievement Japan's project to translate an economics textbook for junior high school students compiled by the National Council on Economic Education of the United States into Japanese. The Japanese version is intended for teachers, students and parents. These textbooks reflect the basic stance toward economic education in the United States, which is quite different from that in Japan. They are consistently based on the idea that the essence of economic activity is selection. And they emphasize that economic decisions are made at one's own risk. Our efforts represent nothing but a small contribution to promoting economic education. The beneficiaries are a very limited number of junior and senior high school students. Everybody has the right to receive an economic education. The government should make serious efforts to provide effective economic education for our youth as a public policy priority. Such efforts are also important for preventing ever-widening income gaps. 　　　*　　　*　　　* The author is president of Daiwa Securities Group Inc.(IHT/Asahi: November 16,2006)

Tokyo schoolyards to go green / 11-18-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Children play barefoot on the grass at Izumi Primary School in Suginami Ward, Tokyo, which turfed its playground four years ago.

The Tokyo metropolitan government has decided to turf the schoolyards of all the capital's primary and middle schools over the next 10 years, it was learned Friday.

This is the first time a prefectural government has made such a decision.

When the project--involving about 2,000 public primary and middle schools--is completed, the turfed area will be equivalent to twice the size of the Imperial Palace's grounds.

The metropolitan government hopes the move will moderate the so-called heat island phenomenon and provide children with an improved environment for outdoor activities.

Tokyo's school playgrounds were mostly soil-based until the 1960s, when the trend of covering them with asphalt began--initially in urban areas. Recently, due to its drainage properties, crushed limestone has been used to surface playgrounds. Rubber chips, which are often used in all-weather tennis courts, are also popular. Currently, only 44 primary and middle schools have playgrounds that are totally covered with grass.

The metropolitan government plans to turf 70 schoolyards in fiscal 2007, at a cost of 2 billion yen. The total amount of newly created lawn will be 280 hectares. Total costs for the project will be shared between the metropolitan government and municipal or ward governments, which will each pay about about 57 billion yen.

Municipal and ward governments will be responsible for maintenance expenses.

The project will be financed with funds for countering the heat island phenomenon. During the past century, the temperature in central Tokyo has increased by 3 C, which means the heat island phenomenon is progressing five times faster than the average global temperature rise.

On a hot midsummer's day, the surface temperature of an asphalt or soil-based playground is about 50 C, but a turfed surface will remain at about 30 C. "If the temperature remains low, we won't use air-conditioning as much as we do now, which will help reduce carbon dioxide," said an official from the metropolitan government's Environment Bureau.

In addition, the metropolitan government expects that grass surfaces will tempt children to play outside more. As children are said to be increasingly less athletic, the metropolitan government hopes that grass playgrounds will lead to improvements in children's physical health.

Lawns need frequent maintenance and can easily die if used inappropriately. Thus, schools that develop effective maintenance measures will be subsidized by the metropolitan government.

According to the metropolitan government, the grass will attract dragonflies, grasshoppers and other insects, which could prove useful for environment studies. Schools could benefit by cooperating with the local community and parent-teacher organizations, a metropolitan government official said.

The Central Education Council, an advisory panel to the education, science and technology minister, suggested in 2002 that school yards should be turfed. However, of the nation's public primary, middle and high schools, only 1,291, or 3.5 percent, had surfaced their playgrounds with grass as of May 2005.

Univ. accord lets schools copy tests / 11-20-06

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Seventeen universities have agreed to allow each other access to past entrance examination questions at their own discretion for use in entrance exams, starting in the 2008 academic year.

The accord will allow participating universities to avoid the hassle of having to check other universities' past questions whenever they put together new examinations, and will help avoid awkwardly worded questions just to make them look different than other schools' questions.

Under the current system, universities own the copyrights to all questions that have appeared on their past college entrance exams, and every university is required to come up with original questions every year.

Some of the parties concerned, such as cram schools, are so thorough that even partial resemblance to past questions can get a college into trouble, university officials said.

The new accord, which was initiated by Gifu University dean Toshio Kuroki, was welcomed by major universities, including Ochanomizu University and Nippon Medical School. Kuroki, and his colleagues are still calling on other universities to join the accord.

Under the accord, participating members will announce publicly that they will use questions from other universities' past exams, and will be allowed to use the same questions, as well as partially modified versions.

The accord will take effect starting with the exams for the April 2008 university intake. Test takers will be notified in advance on brochures and university Web sites.

The Education, Science and Technology Ministry expects the accord will enable universities to improve the quality of their test questions, a ministry official in charge of supervising college entrance exams said.