by Agnita Handayani
Educational Policies and Politics in Japan
The politics of a government naturally
permeates every aspect of education. As stated on Marie B Jansen on Education,
Value and Politics in Japan the debate over educational policy is one of the
most important and least publicized struggles in contemporary Japan, and the
controversy furnishes an excellent opportunity for judging the nature of change
in Japanese politics and society. One of the issue is the controversy of
textbook. The content in Japan’s textbooks are often the central issue in
diplomatic spats (between China and Japan or between Korea and Japan).
Another issues in politics as reflected on
education is Prime Minister Shinzo Abe policies. In 2006 Abe revised the Fundamental
Law of Education, which was brought into force during the U.S. Occupation and
was aimed at “democratizing” the educational system based on a report by the
U.S. educational mission. Thus in 2012
Abe instructed schools to clearly teach for the first time that the Senkaku
Islands are Japanese territory. And in 2015 local government heads are being
given more authority over education, with the intention of reforming the
postwar board of education system, which was designed to maintain political
neutrality on schools and minimize political intervention and influence. It
means the positions of head of the board of education and superintendent into a
new superintendent position in charge of education administration. It would
also give mayors the authority to appoint and remove this superintendent,
weakening the position’s independence. Abe’s policies inevitably aim to add a
required course on ethics that would seek to increase students’ sense of
patriotism.
