Japan’s “education reform” to indoctrinate nationalism

Championed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the bill declared that the goal of education was to develop students’ “respect for the nation’s tradition and culture and fostering an attitude of love for the nation and the homeland that cultivated them.” Citing declining education skills and deteriorating morality, Abe declared that his aim was “to nurture people with ambitions and create a country with dignity”.

In fact, the bill to obligate Japanese schools to foster nationalism is a breach, in spirit at least, of the country’s post-war constitution, which was based on the renunciation of militarism and guaranteed freedom of thought. The education “reform” is part of the government’s efforts to promote patriotism and remilitarise the country in preparation for aggression abroad.

The bill is the first amendment to the Fundamental Law of Education since it was enacted in 1947 under the US occupation. The law reflected not only US efforts to dismantle the wartime regime in Japan, but more fundamentally the sentiment of masses of working people who had suffered under the regime’s repressive rule, hated its anti-democratic methods and despised its symbols.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2007/jan2007/japa-j03.shtml