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Rally held to defend basic education law

Amid news reports that in April a bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education will be submitted to the Diet, a national rally in opposition to adverse revisions of the law as well as the Constitution took place in Tokyo on March 31, the day marking the 59th anniversary of the law's enforcement.

About 4,000 people from the All Japan Teachers and Staff Union (Zenkyo), teachers' unions affiliated to the Japan Teachers' Union (Nikkyoso), and various citizens' organizations took part in the rally.

On behalf of the National Liaison Council against Revision of the Fundamental Law of Education which organized the event, Tokyo University Professor Komori Yoichi said, "Is it OK to allow the ruling parties to decide behind closed doors on educational issues which are the basis of Japan?" Ouchi Hirokazu, an assistant professor at Matsuyama University, said, "The principles of post-war Japan's democratic education system are to be discarded."

Japanese Communist Party Vice-Chair Ishii Ikuko criticized the ruling parties for trying to forcibly submit the bill. Social Democratic Party President Fukushima Mizuho also addressed the participants.
- Akahata, April 1, 2006





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