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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Government seeks mal-revision of education law in this Diet session

The government on April 28 submitted a bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education in the hope of having it enacted in this Diet session.

Enabling the state to interfere with education and force patriotism on children, the move aims at changing the principle of the education law that has served as the basis of post-war Japan's democracy together with the pacifist Constitution.

Since the law was enacted in 1947, attempts have been frequently made to adversely revise it, but this is the first time that a bill for this purpose has actually been introduced in the Diet.

On the same day, Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo at a press conference criticized the bill saying, "It will create education for the sake of national policy, in other wards for fostering human resources suitable for carrying out the policy of a 'nation to fight war abroad' that advocates of Constitutional revision seek."

Based on the Constitution, Article 10 of the education law provides that education shall not be subject to improper control. "What the government seeks is to change this article and make a law to enable it to interfere with educational content," said Shii.

He also called into question the phrase "to love the nation."

The JCP has consistently attached importance to such education that provides democratic civil morals, and called for an education to cultivate true patriotism and the spirit of friendship with peoples, instead of encouraging the development of a hostile attitude toward other counties or contempt for other peoples.

Shii stressed, "The concept of democratic civil morals is drawn from the present Constitution and the Fundamental Law of Education as a natural conclusion."

"It is unacceptable that the government submitted such an important bill just one and half months before the end of the current Diet session with the aim of ramming the bill through the Diet. The JCP will set forth its argument in and outside the Diet to rapidly increase the movement against the adverse revision of the education law," stated Shii.

The Fundamental Law of Education was enacted in 1947 based on the reflection about Japanese education's militaristic and nationalistic past that drove people to support the war of aggression.
- Akahata, April 29, 2006