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Human Rights Education Initiatives
in Osaka
HURIGHTS OSAKAT

he Kansai region in Japan has been known for its long-period of engagement
in Dowa education, the anti-discrimination education focusing on the Buraku
people. However, there are other initiatives that exist in this region that focus
on education regarding other human rights issues. They also relate to human rights
education in schools. Following are some of the initiatives in Osaka city.
Children Information Research Center

Empowerment Kansai for Women andChildren

The Children Information Research Center (CIRC), established in 1977, is a group
comprised of citizens whose goal is to createa society in which both adults and children
are respected.1 One of the ways CIRC has
advocated the rights of children is through therelease of Harappa, a magazine which counsels children who are having truancy problem,
gives needed information on raising children,and promotes research on child rights. Someof CIRC’s counseling services include ChildLine Osaka, a hotline that allows children to
make anonymous phone calls regarding their
daily lives. As a worldwide hotline with sixty
operations in Japan alone, Child Line Osaka
does not focus on lecturing children, but rather
advocating for a child’s right to be heard by listening to the child’s opinions and ideas. CIRC
also provides the Children Family Counseling
Room, which aids families in developing specificsolutions to their problems while focusing on
their children’s best interests. The Children
Family Counseling Room is connected with theVictim Relief System for School Children andStudents, which helps prevent and deals withthe consequences of physical punishment, bullying, and sexual harassment in schools.

Empowerment Kansai for Women and Children is a non-governmental organization that
focuses on the protection of children against
violence.2 It implements projects on violence
prevention and human rights education, andprovides information regarding these projects.
It holds study groups to make men and women
become aware that they are members of society and should participate in social activities.
The ultimate aim of Empowerment Kansai for
Women and Children is the creation of a societythat does not tolerate human rights violations
against the weak, such as women and children,
and also a society where everyone’s rights arerespected despite race, gender and age. All these
efforts and activities aim to empower adults
and children to work together to increase theirability to live in and contribute to the creationof a prosperous civil society.
It founded the Children’s Empowerment
Support Program in 2006, which aims tohelp children develop the ability to protect
themselves against violence, while respecting
the rights of children. This teaching programis the first of its kind in Japan. Empowerment
Kansai for Women and Children provided train-

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ing for first and second grade primary school
teachers to enable them to use the teaching
program in their classes. The program focuses
on four areas, namely, topics regarding a senseof belonging, boundaries, emotions, and power.
These four topics are further categorized intoten different groups out of which teachers canchoose the ones they feel are the most usefulgiven their present situation.

Osaka Prefectural Association of Human
Rights Education in Private Schools
The Osaka Prefectural Association of Human Rights Education in Private Schools3 wasestablished in 1969 as an organ of the Osaka
Prefectural Education Institute for the Promotion of Private Schools. It includes all private
schools in the junior and senior secondary
school associations as well as the primary school
association in Osaka Prefecture.
In the beginning, the Association consistedof five headmasters’ working groups under the
Headmasters’ Committee. Expert members
were elected from among the members in eachof the working groups. These expert membersthen played major roles in organizing teacher
training to increase their awareness on humanrights. The working groups began to havefull-time trainers and secretariat staff in 1971.
Committees to study on specific topics werealso organized to intensify the activities. These
Committees continue to be active today.
At a time when “internationalization,”“multi-culturalism” and “information” havebecome key words, the Association continues
to find ways to put into practice diverse andmulti-faceted human rights education, taking
into consideration the challenges raised in theprevious activities.
Currently, there are seven committees on
specific topics, working closely with the working
groups, to reach out to the specific activities ineach school:`

1) Committee on Dowa and human rights
education exchange – this develops lessonplans for homeroom sessions on Dowa (Buraku discrimination) and human rights, andshares practices and initiatives on Dowa andhuman rights education to schools. It alsostudies, analyses and holds awareness-raising activities on various situations of private
schools that are problematic and involving
discrimination.
2) Committee on studies on career security– this actively promotes career guidance forstudents who face discrimination in privatesenior secondary schools in the prefecture.
It also studies and discusses (in cooperation with relevant organs and bodies) theelimination of discrimination and themeans to ensure employment and careerbuilding among students. Furthermore, it
studies ways of supporting career security
for students who are enrolled but do notattend school, or who have dropped out ofschool.
3) Committee on studies on resident Koreans– this conducts studies on education forresident Korean children and students toenable them to strengthen their ethnic
identity, and for Japanese children andstudents to overcome ethnic prejudice anddiscriminatory ideas. It aims to strengtheninternational understanding, so that they
can call each other by their true names.
4) Committee on studies on the supplementary
reader, Ningen - this studies and discusses
matters related to education, focusing on
the supplementary reader, Ningen, used in
Dowa and human rights education in private
primary, junior and senior secondary schools
in the prefecture.
5) Committee on studies for voluntary student
activities - this supports activities of students, who participate in clubs and groups
related to human rights, as well as those
who are interested in human rights. It also

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organizes exchanges among schools tostrengthen the activities. At the same time,
it cooperates with other bodies to support
the students’ activities.
6) Committee on studies on issues of persons
with disabilities – this conducts studies on
educational practices and exchanges withthe schools to support the independence ofchildren and students with various disabilities, to ensure the right to learn not just in
school but also in the society, and to develop
human relationships between children andstudents with and without disabilities to live
and learn together.
7) Committee against sexual discrimination– this organizes awareness raising activities
and studies to realize a society in which
men and women share responsibilities,
and are able to exercise their full personalities and potentials regardless of gender.
It also develops teaching materials fromwhich students and teachers learn issues on
sexuality. It produced Sexual Harassment
Prevention for School Children: A Picture
Story Performance, Can You Say No? 4 Thislarge-sized picture story consists of five different themes: “I feel uncomfortable being
touched!,” “What is manliness and womanliness?,” Please don’t do things I don’t
like! ,” “Express your feelings!,” and “I’mgrowing up!” The material allows children
to participate in the stories by encouraging
them to come up with answers to the questions that the stories address. The material
also provides explanations to make it easier
to use in class. The Committee also developed a sexual harassment prevention audiovisual material entitled For a Comfortable
School Life (in DVD format) for junior andsenior secondary students.
The Association works closely with the Gender Equality Foundation Planning and Promotion Group. This group believes that the mosteffective way to develop children’s perspective
on gender equality is to utilize the influence ofteachers on their students. It organizes workshops for teachers on materials that help forma gender-equal perspective on their students.

These workshops are attended by primary andsecondary (junior and senior) teachers, whose
various backgrounds have been taken into close
consideration in order to effectively confront
gender equality issues.

ZUTTO5
ZUTTO is a non-profit organization formedon the basis of the belief that “a better society
begins with life-long gender equality.” It wasestablished in 2005 by bringing together the
non-profit section (research on work and lifestyle of women, training for women to support
their reentry into the labor market, activities
related to gender equal society) of a company
called Johonowa (established in 1984) and theactivities of HEAL-Holistic Kyoiku Jissen Kenkyusho (established in 2001) on 1) providing
lectures to women’s centers in different areas, 2)
implementing projects to realize gender equal
society, 3) program development, 4) administrative and civil society leadership developmentand (5) cooperation with other organizations.
ZUTTO has the following objectives: 1) To
raise awareness and provide training on genderequality; 2) To provide employment supportand human resource development for women’s
independence and empowerment; and 3) To
engage in program development and implementation for healthy development of children.
It has a number of activities, namely,
1.	 Awareness raising and training on genderequality - training on gender equality
for staff working in facilities related towomen
2.	 Employment suppor t and humanresource development for women’s
independence and empowerment. This
include lectures for further mental andeconomic independence of women andinformation exchanges and study meetings for empowerment
3.	 Program development and implemen-

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tation for the healthy development ofchildren, and includes promotion ofphysical exercise games using English.
ZUTTO has recently organized the JapanBritish Partnership Project against Bullying,
which involves several workshops where Junior
Secondary School students from Japan andGreat Britain create presentations targetingbullying and solutions to bullying.

Speaking Out6
Save the Children is working all over theworld including Japan. Its Japan office is engaged in an educational project called “Speaking Out” for the children in the country.
“Speaking Out” is a participatory learning program that aims to develop a deeper
awareness of “international understanding”
and “child rights” among children in Japan.
Speakers (volunteer lecturers) take the leadingrole in the program.
The program aims to create a starting point
for education for international understanding,human rights education and international cooperation in the “integrated learning” classes(sogo gakushu), events, and other activities inschool.
The intended participants are mainly primary to senior secondary school students. Tenor more students participate in a program (with45 to 90 minutes duration) held in the primary,junior and senior secondary schools, volunteer
centers, event sites and other places wherestudents get together. There can be a series ofsessions in schools if agreed upon.
Save the Children Japan trains volunteer
speakers on how to speak before the students
in schools and other places. They also train on
how to hold group work.
There are no particular qualifications required for the volunteer Speakers (such as priorrelated experiences or language capabilities).
Enthusiasm is the main requirement, as wellas willingness to give time. Volunteer speakers
may be asked to continuously join the activi-

ties for six months or up to one year, and beavailable during day-time. This program is currently being held in the city centers of Tokyo
and Osaka.

Project with Matsubara Senior High School
The Osaka Prefectural Matsubara SeniorHigh School conducts “Speaking Out” eachyear since 2004. The sessions in the school
started after students visited the Osaka Office ofSave the Children in the same year. Since then,the students of Matsubara Senior High School
have been volunteering to do the activities of
Save the Children Japan.
Since the academic year 2005, Save the Children Japan has been holding another programin Matsubara Senior High School, the program
called “Child-to-Child.”“Child-to-Child” is a program where students who have participated in “Speaking Out”
go through program development and practicesessions on speaking out to other students. It
is a program that facilitates the action decided
by the “Speaking Out” participants on theirown to speak about children in other parts of
the world and child rights to other students.
Students participating in this program think
about “what” and “how” they will speak toother students, and create their own originalclasses.
In the academic year 2006, a total of eight“Child-to-Child” programs were held in threemonths (September to November) as part of the“World Watching” course, one of the elective
courses for Third Year students.

Birth of secondary school speakers
Students were given training on how to
become speakers in the “Child-to-Child”
program. They went through several training sessions. In the first session, the students

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prepared for a “Speaking Out” program forprimary school students. In learning aboutchild rights and children’s issues around theworld, some were concerned, “I am not surewhether I can do this,” but others were more
confident, saying, “I learned a great deal. The
content as well as the way used to present theissue to other people can be used when I am
speaking in front of other people;” “I want toparticipate as volunteer and act, not just think;”“Responsibility comes with knowing about anissue, so I would like to act on it.”In the second session, the students were
taught ways (programming skill) that werenecessary in creating classes for primary school
students. They discussed what they would liketo tell the students, and they came up with four
issues, “education,” “war,” “poverty” and “orphans.” The students divided themselves into
four groups, each group taking up one topic.
In the third, fourth and fifth sessions, they
discussed the “aim” and began to develop the
program in each group. In creating the programs, the students were told how to collectand present the information obtained. The
students worked on their programs in eachgroup, thinking about ways to explain the issues
to the students.
Through the training sessions, the students
experienced the difficulty of reconciling thedifferent views in a group and clarifying theissues for the student-participants, while at thesame time feeling the need for further discussions. They said, “there are too many views, so
I can’t follow them, and I don’t know which isright. We must discuss more;” “It was difficult
to decide on an aim. How much would a 5th
grader understand?”A public rehearsal was held in the Matsubara Senior High School just before theactual “Speaking Out” session at the primaryschool. The groups presented the programs
they prepared.The audience included the headmaster, members of the Education Committee
as well as Speaking Out volunteers. After thepresentations, they all evaluated the programs.
As a result, the group that prepared the programon “poverty” obtained the highest votes, andthus would go to the primary school to implement the program.

Secondary school students holding““Speaking Out””session
The “Speaking Out” (Child-to-Child)session by senior secondary school students
was held for twenty-one fifth graders of the
Matsubara Municipal Ega Minami Elementary
School. The student-speakers looked nervous
in front of the many primary students at the
beginning. But they gradually lost their tension
and embarrassment seeing the students’ lively
response, and continued with their program.
The student-speakers presented the current global situation on the distribution goods
among the different regions using a game involving distribution of sweets among supposed
representatives of the regions of the world. The
primary students voiced amazement at knowing
the global gap between regions. They commented, “A person from Asia/Africa jokingly
said, ‘give me one,’ but I didn’t think the gap
was really this wide;” “When I wasn’t given thesweet, I thought this must be how the peopleof Asia and Africa must have felt;” “I thought
America and Europe were stingy. It is unfair, because Asia and Africa should be given the sameamount;” “The people of Asia were given only
one sweet, but I thought that this was what was
really happening now.” With such views fromthe primary students, the student-speakers wereable to achieve the aim of their program.
Through the “Child-to-Child” program,the student-speakers learned the difficulty ofrespecting and accepting the views of others
they work with while ensuring that the audience understand the program by being careful
in presenting the program content and words
used. They said, “It was difficult to speak out

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and accept the views of others;” “It is difficult
to speak, because you have to think about thelistener.” It can be said that they gained experience in giving consideration to others, not justknowledge. Other views were heard, such as, “It
was hard work, but it was interesting, because I
came to understand a lot of things in preparing
the program;” “I want to make use of what I
learned in the future.”Endnotes
1
	The information on CRRC program is takenfrom Dawn, the newsletter of the Dawn Center,
December 2007, page 7.
2
	Text taken from Dawn, ibid., page 8.
3
	Text taken from www.shigaku-jinken.gr.jp(Japanese language).
4
Text taken from Dawn, op. cit., page 6.
5
	Text taken from www.npo-zutto.com (Japanese
language).
6
	Text taken from www.savechildren.or.jp(Japanese language).