Moral Education as Special Subject in Public Schools –Implications for Human Rights Education
Osaka Prefectural Teachers UnionT

he Osaka Prefectural Teachers Union (Union) is a memberof the national organization of teachers, the Japan Teachers Union(Nikkyoso). The Union has been promoting Dowa and human rights
education, one of the major issues in its education work, as well as doingawareness-raising on human rights.
Beginning of the Union

In 1945, an organization of teachers in Osaka was formed called the Osaka
Teachers Union. More than 90 percent of the teachers in Osaka prefecture
joined this union to fight for improvements in labor conditions, wage andwelfare. It won recognition of various rights in its struggles.
In 1965, the government published the report of the Dowa Policy
Council, an advisory panel of experts established to recommend basic policies to tackle the issues of discrimination against Buraku people. In its preamble, the report declared that the “Dowa issue1 is an issue of freedom andequality of human beings, the universal principles of humanity, as well as an
issue of basic human rights protected by the Constitution of Japan.” It also
stated that it was the nation’s responsibility to solve the issue.
The members of the Osaka Teachers Union were divided into those who
rejected the report outright, and those who received it positively and called
for measures to implement the recommendations. The government enacted
the Law on Special Measures for Dowa Projects in 1969. Based on this law,
the Osaka Teachers Union started to support Dowa education2 by organizing study meetings, believing that education valued the human rights
of all children. In particular, it worked with the Osaka Prefectural Dowa
Education Research Association3 (currently, the Osaka Prefectural Human
Rights Education Research Association) in its activities. In 1970, the teaching material for human rights education, Ningen (Human),4 was published
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H u m a n R i g h t s E d u c at i o n i n A s i a - Pa c i f i c · V o l u m e 9 , 2 0 1 9in Osaka, and was distributed to all primary and lower secondary school
students. With the distribution of this material, Dowa and human rights
education was actively undertaken in Osaka Prefecture.
The Osaka Teachers Union was reorganized in 1989 and became the
Osaka Prefectural Teachers Union; the Japanese Trade Union Confederation(Rengo) was also established at this time. Today, the Union focuses its activities on peace, human rights, environment and multicultural education.
Role of Education in the Past
Before World War II (WWII), education made it possible for Japan to invade many countries in Asia and other areas, to glorify the killing of people
as well as dying for the State, to objectify human beings, and to create ahierarchical military institution based on the absolute obedience of subordinates. Teachers who taught the Imperial Rescript on Education and Shushin(Morality)5 to children from young age in homes, communities and otherplaces of education, wielded immense authority.
Nikkyoso, which was established in 1947, did a soul-searching on therole of education in abetting the war and played a part in creating a new
democratic education based on the Constitution of Japan and the Basic
Act on Education (Act No. 25 of 1947) under the slogan “Do Not Send Our
Students Again to Battlefields.”6
The following is an account of the status of moral education since the1990s as well as problems and concerns about its introduction as a school
subject.
History of Moral Education
Why was moral education introduced as a special subject in the first place?
In the late 1990s, juvenile crimes attracted public attention, including
the incident in which two children were murdered and three injured by ajuvenile in Kobe in 1997, leading to a call for the need for “education of theheart.”In 2000, the National Commission on Educational Reform, an advisory
panel during the term of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, recommended introducing moral education as a subject. While this recommendation was
not implemented, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science, Sports andMoral Education as Special Subject in Public Schools

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Technology (hereinafter, Ministry of Education) published in 2002 a booklet
entitled Kokoro no Noto (Notebooks for the Heart) for lower primary, midprimary, higher primary school children, and for lower secondary school
students. Whereas notices from the Ministry of Education is normally sent
to local schools through the boards of education, copies of Notebooks for theHeart were sent directly to the schools and distributed to the primary andlower secondary school students.
In 2002, the year when copies of Notebooks for the Heart were distributed, the Iraq War began. In 2004, when the Self Defence Force was sent
to Iraq as part of the rebuilding efforts, a Japanese journalist who went to
Iraq was kidnapped and held hostage. The comment of then Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi that “it was his responsibility, since he went to Iraq ignoring the recommendations to evacuate” became subject of numerous
discussions.
The first Prime Minister Shinzo Abe government amended the Basic
Act on Education in 2006. Before the 2006 amendment, the law was like a
Constitution on education, setting forth basic principles and placing broad
frameworks such as academic freedom, and creation and development of
culture as goals of education. After the amendment, the terms, “public spirit” and “tradition” were included in the preamble, and the cultivation of “arich sensibility and sense of morality,” “love of the country and regions” were
explicitly placed alongside “equality between men and women” and “preservation of the environment” as objectives to be achieved through education.
A new provision on education in the family placing “primary responsibility”
on parents and guardians was inserted. Before the amendment, the goalsof the education bureaucracy were to create and improve the conditions
for education. Under the amendment, national and local governments haveto comprehensively formulate and implement educational measures. Headsof local governments were given a say in educational contents through the
newly-created general education conferences.
The first Abe government established the Education Rebuilding Council
in 2006 in the Prime Minister’s Office. The Council argued that moral education should be included in the curriculum as a subject. Meanwhile, theCentral Council for Education found that though moral education wasnecessary, it was not appropriate as a subject in the curriculum because ofissues with evaluation, textbook screening, and qualification of teachers,

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H u m a n R i g h t s E d u c at i o n i n A s i a - Pa c i f i c · V o l u m e 9 , 2 0 1 9among others. Moral education was not included as a subject in the Coursesof Study that was updated every 10 years.
However, the Courses of Study for primary and lower secondary school
was revised in 2008 that required time for moral education and the school
as a whole to conduct this education. Instruction plans were developed, indicating the relevance of other subjects with the contents of moral education given in the Courses of Study. The content items of the moral education
are similar to the “virtues” in the pre-war moral education, such as “honesty
and good faith” and “kindness and compassion,” and lists the morals thatshould be attained “in relation to oneself,” ”in relation to relationships withothers,” “in relation to nature and the transcendent,” and “in relation to relationships with groups and society.” The revised Course of Study also required the teachers to promote moral education. And teacher were officiallyassigned to teach moral education from 2010 onward. The teachers assigned
to promote moral education were those already working in schools rather
than new teachers.
When a lower secondary school student killed himself after being bullied by his classmates in Ohtsu, Shiga prefecture in 2011, the discussions on
introducing moral education as a subject were revitalized. In 2013, under thesecond Abe government, the Council for the Implementation of Education
Rebuilding was set up in the Prime Minister’s Office. The Council publishedits recommendations on bullying, making a renewed call for the introduction of moral education as a subject. In response, an expert panel on moral
education in the Ministry of Education published a report stating that it
was appropriate to place moral education within the curriculum. In 2014,
the Central Council for Education recommended that moral education be
included as a special subject. Notebooks for the Heart, copies of which were
distributed since 2002, were substantially revised in 2014, and reissued as
Watashitachi no Doutoku (Our Morals).
Under these circumstances, the section on moral education in the
Courses of Study was partly amended in March 2015 to designate it as a
special subject. Primary schools were to start teaching the special subject ofmoral education using textbooks and evaluations from 2018, lower secondary schools from 2019.
The Courses of Study was revised in 2016 for other subjects, and classes
would be taught according to the new Courses of Study in 2020 for primaryschools and 2021 for lower secondary schools, after a period of dissemina-

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267tion and transition. Only the special subject of moral education was implemented in advance.
This is how the special subject of moral education became a new subject in 2018. The Ministry of Education indicated that moral sense would beformed through changing moral education classes into one of “thinking anddiscussion,” and by fostering the ability to address learning as well as a senseof humanity through each of the subjects.
Before the official introduction of the special subject on moral education, the schools were “encouraged” to promote moral education.
Concerns about Moral Education as a Subject
The Notebooks for the Heart were not textbooks, as they have not gone
through the textbook screening process. They are also not supplementary
textbooks because they have not been approved by the Boards of Education.
The Director-General of the Primary and Secondary Education Bureau of
the Ministry of Education at the time stated during a session of the Audit
Committee of the House of Councilor that the Ministry of Education was
not forcing the schools to use the Notebooks for the Heart. If so, when, where
and who were expected by the Ministry of Education to use them?
The amended Basic Act on Education explicitly refers to “sense of morality” and “love of the country and regions,” as well as to terms that imply
moral education as a school subject. It also includes provisions on educationin the family, possibly introducing the idea of self-responsibility in education. Also, with the amendment of the goals of education, general educational conferences are held with the participation of heads of local governments, giving them a say in education, even though the Basic Act stipulates
that “education must not be subject to improper controls.”
The publication and distribution of the Notebooks for the Heart, which
resemble textbooks, since 2002 and then Our Morals since 2014, may beseen as preparation for the introduction of moral education as a subject.
In practice, the use “as much as possible” of Our Morals was encouraged
instead of the locally prepared teaching materials being used before then.
Ever since they were officially designated in the schools, the teachers
for the promotion of moral education took the lead in organizing training
activities. The goal of moral education was identified as the fostering of asense of morality through the educational activities of the school as a whole,268

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and moral education class hours would focus on the study of morality. Basedon this idea, the annual school plan was required to state the relevance of all
educational activities (including subjects, classes for integrated learning andspecial activities) to the content items of moral education.
During training, emphasis was placed on lesson planning for moral
education classes that gave more weight to the content items given in the
Courses of Study. Until then, multiple items could be taken up in a classhour, but as the class was the focal hour for moral education, it was now
required that only a single item would be taken up in an hour, or if the lesson involved a story, the whole story would be read and discussed within
the hour. As teaching materials, the use of Our Morals published by the
Ministry of Education was encouraged. The contents of locally publishedteaching materials were considered not clearly relevant to those of the content items in the Courses of Study. Moral education classes that the Ministryof Education “encouraged” to be held were promoted.
Textbook Screening
Moral education as a special subject in primary schools was planned to
be officially introduced in 2020, with the revision of the Courses of Study.
However, in practice, its introduction was made in advance in 2018. As aresult, the textbooks for moral education as a special subject were screened
and adopted in each of the administrative jurisdictions of the Boards ofEducation.
A number of problems were pointed out during the textbook screenings. After the Ministry of Education expressed negative views, certain
items deemed inappropriate in relation to content items were changed suchas the reference to a “baker” that was changed to a “Japanese sweet shop,”and an illustration of children playing with playground equipment that waschanged to one of children watching Japanese musical instruments with interest. While the Ministry of Education did not ask for specific changes,
the textbook publishers complied by making changes. Some textbooks wereoverly political by showing photographs of the Prime Minister’s Office, forexample, or raised concern such as those demanding respect for the national flag and anthem. Each textbook has a guide material, and some guidematerials try to lead the children’s views to a particular sense of values.
Although the Ministry stresses thinking and discussion in moral education,

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it has been pointed out that by using the textbooks, there is a risk of forcing
uniform sense of values.
Evaluation
The expert council on evaluation in moral education published its report on
the instruction methods and evaluation in moral education as a special subject, indicating the following basic ideas regarding evaluation of the subject:
1.

From the children’s perspectives, evaluation should allow them tohave a sense of their progress, and lead to awareness raising;
2. From the teachers’ perspectives, evaluation should be materials to improve and substantiate goals, planning and instruction
methodologies;
3. Evaluation should not be given in numeric values, but in descriptive account;
4. Evaluation should not be based on individual content items, but on
broad sets of items;
5. Evaluation should not be done in comparison, but be based oneach individual on the progress according to the respective levelsof development;
6. Emphasis should be given on the development of the children’s
multi-faceted and diversified views, and on the deepening of theirunderstanding of moral values by relating the values to themselves;
7. The children’s specific efforts in the learning activities during moral
education should be assessed broadly.
(From the report of the expert council on evaluation in moral education, Ministry of Education)
Report cards (evaluation of learning) given to the children and the parents in each school term are made and handed out upon the discretion of
the schools, and are not legally required. However, evaluation must be included in the guidance records. From the perspective of the children, making evaluation through “report cards” would mean that adults are “evaluating” their (children’s) “sense of morality.” Evaluation should be such that thechildren should not see it that way. It is important that report cards give an
account not on each of the content items in the subject, but on matters such

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as “mainly about oneself,” on how the children considered “moral values” assomething that mattered to them, and how their understanding progressed.
It is possible to give an account on how they learned about the Constitution,international treaties and their rights, or how they responded to educationon peace and disaster prevention, without being bound by the content items.
How Moral Education Should Develop
In moral education, students are “taught” that “you should not discriminate,” that “you should be considerate of the feelings of others,” and that“kindness and compassion are important.”
In Dowa and human rights education, on the other hand, emphasis ison “why discrimination exists,” “what discrimination is,” and “what should
be done to eliminate discrimination.” These are not “taught” unilaterally by
the teachers but “considered together” as a class. In the process, students
learn to express their feelings, listen to the feelings of their friends, discusswith people with different views, and sympathize and connect with not one
but many people. By doing so, their own views may increase in depth, orchange. Then they can discuss and translate their views into action.
In Osaka, the teaching of moral education cannot be understood without taking into account the experience with Ningen. Ningen is historicallysignificant for being part of the development of the “academic skills for liberation,”7 its “democratic edition of educational contents,” and “free distribution.” Learning through Ningen is an effort to reform humanity that addressed the issues of “buraku,” “Okinawa,” “Korea” and the “War, in which
Japan was the aggressor.” There were seven versions, for each grade from one
to six in the primary schools and for lower secondary school. It was revisedin 2003 into four versions, but still maintained as its basis, the “creation ofrelationships in which people can recognize who they really are,” “irreplaceable life, peace,” “diversity as wealth,” and “importance of people to people
connections” as in the earlier versions.
However, the Osaka Restoration Association, a political party, came into
power in Osaka Prefecture through elections, and in 2008, Ningen ceased tobe distributed, although parts of the material were put together as “humanrights education teaching materials” and distributed to all schools.
By addressing the human rights issues taken up in the Ningen, readers
will be brought face to face with themselves and their families, the lives ofMoral Education as Special Subject in Public Schools

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their friends and peers and the local communities. Human rights educationin Osaka has nurtured a concrete sense of human rights by learning about
not some “moral” tales happening far away but about the injustice and conflicts right in front of the people. Ningen (human rights education materials)
has been used and is being used in moral education in the curriculums ofmany schools.
Efforts of the Union
The Ministry of Education and the boards of education have been intensifying their “strong guidance” on “how things should be” with the distribution of the Notebooks for the Heart, the amendment of the Basic Act on
Education and the distribution of Our Morals, even before moral education
became a special subject.
With the introduction of moral education as a special subject, theUnion has been informing members through study meetings and the Union
Newsletter that the imposition of a particular sense of norms or values
and the instructions that interfere with the freedom of thought are notpermissible.
Three published news articles on the comparative examination of textbooks in view of the adoption of primary school textbooks for 2017 emphasized the following points:
1. The adoption of a “better” textbook - for education based on human rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child;
2. The non-imposition of a particular sense of norms or values - formoral education based on the Constitution and the Convention on
the Rights of the Child.
This article compared and analyzed textbooks for third andsixth graders, categorizing issues by (a) the Constitution and thelaw (rules and regulations for third graders), (b) peace, humanrights, (c) tradition, family, and (d) persons appearing in texts. The
textbooks were evaluated and identified as those that were appropriate, those with problems, and those that could be appropriate,
depending on how they were used;
3. Education that takes the child into consideration.
This article argues that moral education classes should not be an imposition of uniform sense of norms or values, but a class in which participants

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H u m a n R i g h t s E d u c at i o n i n A s i a - Pa c i f i c · V o l u m e 9 , 2 0 1 9“think and discuss,” and this can be done by including human rights education in the subject. It also proposed how Ningen (human rights educationmaterials) could be used, and presented the basic ideas on how evaluation
should be.
The Union organized the following study meetings:
1. How to respond to moral education as a special subject (speaker:
Kenichi Ikeda)
Held in 2015, the participants learned about the criticisms
against moral education “called for” by the government taking into
account the context in which it arose. They also studied morality as
seen from the provisions of the Constitution as well as the image
as a nation.
2. Thoughts on moral education classes (speaker: Kenichi Ikeda)
Held in 2018, Mr. Kenichi Ikeda pointed out the following in relation tohuman rights education:
We must consider how we can plan a moral education classthat does not interfere with the freedom of thought. In doing
so, the accumulation of experience in “human rights education”
may be of use. At first glance, the human rights perspective
seems to take up similar content to those of moral education,
but it is fundamentally different.
Human rights education is “to know one’s human rights,
and to act to realize those rights as rights holders.” It is an education that leads to a “regaining of humanity and transformation ofsociety.” (Mariko Akuzawa, “Jinken Kyouiku Saikou,” Chinmoku
suru Jinken, M. Ishizaki, H. Endoh, editors, Horitsu Bunka-sha
2012, pages 33-35.)
But moral education as a special subject may give the impression that human rights issues can be solved by learning
moral values such as consideration and kindness.
After Mr. Ikeda’s presentation, participants created lesson plans forexisting textbooks as well as materials from Ningen (human rights education materials), and discussed the perspectives in the materials and lesson
planning.
The Union published and distributed relevant materials and introduced
new publications, such as materials published by Japan Teachers Union,
Courses of Study, Ministry of Education materials on evaluation, related

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newspaper articles, views of academic experts, and lists of textbooks adopted by schools in Osaka Prefecture.
Education inside the Classrooms
In the academic year 2018, classes in primary schools were held using the
textbooks. Due to the heavy workload of the teaching staff, schools are unable to form their own curriculums or conduct further research on teachingmaterials. In particular, with the introduction of foreign language activities(English), the priority of teaching materials research may further decline.
In some schools, the school administration may tell false information that
locally published teaching materials or materials such as Ningen are “notallowed,” and the uncertainty on conducting classes based on human rights.
The “guide material” at the back of each textbook also places far too
much emphasis on particular content items and as a result, uniform sense ofvalues is imposed and children are reluctant to raise diverse views. It might
be effective to pause in reading a text, rather finish reading it till the end, toallow the exchange of different opinions.
The frequency of evaluation by “report cards” that the schools (teachers) give to each student differ from school to school, ranging from once a
year to two to three times a year. Schools seem to be figuring out by trial anderror what explanation should be written on the evaluation. The teachers
are probably perplexed and would look for guidance on evaluation on moral
education from books and in the internet and use them.
Morality itself should not be evaluated, but teachers should keep giving
an account of what and how the child tried to learn, focusing on the child’s
statements and comments.
Future Directions
There are almost no materials on “rights” or “freedoms” in the textbooks
that passed the Ministry of Education’s screening. Their perspectives on“human rights” are also weak. Many of the materials try to solve social issues
by increasing the “morality” of each person, and shifting the responsibility
to the individual. Also, many involve events and persons that emphasize
how wonderful Japan is.

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Very few textbooks refer to the Constitution, the Convention on the
Rights of the Child and the three human rights laws8 that protect people inJapan by describing how the society can take action to solve the social issues. Regarding other countries, many materials refer to how Japan helped
people in other countries when they suffered from disasters or other problems, and how this led them (other countries) to extend help to Japan. Noneof the materials refer to how Japan invaded other countries in Asia during
WWII, and how this was making relations with the neighboring countries
complex today. They seem to maintain the stance of “not touching on” anymatters of inconvenience to Japan.
The current Minister of Education caused an uproar when, in response
to a question from a reporter, he said that there were parts of the Imperial
Rescript that could be arranged to suit the modern times and used in moral
education. What is the significance of bringing back the Imperial Rescript,
which was declared no longer valid by the Diet, and of presenting respect forthe parents and diligence in study and work as important moral values? Thisshows that the introduction of moral education as a special subject is an attempt to “resurrect” the moral culture education and the Imperial Rescriptthat was conducted before and during WWII.
Each school has the power to form its own curriculums. For the moral
education class, which has been introduced as a special subject, engaging
in education should not be an imposition of uniform norms and values, but
one that is based on the children, and the local community, and with humanrights at its core.
Endnotes
1 Dowa issue is a grave human rights issue unique to Japan, in which a sectionof the people of Japan is compelled to an economically, socially and culturally disadvantageous status over the years, and experience various discrimination in their
daily lives, due to discrimination based on a hierarchical class system created in theprocess of social development in the history of Japanese society. (Ministry of Justice,www.moj.go.jp/JINKEN/jinken04_00127.html)
2 Educational measures in solving the Dowa issue that persisted in many areasof the society in general play an important role in character building. For this reason, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science, Sports, and Technology has madeefforts to promote Dowa education, by improving the respect for the basic humanrights of the people of Japan through school and social education, and by narrowing
the educational gap and improving educational and cultural levels in the Dowa areas.
Policies on Dowa education of the Ministry began in 1959 with the designation of pilot schools for research, and publication and distribution of materials.

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Since 1969, additional teaching staff were assigned in prefectures with Dowa areas
in response to special educational needs to increase the academic skills of children
and for academic and career guidance. Since then, more than 3,000 teaching staff
were assigned by 1991, by improving annually through an improvement plan for thenumber of teachers. (From the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science, Sports andTechnology, www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/hakusho/html/others/detail/1318317.htm).
3 A research organization mainly of teachers, created in 1953, which aimed topromote Dowa education. It organizes summer seminars and other seminars forteachers in Osaka Prefecture, as well as seminars and study meetings on specifichuman rights issues.
4 Ningen is a supplementary textbook for Dowa education that was distributedin elementary schools and lower secondary schools in Osaka Prefecture. It was edited by Ningen Editorial Committee in the Liberation Education Institute. The Osaka
Prefectural Board of Education purchased it in bulk and distributed to schools forfree.
5 The Imperial Rescript on Education was issued on 30 October 1890 in thename of the Meiji Emperor. The basis of education under the Rescript was in theteachings of the imperial ancestors, and it placed loyalty and filial piety at the centerof the education of the nation. In 1948, the Diet decided to void and abolish it.
Shushin means to behave correctly and bring order to one’s life. It is also thetitle of the subject on moral education in pre-WWII school systems. It envisaged thepractice of national morality and the development of virtues. It was given the highest
status among primary school subjects with the amendment of the Education Order,
and after the Imperial Rescript was issued (1890), it was given particular importanceas the basis of the national morality and national education, not only of primaryschools, but all schools. Later, it played a central role in promoting nationalist education policies, and was abolished after WWII.
6 See Nikkyoso website for more information on its post-war activities, www.
jtu-net.or.jp/english/birth/.
7 Kaihou no gakuryoku, or academic skills for liberation, advocated by Kozo
Nakamura. According to him, the skills consist of (1) self-awareness of liberation, (2)collectivism, and (3) scientific and artistic perception. The three components should
not be considered separately. The (1) self-awareness of liberation and (2) collectivism
should be the basis on which (3) scientific and artistic perception would develop.
Later, it was rephrased, such as into “ability to identify, to not be defeated by andto fight discrimination.” Since then, education practices were created to develop the“ability to identify, to not be defeated by and to fight discrimination.”
8 Three laws to solve discrimination were enacted in Japan in 2016. They are(1) the Act for Eliminating Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities, (2)the Act on the Promotion of Efforts to Eliminate Unfair Discriminatory Speech
and Behavior against Persons Originating from Outside Japan and (3) Act on the
Promotion of the Elimination of Buraku Discrimination. All these laws seek to realize a society in which all people can live feeling safe, to build a society in which human rights are mutually respected, and an achievement of a society where there isno discrimination.