On November 16, a bill was passed to reform Japan’s Fundamental Law of Education for the first time since it was put into place in 1947. These reforms, which prime minister Shinzo Abe pushed hard for, stipulate that schools are to instill a sense of patriotism in their students. What do the Japanese papers have to say about the revisions to this law? We decided to dig in and find out. Here’s a bit of what we found, translated into English:

Kyoto Shimbun

Prime Minister Abe has taken heat over subtly changing his stance on issues such as visiting Yasukuni and his own interpretations of history, apparently to avoid any early confrontation with the leaders of neighboring nations. The revisions to the Fundamental Law of Education should end any such criticism. If the opposition parties had been able to block the passage of this bill, Abe’s administration could have been damaged…This unilateral action by the ruling parties may reveal an outlook for this prime minister’s domestic political agenda.

Yomiuri Shimbun

If the DPJ and had been serious about debating the details of this bill, such as its impact upon the bullying issue, it should have called on the LDP to debate the issue further. Rather, it joined forces with the Communist and Social Democratic parties. Thus, the DPJ cannot avoid the criticism that it too interest in the recent student suicides just in order to delay a vote on the amendment bill.

Sankei Shimbun

Passage [of the bill] could not have been helped. DPJ leader Ozawa Ichiro decided to fall in line with the Social Democrats and other groups in order to focus on next summer’s Upper House election. This course of action was regrettable since, unlike the Social Democratic Party, which opposed the bill altogether, the DPJ had proposed its own ideas for change.

Asashi Shimbun

Although today’s education system is riddled with shortcomings, they have stemmed from the Fundamental Law of Education. Would amending it truly address those faults? Issues that should be dealt with by professionals involved in education are turning into political and legal issues.

Hokkaido Shimbun

We fear that the diverse opinions and views of Japan’s citizens will no longer be listened to. Both the LDP and the DPJ made a political issue out of the revisions to the Fundamental Law of Education. Their futile debates on this bill have fallen short of what the voters expect.

Summary

Tellingly, not one of the the above papers overtly supported the revisions to the Fundamental Law of Education. Also tellingly, none focused on the potential ramifications of what the Boston Globe has called the “Patriotism Bill.” Instead of supporting the bill, both the Yomiuri and the Sankei take the opportunity to attack the DPJ. Such diversionary tactics serve only to ignore the issue at hand. This observer has also criticized the DPJ’s walkout and boycott from voting on the bill, but did not stop there in discussing it on Seijigiri.

Only the Hokkaido Shimbun alludes to the fact that Abe’s actions are alienating voters, without specifically mentioning the rigged ‘Town Hall’ meetings that the LDP used to drum up support for its reforms. Both the Hokkaido Shimbun and the Asahi lement the politicization of this issue; they seem to understand that it should be dealt with by recommendations from professionals, not used as a political tool to shore up party power, as the Kyoto Shimbun also points out.

In a recent article entitled, “How Abe Lost his Groove,” Time magazine brings up the fact that Abe’s approval rating had fallen since the bill was passed, to 53%. It has since dipped below 50%, as we pointed out on TPR News. Time’s Bryan Walsh asserts that, “as strong as Abe appears abroad, at home he seems disengaged and clueless about the real concerns of voters.” And, as Jeff Kingston, a professor of Japanese history at Temple University’s Tokyo campus puts it, “The public wants education reform, but not anything like Abe is promoting…This is gesture politics, rather than substance.”
This observer fully agrees.

Now that former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi is saying that he is willing go to North Korea himself, the stakes have been raised for Mr Abe. If he does not act fast, and do something that the public can get behind and support, the LDP might have to bring in a new leader to guide them through next summer’s Upper House elections.