They may not use shinais (bamboo swords) to whack the kids with anymore, but they certainly still push them into wals and yell down at them and so forth. Societies change but not that much and not that fast.

One of family friends, a woman named Annie, taught in Japan for 10 years beginning in the mid 1980’s. She lived in Hyogo-ken. She lived with a family involved in education. The husband of the family was a vice-headmaster, but by the last year when she lf, he had become the superintendent of the entire district. She told me about her experience encountering corporal punishment at the junior highs and high schools she taught English at. She was always frustrated and disturbed by her lack of power as a foreign teacher and as a gaijin to not be able to stop what she believed were criminal acts. At times she did succeed in stopping them by entering the rooms where students were being punished by bursting through the door acting as if she was ignorant of what was going on. This was done to embarrass the teachers to make them stop. But mostly she was unable to do anything or convince her colleagues to stop carry out corporal punishments.

As the broadcast pointed out, under the treaties which Japan is part of as a member of the UN, the beating of children is a violation of basic human rights. Japan has always been a country of paradoxes. Perhaps all nations are, but when it comes to “peace” in Japan, this term seems to be trampled upon in so many ways in actions taken by many members of Japanese society. I think many foreigners and perhaps some Japanese people don’t realize how many ideas, traditions, and behavioral tendencies Japan has retained since Tokugawa and Meiji times. No matter how modern Japan appears, there is something very old that still defines social mores and social attitudes.

Until this report came out, I had not known that corporal punishment had been outlawed by the Fundamental Law of Education.

As you mention, Sam, it’s not rare. I know a few people my age, who were smacked in the face by juku teachers when they made mistakes and I think there must be something behind the habit a number of my college freshmen students have of hitting, even punching, themselves in the head when they make mistakes.

For more on what I’m talking about, you should read the books Shogun’s Ghost (about Japanese schools in 1980’s-1992) and Japan Unbound.

You think they’ll let the ALTs beat students as well?