While this Weathervane column might be a little too narrow, the actual Nikkei news articles are covering both committees, but again there’s not much context or detail. Notice that while the MEXT-run committee, predictably, was cool on many of the ERC’s ideas, it is forced to find wriggle room within the guidelines set out by the Abe administration:

Though the council’s proposals contain dissident views, critics say they generally follow what the Abe administration wants to achieve. The council has proposed that the target of compulsory education should be nurturing a love for the country and homeland, an idea Abe has been advocating.

As a majority opinion, the council proposed that the education minister be allowed to issue ‘’redress orders'’ to local governments when there is a violation of the education administration law, but some members of the council opposed the idea saying it would contradict the idea of a decentralization of power.

Whether the proposals will be included in the legislation to revise the laws is up to Prime Minister Abe. The government is expected to formalize the legislation by the end of this month for presentation to the ongoing parliamentary session. Abe has said the prime focus of the current parliamentary session is education reform.

Besides the local education administration law, the two other laws eyed for revision are the law on licensing teachers and the School Education Law. Currently, administration of Japanese public schools is chiefly under the charge of local education boards.

The council’s proposals to education minister Bummei Ibuki do not include allowing the minister to appoint the heads of prefectural education boards as the idea did not receive any endorsement from members.

The idea of allowing education boards to ‘’instruct, advise and support'’ privately run schools met with sharp opposition from administrators of such schools. The council removed the word ‘’instruct'’ but retained ‘’advise and support.'’

On shifting power over personnel decisions from prefectural to municipal education boards, including the power to fire teachers, the council noted the pros and cons but left it as an issue requiring further deliberation.

The advisory panel also proposed that teachers be required to renew their teaching licenses and that administrators be given increased powers to oversee teachers who are deemed as lacking in their teaching abilities. (3/11/2007 Nikkei)

I think the (translated) piece stays pretty narrowly focused on the Education Rebuilding Council and the trouble it’s been having without getting into too many of the internal contradictions that have been part of the council from the beginning (I still wonder what a bronze medalist in synchronized swimming at the 1988 Olympics has to do with rebuilding education, or the Chairman of the Shiki Theatre Company, but maybe I just don’t get it).

I like that you give some context at the end. Initially I thought Abe was doing a good thing by setting up so many councils and working groups (and that some would ‘fail off’ immediately), but now it looks like we’re just seeing turf wars. Every couple of months we hear about how this ‘National Security Council’ is going to take shape, but the talk dies away within hours, it seems (Where is Koike? Did she go into witness protection or something?)

I guess they knew where to draw the line with the reforms: no way were they going back to having school on Saturday. I suppose that could always be the threat brought out against the teachers.