From Chastity Education to the Inclusion of Sexual Minorities? Textbooks on Ethics (dôtoku) and Hygiene (hoken)  in Contemporary Japan

Ami Kobayashi; Aline Henninger

doi:10.5944/hme.18.2023.35941

Authors

Ami Kobayashi Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Aline Henninger Orleans University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5944/hme.18.2023.35941

Keywords:

Japan, Sexual minority, school, textbooks

Abstract

UNESCO recommends that textbooks should be used to help students dismiss stereotypes. By containing stories that give prominence to multiple gender categories (men, women, transgender, for example) and various sexual orientations, such as lesbian, gay, and bisexual, textbooks can show the prejudicial effect of the division of humankind into two sexes and the imposition of heterosexuality. However, even today, schoolbooks in many countries provide very little space for this topic. Japan is not an exception. Since the emergence of the modern school system in the nineteenth century, sexual education, especially topics related to sexual minorities, has been absent from schoolbooks. Due to the international and national gay rights movement and several legal changes regarding sex reassignment surgery, the situation started to change in the late 1990s. In this article we overview the changes in curriculum guidelines relating to sexualities from 1958 to 2017 and critically analyse the latest school textbooks (issued after 2017) on hygiene (grade 4) and on ethics (grade 7-8). We discuss whether sex education in Japan, which was called “chastity education” (junketsu kyōiku) until 1972 and has previously been dominated by heteronormative values, has indeed transformed into “progressive” education that embraces sexual diversities. Referencing official documents of the Ministry of Education, we will argue that the Ministry of Education is medicalizing sex change surgery and labelling transgender children as “children with special needs”, while still imposing existing heteronormative gender norms on other non-minority children.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Asai, Haruo. Kodomo to sei (Children and Sex). Tokyo: Nihon tosho sentā, 2007.

Bittner, Melanie, Geschlechterkonstruktionen und die Darstellung von Lesben, Schwulen, Bisexuellen, Trans* und Inter* (LSBTI) in Schulbüchern. Frankfurt am Main: GEW, 2011.

Driscoll, Mark. “Seed and (nest) eggs of empire: sexology manuals/manual sexology”, In Gendering Modern Japanese History, edited by Barbara Molony and Kathleen Uno, 193-197. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005.

Frühstück, Sabine. “Managing the Truth of Sex in Imperial Japan “, The Journal of Asian Studies 59, no. 2 (2000): 332-358.

Fujikawa, Daiki. “Chūgakkō dōtoku kyōkasho ni okeru shōsusha no atsukai no kentō” (Examining the inclusion of minorities in moral textbooks of junior high school). Research on classes (Jugyō jissen kaihatsu kenkyū) 12, 2019: 1-6.

Fujita, Hidenori. (eds), Jendā to kyōiku (Gender and Education). Yokohama: Seorishobô, 1999.

Galan, Christian. “Contrôle scolaire, censure d’Etat, le cas du Japon ”, Japon Pluriel 11, Actes du colloque de la Société Française des Etudes Japonaises 4 (2010): 233-251.

Galan, Christian, Cadot Yves y Henninger Aline. Loyauté et patriotism (le retour) Education et néo-conservatisme dans le Japon du XXIe siècle. Rennes : PUR, 2023.

Gallot, Fanny and Gaël Pasquier. “L’école à l’épreuve de la théorie du genre”, Cahiers du genre 65, no. 2 (2018):5-16.

Hashimoto, Noriko. Danjokyōgakusei no rekishiteki kenkyū (Research on history of coeducation in school). Tokyo: Otsuki shoten, 1995

Hashimoto, Noriko. et alii. “School development and development of Gender perspectives and sexuality in Japan “. Sex education 17, no. 4 (2017) : 1-13.

Henninger, Aline. “ Le dénigrement politique envers l’éducation gender free dans les années 2000 “, Japon Pluriel 11, Actes du colloque de la Société Française des Etudes Japonaises 11 (2016): 213-220.

Hirose, Hiroko. “Consequences of a recent campaign of criticism against school sex education in Japan “, Sex education 13, no. 6 (2013): 674-686.

Iida, Takako and Keiko Itani (eds.), Supōtsu jendāgaku e no shōtai (Gender studies and sport). Tokyo: Akashi, 2009.

Ikeya,Hisao. “Education for Chastity (Junketstu Kyouiku) and Sexuality-Gender in the Family”, The Japanese Journal of Educational Research 68, no.3 (2001): 274-285.

Iwamoto, Takeyoshi. “Gakkō kyōkasho de no seiteki mainoriti no toriatsukai o meguru genjō to kadai seibetsu iwa o motsukodomo no dō taiō suru ka” (Situation and questions about the inclusion of sexual minority in the textbooks (for third grade) which kind of measures for children having gender identity disorder). GID gakkai zasshi (The Journal of the Japanese Society of Gender Identity Disorder) 12, no.1 (2019): 229-233.

Kaneda, Eiko. “Kyoka to shiteno ‘hokentaiku’ no shiteki kosatsu” (Historical study of health and physical education in school curriculums). Toyohogaku 56, no. 3 (2013): 326-309.

Kasai, Makiko. “Sexual and Gender minorities and Bullying in Japan”. In Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Schooling: The Nexus of Research, Practice and Policy, edited by. Stephen T. Russell and Stacey S. Horn, 185-193. Oxford University Press, 2016.

Kazama, Takashi and Kazuya Kawaguchi. Dōseiai to iseiai (Homosexuality and Heterosexuality). Tokyo: Iwanami, 2010.

Kimura, Ryōko. Jendā to kyōiku (Gender and education). Tokyo: Nihon Tosho sentā, 2009.

Kodama, Satoshi. “Rinrigakuteki shiten kara mita seikyoiku no mondaiten (Problems of sexuality education from an ethical perspective)”. FINE (Foundation of Information Ethics) Newsletter 13 (2002).

Komiya, Akihiko. “kakureta karikyuramu to sekushuariti - kouzoteki boryoku/ sabetsu toshite no iseiaisyugiteki gakkobunka” (hidden curriculum and sexuality - structural violence/ heterosexual school culture as discrimination). Annals of the Institute of Nutrition Sciences Kagawa Nutrition University 15 (2008): 101-107.

Koyama, Shizuko. “Ryōsai kenbo shisō to kōkyōikuseido” (Good wife and wise mother idea and public school system). In Jendā to Kyōiku (Gender and Education), edited by Ryoko Kimura. Tokyo: Nihon Tosho Sentā, 2009.

Kunugi, Toshio. “Sei no tayōsei to shōgakkō hoken kyōkasho genjō to tenbō” (Hygiene textbooks in primary school and diversity of sexuality -actuality and perspective). Kyōiku shisutemu kenkyū (Research on education system) 13 (2018): 193-201.

Leupp P, Gary. Male Colors, The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

Mano, Yutaka, (Tayō na sei no shiten de tsukuru gakkō kyōiku sekushuariti ni yoru sabetsu o nakusu tameno manabi e (Towards knowledge in order to erase gender discrimination while using education school with inclusion of viewpoint of sexual diversity). Kyoto: Shoraisha, 2020.

McLelland, Mark. Queer Japan from the Pacific War to the Internet Age. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.

Molony, Barbara. and Uno, Kathleen. Gendering Modern Japanese History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005.

Oba, Jun.” L’organisation du système éducatif japonais ”, Revue internationale d’éducation de Sèvres 42 (2006): 145-154.

Oota Miyuki, “Sei no tayōsei o meguru kyōiku seisaku kenkyū no kadai” (Theme of research on educational measures around sexual identity diversity). Bulletin of Japanese Society of Educational Measures (Nihon kyōiku seisaku gakkai nenpō) 24 (2017): 66-74.

Sawayama, Mikako. “Rekishi no naka no sei to seishoku” (History of sexuality and reproduction). Kyōikugaku kenkyū (The Japanese journal of Educational Research) 72, no. 2 (2005): 193-196.

Seizelet, Eric. “Les manuels scolaires au Japon”, Savoir éducation formation 4 (1991): 699-718.

Sekiguchi, Hisashi. “Seikyōiku basshingu sono nerai to haikei” (Context and Scope of Sex Education Basshing). Minshu kyōikukenkyūjo nenpō (Bulletin of Democratic Education Research Center) 5 (2004): 59-62.

Shibamoto, Emi. “The aim of human sexuality education theories during the 1920s in Japan: on the argument of Senji Yamamoto”, Kyoto University research studies in education 51 (2005): 290-301.

Soeda, Yoshiya. Kyōiku-Chokugo no Shakaishi (Social History of the Imperial Rescript on Education). Tokyo: Yusindo kōbunsha, 1997.

Takayama, Keita. “Japan’s Ministry of Education ‘becoming the Right’: neo-liberal restructuring and the Ministry’s struggles for political legitimacy”. Globalisation Societies and Education 6, no. 2 (2008): 131-146.

Taniguchi, Hiroyuki. “Japan’s 2003 Gender Identity Disorder Act: The Sex Reassignment Surgery, No Marriage and No Child Requirements as Perpetuations of Norms in Japan”. Asian-Pacific Law and Policy Journal 14 (2013):108-117.

Taniguchi, Kōichi. “Seidōitsuseishōgai no seibetsu no toriatsukai no tokurei ni kan suru hōritsu no hōritsu katei ni kan suru ikkōsatsu” (Considering the new law about sex change for people with Gender Identity Disorder). The Quarterly of Legal Philosophy, 226 (2004): 212-220.

Tashiro, Mieko. “Seikyōikukenkyū jissen no seika to kadai, junketsukyōiku kara seikyōiku e” (Sex education researches: from chastity education to sex education). Minshu kyōikukenkyūjo nenpō (Bulletin of Democratic Education Research Center) 5 (2004): 106-126.

Toyoizumi, Seikou. “A Study of the History of Moral Education (1): From the Establishment of Shushin to the Times of Government-Designed Textbooks”, Annual Report of The Faculty of Education 49 (2015): 27-38.

Seikou Toyoizumi, “A study of the history of moral education (2).” Annual Report of the Faculty of Education 50 (2016): 243 - 254.

Tsuchimochi, Gary H. Education Reform in Postwar Japan. The 1946 U.S. Education Mission. Tokyo:University of Tokyo Press, 1993.

Tsuji, Yuki. “Abe seiken to josei seisaku” (Abe government and measures concerning women). Hōgaku ronsō (Kyoto Law Review) 176, no. 5/6 (2015): 348-379.

Yamamoto, Nobuhiro et al. “seikyōiku no rekishiteki hensen no bunkenteki kōsatsu” (Study on the historic change of the literature in sex education). Memoirs of Osaka Kyoiku University. V, Curricula and Methods of Education and Allied Subjects 39, no.2 (1991): 203-215.

Yi, Sookyung. “Senji Yamamoto and Inosuke Nakanishi: two pacifists who were brought up in Uji: memory of the peace that Yoon Dongjoo left.” Ritsumeikan-sangkyōsakai-ronshū 46 (2010): 105-122.

Watanabe, Daisuke. “Gakko ni okeru doseiai no ‘kesarekata’ ‘arawarekata’” (How homosexuals are made ‘invisible’ ‘visible’ in schools), Rekihaku - National Museum of Japanese History 137 (2006): 11-14.