The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan

9.Article 10

(1)Improvement of education and learning to offer multiple choice for women and to promote gender equality

1) Improvement of elementary and secondary education

The Ministry of Education provides prefectural boards of education with information, guidance and assistance in order to promote throughout school education guidance for the respect for human rights, equality between men and women, and mutual cooperation and understanding. Information and guidance are also provided from the standpoint of giving due consideration to textbooks and educational materials used at school, improving and enhancing training of teaching staff.

As was described in the third periodic report, under the current course of study (revised in 1989), home economics has been a common curriculum to both boys and girls at junior high schools since the 1993 school year and at senior high schools since the 1994 school year. The course is taught thoroughly to teachers through the training about the way to improve the program, presentation of the fruit of study and so on. The course is practiced smoothly at both junior and senior high schools.

Some textbooks on social study describe the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and many textbooks on home economics have descriptions on diverse images of family and the importance of gender equality, and mutual understanding and cooperation.

2) Promotion of gender equality in institutions of higher education

Women's studies that seek to reconstruct the conventional system of learning from women's point of view is promoted at institutions of higher learning having in mind fostering of men scholars of women's studies. Efforts are also being made to make students sensitive to gender in education and research activities.

Research institutions on women's studies have been set up at an increasing number of universities recently. Among national universities, Ochanomizu University set up the Institute for Gender Studies in May 1996, with its main objectives being: conducting academic study and investigation, and providing education training and information concerning gender. The Institute undertakes various study projects and offers research guidance to undergraduate and post-graduate students as well as to researchers. It holds monthly study meetings and symposiums open to everyone and publishes "Annual Reports of the Institute for Gender Studies".

Women's University of Osaka Prefecture (public) and Aichi Shukutoku University (private), have also set up gender study centers.

3) Promotion of social education

(i)Increasing study opportunity for home education
Study on the importance of respect and understanding of each other regardless of sex is done on various occasions, including home education courses, courses for newly-wed couples and courses for couples expecting a baby. How to promote gender equality in family life is often taken up as a theme for women's classes. Ministry of Education subsidies pioneering or model projects selected from such classes or lecture meetings held by local governments.
(ii)Promotion of mutual understanding and cooperation among young people
Boards of education, public halls, women's organization and parent-teacher associations hold classes and lecture meetings to give young men and women an opportunity to study gender equality, mutual understanding and cooperation, and gender equality at home, local community and workplace. The Ministry of Education provides subsidies to the model projects selected from the classes and meetings held at the local level.
The Ministry Education has been holding "Gender Equality Seminars for Youth" for young people on a consignment basis since FY 1996 and 16 such seminars were held in FY 1997.

4) Promotion of lifelong learning

Japan is promoting policies to establish a lifelong learning society where "people can learn at any stage of life, can freely select and participate in opportunities for study and can have the results of their learning appropriately evaluated". This is also important to enable women to take part in every aspect of social life equally to men.

(i)Regional promotion of systems for lifelong learning
Japan promotes the utilization of Regional Basic Plans for the Promotion of Lifelong Learning which is set up based on Lifelong Learning Promotion Law, and encourages local governments to establish administrative organizations such as lifelong learning council, to formulate plans to promote both programs and centers for the promotion of lifelong learning.
(ii)Promotion of recurrent education
Recurrent education to re-train adults and working people has become increasingly important to make them cope better with the rapid progress in science and technology and a change in industrial structure. The Ministry of Education therefore encourages colleges and Special Training College to reserve places for adults in a student body, to employ day and evening courses and to open schools. The Ministry of Education is also striving to expand functions of universities and special training colleges as places for lifelong learning, and to improve and expand open classes at upper secondary schools.
(iii)Expansion of the University of the Air and other institutions
On January 1998, the Broadcasting areas of the University of the Air, which provides higher education via TV and radio, was expanded nation-wide due to satellite broadcasting. The Ministry of Education also promotes establishment of credit-system upper secondary school and special training colleges to provide more opportunities for study to people with different educational background and lifestyle.
(2)Education and learning opportunity to meet women's diversified and advanced demand

1)Promotion of social participation of women and lifelong learning

Since 1990, the Ministry of Education has entrusted women's education organizations with model projects to promote women's participation in social activities so that they can exert their potentials and create a comfortable society to live in. In FY 1997, the Ministry of Education consigned 18 projects to local organizations and 8 projects to national bodies. One of them produced a picture-story show and a comic stage dialogue scrip to be used as educational material to easily study Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and held forum to actively publicize the Convention.

Since FY 1994, the Ministry of Education has supported "Projects for Promotion of Women's Lifelong Learning" carried out by local governments as a way to develop and advance women's ability and cultivate the sense of gender equality.

2) 20th anniversary of the National Women's Education Centre

National Women's Education Centre is the only national education institution for women, and as the national center it plays leading and pioneering roles for women's education facilities and centers across the country.

The Centre, to enrich information program, opened a homepage on Internet in FY 1996 and initiated advanced course to train education leaders to become gender-free. It has also established multimedia database on family education and has conducted research study on educational function of family and local community.

The Centre held "Forum on Women's and Gender Studies" since FY 1996 and provides opportunity to present achievements of organizations, groups or individuals active in research and education of women's studies and gender studies at local levels and promotes exchanges of views and net-working among such organizations, groups and individuals. It also puts together results of various studies on the contents of and education methods for women's studies.

Since FY 1997, the Centre began holding a "Regional Seminar for Women's Life-long Learning" in cooperation with local boards of education and institutions relating to women's lifelong learning.

In November 1997, the Centre held a woman's festival and commemorative ceremonies to mark the 20th anniversary of its founding and sponsored an international lifelong study forum under the theme of: "Women's Network toward the 21st Century." As another commemorative event, the Center published "National Women's Education Center Bulletin" composed of theses, contributions and case studies that are expected to contribute to international, interdisciplinary and practical researches on lifelong study.

(3)Course and employment guidance
Women university students tend to major in humanities and take up clerical work after graduating from school. The Government has implemented various measures so that every woman student can decide her future course independently without being swayed by fixed ideas on roles of men and women.
The Government also calls on universities to offer career guidance for students and since FY 1995 has conducted national employment guidance meetings where employment counselors at universities and company officials in charge of recruitment can exchange views and information. It has promoted measures to provide employment-related information to students promptly and through disposition of employment counselors at school and called on corporations to give equal employment opportunity to women students.
It has also implemented since FY 1995 by Ministry of Labour seminars for women high school students, their parents and guidance counselors at school to raise their awareness as to the importance of not being swayed by gender-based stereotyped ideas in deciding the future course of the students.
(4)Program for Educational Reform
In January 1997, Ministry of Education worked out a "Program for Educational Reform" to concretely and positively tackle the educational reform, one of the six reform policies the Japanese Government has set forth. One of the item of the Program is to promote education to heighten the awareness of gender equality. For the purpose of discarding the gender-based stereotype roles and promoting gender equality based on the awareness for human rights in order to realize a gender-equal society, Ministry of Education improves education and learning to promote gender equality through the improvement of training for the persons concerned to education, and in the development of teaching materials in school and social education.
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