Part Two: Report by Article

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (former Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture) provides prefectural Boards of Education and related organizations with information, guidance and assistance in order to promote guidance throughout school education about the respect for human rights, gender equality, and mutual cooperation and understanding, giving due consideration to textbooks and educational materials used at school, and improve training of teachers.

Further, new Courses of Study start at elementary and lower secondary schools from FY2002 (amended in 1998) and at the upper secondary schools from FY2003 (amended in 1999). The new Courses of Study emphasize the importance of mutual understanding and cooperation between men and women and aims for thorough implementation of their principles.

In some textbooks on social studies and home economics descriptions are made about the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Mainly in the textbooks on home economics, there are descriptions made based on diverse images of family, the importance of gender equality, and mutual understanding and cooperation.

Women's studies seeking to reconstruct the conventional system of learning from women's point of view are promoted further at institutions of higher education, keeping in mind the fostering of male scholars of women's studies. Efforts are also being made to make them attentive to gender in education and research activities.

According to a FY1999 research, universities that offer classes related to women's studies and the improvement of women's rights were: 45 national universities, 25 public universities, 146 private universities which amounts to 216 universities. Compared to a FY1998 research (39 national universities, 14 public universities, 140 private universities which amounts to 193 universities), there was an increase of 23 universities.

As for the class curricula, various kinds of classes related to women's studies are offered in interdisciplinary courses ranging over education, culture, legal system and other disciplines. "Women's Issues" offered at Ochanomizu University, "Women's Studies" offered at Osaka Women's University, "Women and Society" at Aichi Shukutoku University, and "Frontier of Women's Studies" and Women's Career and Workplace offered at Mukogawa Women's University are some examples of classes to list but a few.

a) Programs in Local Areas

b) Increasing Study Opportunities for Education in the Home

Japan is promoting measures such as the expansion of the lifelong learning system, promotion of recurrent education, and expansion of the University of the Air 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. These measures also have great significance for women to participate in any area of society as men do.

In 1999, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (former Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture), bearing in mind the current state of the local communities, started hosting the "Gender Equality Learning for Empowerment of Women," in line with the 11 major objectives of the "Basic Plan for Gender Equality" to promote the empowerment of women while sustaining partnership with men.

From FY2002, the Ministry will set up learning programs to support the management of family and local activities to create a gender-equal society by transforming the workplace-oriented mentality and life style of men.

In order to promote gender equality in school environments, lectures on gender-equal society are given at central training courses for teachers, in order to develop an understanding and further expand the consciousness of the principles of gender equality among the school principals and other teachers.

Reference materials aimed at expanding the understanding of gender equality and violence against women have been prepared and distributed to social education instructors.

The National Women's Education Center, an independent administrative institution, has hosted the "Seminar on Gender Equality Education for Teachers" so that participants may obtain knowledge needed to advance their understanding of the importance of gender equality among them.

The "Seminar for Staff of Women-related Facilities," "Seminar on Support for Women's Empowerment," "Seminar on Gender Equality Education for Teachers," "Seminar on Child-Raising by the Community and Family," "NWEC National Exchange Festival 2001" and "Forum on Home Education" were conducted as national scale training and exchange programs.

By joint sponsorship with four other lifelong learning related facilities, the National Women's Education Center conducted "Forums to Promote Gender Equality Learning." In FY2000, as a supplement to the Conference on Women 2000, it hosted the "International Forum on Women's and Gender Studies."

As for specialized research programs, the National Women's Education Center conducted "Research on Gender Equality Learning in an Aging Society" from FY1999 and "Research on Gender Statistics" and "Comparative International Research on Women's Interest in Learning and their Learning Behavior" from FY2001, and those results have been reflected in various kinds of programs.

The Information Center for Women's Education of the National Women's Education Center have produced and distributed resource materials on the provision of various types of database on women and the family, reference and photocopying service, viewing, lending and exhibiting of information resource, information training program, and "NWEC Newsletter" which provides information to the "WINET information system" and overseas.

Since March 2000, the Center has established and offered a cross search system (WinetCASS) which enables the user to make simultaneous access and search not only to the database of the Information Center for Women's Education but also to websites both domestic and foreign, and databases provided by other outside organizations.

The acquisition of skills and the creation of an information network have been advanced by establishing a learning system TICT (Training in Information Communication Technology) so as to acquire the information communication skills through a woman's perspective and by providing information, a place for communication and manuals for computers and the Internet necessary to effectively use the information and knowledge related to women.

Furthermore, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) regards the Information Center for Women's Education as an important focal point in the Women's Information Network for Asia and the Pacific (WINAP), therefore the center strives to enhance its activities, serving as the base of women's information network for related organs, facilities, organizations, groups and individuals both at home and abroad.