| Feb 07 | Sophia University slashes workers' bonuses to create student scholarships (Mainichi) |
| Sophia University slashed 30 million yen from its budget for staff bonuses at the end of last year, and will use the money to fund scholarships from fiscal 2010, the university has announced. The University's Office of Public Relations said the bonus cut, which reportedly received the approval of the teachers union, affected about 810 workers, and includes Sophia University, Sophia Junior College and Sophia School of Social Welfare. Each worker had their winter bonus cut by about 37,000 yen on average. |
| Feb 07 | Flu-based encephalitis jumps in kids aged 5-9 (Yomiuri) |
| Children aged 5 to 9 came down with a disproportionately larger number of flu-related encephalitis cases between July and December when the new type of H1N1 influenza spread nationwide, compared with cases caused by seasonal flu. Last year, 25.5 children per 1 million in that age bracket caught the flu. In 2008, the figure was 1.9, according to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases. |
| Feb 06 | School waits 4 days before reporting student stabbing to police (Mainichi) |
| A high school here waited four days before reporting a stabbing incident at one of its dormitories to police, it has been learned. The attack occurred in a dormitory of Sendai Ikuei High School in Tagajo, Miyagi Prefecture, at about 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 30. Police arrested an 18-year-old Chinese student for the attempted murder of a 20-year-old third-year student on Thursday. He has denied acting with murderous intent, however. |
| Feb 06 | The ABCs of living in Japan (Japan Times) |
| "A is for apple." Every Japanese person learns this when they learn the E nglish alphabet. But couldn't it be, just for once, "A is for antelope?" Or how about "A is for anarchy," "adult" or "aspirin?" Wouldn't that be more helpful? We could also use our own alphabet to teach Japanese culture and language to foreigners. Something like, The ABCs of Living in Japan: A is for Amaterasu, the sun goddess and Japan's best-known deity. A is also for amanogawa (the Milky Way), Aomori Prefecture and All Nippon Airways. |
| Feb 05 | Australia the top choice for Japanese school excursions (ftnnews.com) |
| Australia is the number one destination for Japanese school excursions and study tours, according to a report by the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. In the 2007-08 Japanese financial year, 43,669 Japanese students visited Australia, of whom 34,802 arrived for school excursions and 8,867 came for language study tours. After Australia, the next most popular destinations for students are the United States (including Guam and Hawaii) and Korea. |
| Feb 05 | Japan--where some parents never see their kids (Yomiuri) |
| In Japan, a couple gets divorced every two minutes. There is also a growing number of conflicts resulting from breakups of couples from different countries. This is the third and final installment in a series looking at some of the problems divorced parents face as they struggle to reunite with their children. A new dispute has erupted over parent-child relations as murmurs spread in Western nations that Japan does not allow parents to see their children if they live apart from them after separation or divorce. |
| Feb 04 | New graduates in Japan feeling the economic pinch in job search (examiner.com) |
| Upcoming high school and college graduates are feeling the effects of the sluggish Japanese economy this year while they search for jobs. Across the nation, the number of students who will graduate in April and already have jobs lined up is falling significantly compared to the same time last year. |
| Feb 04 | Parents helpless if kids spirited abroad (Yomiuri) |
| The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is a multilateral treaty that aims to ensure the prompt return of any child that has been illegally taken from one member country to another. But Japan is not a signatory to it. Of developed nations, only Japan and Russia remain outside the treaty, which currently has 81 signatories. The Foreign Ministry said Japan has not been able to sign the convention because some domestic laws would first need to be altered and possible negative impacts on Japanese residents that might stem from signing the treaty need to be explored. |
| Feb 04 | Cell phone effects on kids probed (Japan Times) |
| A research group of Tokyo Women's Medical University is conducting a nationwide survey on the effects of electromagnetic waves emanating from cell phones on children to find out whether they are vulnerable to cancer and other diseases. The survey of parents or guardians of fourth- to sixth-graders has been under way since July 2008. About 2,000 from elementary schools nationwide have agreed to participate in the study. |
| Feb 03 | Kanagawa to maintain files on teachers who refuse to stand for 'Kimigayo' (Japan Times) |
| The Kanagawa prefectural board of education said Tuesday it will continue collecting information on teachers who refuse to stand when the national anthem is sung at school ceremonies. The decision contradicts the stance of the prefectural panel on personal information protection, which said last month that such a practice goes against a local ordinance prohibiting collecting information on personal beliefs and creeds. |
| Feb 03 | Divorced parents fighting for right to see own children (Yomiuri) |
| We live in a time when divorce has become commonplace. In Japan, a couple gets divorced every two minutes. Consequently, the number of divorced parents filing requests with the courts for visitation rights is increasing. There is also a growing number of conflicts resulting from breakups of couples from different countries. Due to differences in interpretation regarding child custody, parents have been accused of abducting their own children and taking them to another country. As families and people's values diversify, certain problems have become difficult to resolve under the existing system. |
| Feb 02 | Seoul wants Tokyo to hand over ancient books on royalty (Japan Times) |
 South Korea may officially demand that Japan hand over about 660 books taken during its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, officials of the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea said Monday. The books include various "Uigwe" collections of royal protocols for ceremonies and rituals from the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), as well as treatises on medicine and military affairs.
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| Feb 01 | Full kids allowances tall order: Noda (Japan Times) |
| Senior Vice Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Sunday it will be difficult for the Democratic Party of Japan-led government to fulfill its election pledge of offering monthly allowances to families with children on a full scale from fiscal 2011. If the government offers full-scale child allowances of ¥26,000 a month from fiscal 2011, it would need a budget of more than ¥5 trillion a year, including related costs, while tax revenues are not expected to recover soon. |
| Feb 01 | Japan, China still at odds over Nanjing (Japan Times) |
| Academics from Japan and China released a long-awaited joint history report Sunday but remained apart on the number of people killed in the 1937 Nanjing Massacre. The research project, more than three years in the making, was launched in 2006 to improve mutual understanding between the two countries. While both sides affirmed that the 1937-1945 Sino-Japanese War was an "act of aggression" waged by Japan, the postwar history section of the report - including studies on the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown - was not disclosed at the request of Chinese panel members, who feared a public backlash against the sensitive content. |
| Jan 29 | Gov't adopts guidelines to increase capacity of nurseries (AP) |
| The government decided Friday on new guidelines on Japan's declining birthrates to boost the capacity of certified nurseries by 260,000 children to 2.41 million over the next five years. The government also decided to set up a committee to study a new support structure for child-rearing, including the integration of the functions of kindergartens and nurseries, which are currently administered separately under the education and welfare ministries. |
| Jan 29 | Police to offer up to 100,000 yen for info on cases of child abuse (Yomiuri) |
| The National Police Agency decided Thursday to add child abuse to the list of crimes for which it offers rewards of up to 100,000 yen for reliable information provided through an anonymous hotline. Titled Tokumei Tsuho Dial (anonymous report dial), the hotline currently provides rewards for information on such crimes as organized child prostitution and human trafficking. It did not previously do so for information regarding child abuse because legislation such as the Child Abuse Prevention Law and the Child Welfare Law requires people who discover such abuse to notify children's consultation centers or other public authorities. |
| Jan 29 | Fewer high school students studying abroad (Japan Times) |
| The number of high school students who studied abroad for more than three months in the 2008 academic year fell 19 percent from the previous survey in 2006 to 3,190, according to an education ministry study released Thursday. The total number dropped 29 percent from its peak in 1992, the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry said, attributing the fall to the tough economic situation. |
| Jan 29 | 'Fathering school' opens to give men lessons in raising children (Japan Times) |
| More than a dozen men last autumn hoping to take on a greater role in child rearing gathered in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, after work for lectures on child care. One of them, the father of an elementary school boy, said, "I want to consider child rearing anew." A bachelor said was attending the eight-lecture course to prepare for the day he becomes a father. Around 58 percent of male company employees say they want "to strike a balance between work, and housework and child rearing," according to a poll conducted by Mitsubishi UFJ Consulting Co. |
| Jan 28 | Teachers lose suit for compensation over national flag, anthem issue (AP) |
| The Tokyo High Court rejected on Thursday a demand for compensation by former teachers who argued that they were refused post-retirement reemployment because they had remained seated during the singing of "Kimigayo" national anthem at school ceremonies despite their school principals' orders. The appellate court ruling overturned the February 2008 decision by the Tokyo District Court that awarded a total of around 27.5 million yen in compensation to 12 former teachers and a clerk at public high schools run by the Tokyo metropolitan government. |
| Jan 28 | Imperial family parts from schooling tradition (Asahi) |
| A decision to send 3-year-old Prince Hisahito, third in line to the Chrysanthemum Throne, to Ochanomizu University's kindergarten from April has apparently shocked Gakushuin, a Tokyo school with strong historical ties to the imperial family. The announcement followed reports that his sister, Princess Mako, a senior at Gakushuin's girls high school, will attend International Christian University from April, rather than continuing on to higher education at Gakushuin. |
| Jan 28 | Abuse case boy: 'I'm not bullied' / 7-year-old boy defended parents 2 days prior to death from bodil (Yomiuri) |
| A 7-year-old boy who died Sunday of injuries allegedly inflicted by his parents reportedly told a neighbor two days before his death, "Papa doesn't bully me." But despite Kaito Okamoto's seeming defense of his parents' suspected actions, his case betrays many telltale signs of abuse. Police strongly suspect the first-year primary school student of Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, was repeatedly physically abused by his electrician stepfather, Kenji, 31, and unemployed mother Chigusa, 22. |
| Jan 27 | Parents pay 3 times more for private school education: survey (AP) |
| Parents spend three times more on educating their child at a private school than at a public school during the 15-year period from kindergarten to high school, an education ministry survey showed Wednesday. For a child at a private school, parents spend a total of 16.63 million yen in the 15 years, while education at a public school costs 5.51 million yen, according to the biennial survey for fiscal 2008. |
| Jan 27 | English textbook plugs governor (Japan Times) |
 Miyazaki Gov. Hideo Higashikokubaru appears in an English textbook to be used by about 100 universities nationwide, its publisher said Tuesday. The textbook, "Eco-Navigation and Society," devotes three pages to describing Higashikokubaru's former career as a TV comedian, his gubernatorial campaign and his accomplishments in office.
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| Jan 27 | Spouse hunting, politics had us all abuzz in '09 (Japan Times) |
| The 2010 edition of the "Encyclopedia of Contemporary Words" was recently put on sale by publisher?Jiyukokuminsha. The bulky paperback's English title doesn't really do justice to the Japanese name, which is "Gendai Yogo no Kiso Chishiki." Broken down by its individual components, it becomes 現代 (gendai, present era or current); 用語 (yōgo, words or terms in use), 基礎 (kiso, basic); and 知識 (chishiki, knowledge). A more idiomatically translated title would be "Fundamental Knowledge of Terms in Current Use." |
| Jan 25 | Supporting school principals (Japan Times) |
| The requested demotion of 179 public school principals, vice principals and deputies in 2008 was one of the clearest signs yet of the crisis in Japanese public education. The number of administrators stepping down of their own free choice is the highest ever. These teachers-turned-administrators should not be seen as giving up, but as expressing their frustration with the difficult demands of running public schools. |
| Jan 21 | U.S. loses its allure as a study destination (Yomiuri) |
| Had Koichi Murata and Shoko Wadano been university students two decades ago, they likely would have followed the established trend for studying overseas by plumping to spend a year in the United States. Though the two Waseda University seniors confess to having considered the United States as a study destination--as most Japanese students did toward the turn of the 20th century--they decided instead to jet off to alternative destinations. |
| Jan 21 | Court accepts stabbing of teacher by pupil he taught 24 years ago as work related (Mainichi) |
| The Kofu District Court has ruled that the fatal stabbing of a night school teacher by a student he taught some 24 years ago can be regarded as work related. The 59-year-old teacher, Tomotsugu Iwama, was murdered in Fuefuki, Yamanashi Prefecture in March 2006. In September that year, Iwama's wife filed a claim with the Fund for Local Government Employees' Accident Compensation to have her husband's death regarded as having occurred in the line of public duty but her claim was rejected, prompting her to file a lawsuit. |
| Jan 20 | Students want jobs at ANA, traders, Shiseido (Japan Times) |
| As student job seekers struggle amid the worst employment situation in years, All Nippon Airlines topped their list of sought-after employers for a second year, while troubled Japan Airlines fell to 52nd place, according to a recent survey conducted by a major job-hunting Web site. The survey was conducted on student job hunters registered at the online shopping mall's job information Web site. |
| Jan 19 | Oops: Student sent erroneous acceptance (Japan Times) |
| A high school student last month received an erroneous notification that he had passed an entrance examination for Tokyo Metropolitan University, sources revealed Monday. The university has acknowledged the mistake. A university official said the matter "is still under negotiation because we haven't reached a settlement with the student." |
| Jan 16 | Schoolgirl 'relieved' by arrest over marijuana use (Yomiuri) |
| A second-year middle school student under arrest for possessing marijuana told police that she could not stop smoking it with friends after trying it out of curiosity, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Friday. Shortly after her arrest, she reportedly told investigators: "I'm relieved to be arrested. I was scared I'd never be able to stop using drugs." |
| Jan 16 | Unified college entrance exams begin across Japan amid flu alert (AP) |
| More than 550,0000 applicants braved the mid-winter cold to take unified college entrance examinations across Japan on Saturday as the two-day event began at 725 venues put on high influenza alert. Masks and hand-washing gels greeted many of the applicants tackling civics, geography and history, the Japanese language and foreign languages before science and mathematics complete the schedule Sunday. A record 811 universities and colleges are taking part in the exam. |
| Jan 15 | Tip-off reveals man offered school principal's job has criminal record (Mainichi) |
| A man offered work in December by the Yokohama Municipal Board of Education as a school principal was discovered to have a criminal record, after education officials received an anonymous tip. The 52-year-old was arrested for breaking a prefectural anti-nuisance ordinance in July last year, after he was caught taking a photo of a woman's cleavage while on a bus. |
| Jan 15 | No. of students in classrooms to be lowered from 40 (AP) |
| The government will lower the maximum number of students per classroom at public elementary and junior high schools from 40, senior vice education minister Kan Suzuki said Thursday. The reduction, the first since the 1980 academic year when it was lowered from 45 to the current 40, will be introduced in the 2011 academic year or later, according to Suzuki. |
| Jan 15 | Tokyo library reaching out to foreign community (Japan Times) |
| Whether to read a Pulitzer Prize-winning author in English, flick through global editions of Vogue magazine or delve into foreign encyclopedias, the Tokyo Metropolitan Library wants more foreigners to visit and take advantage of its free multilingual resources. |
| Jan 14 | Private dormitories regaining popularity (Yomiuri) |
| Private dormitories for students with a live-in caretaker are becoming popular in today's troubled times, typified by the recent murders of female college students and the spread of a new type of influenza. At the Nishi-Waseda Students' Manshon, a dormitory for male students in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, Yuki Nakamura, 19, a first-year student at Waseda University, tottered into the dining room last November complaining he was running a 40 C fever. |
| Jan 13 | O-shogatsu can really test a woman's endurance (Japan Times) |
| For me, o-shogatsu means family gatherings, shinen no goaisatsu (新年のごあいさつ, exchange of New Year's greetings), endless preparations of huge, elaborate osechi (おせち, ritualized New Year's food dishes), monumental loads of washing up, and having to part with one's hard-earned cash in the form of o-toshidama (お年玉, New Year's allowance) distributed to legions of nephews, nieces, second cousins and the occasional, timely new-born (blessed are the sibling-less during the holiday season). |
| Jan 12 | Let's challenge Japanese English (Yomiuri) |
| Imagine that you come across the following sentence in a student's essay: 'This summer I will challenge the bungee jump.' How would you respond? As an English teacher raised in Ohio, I find this sentence unnatural, even a bit humorous. ('Bungee jump, I challenge you!') In the past, I would have simply drawn a line through the sentence, and written above it, 'This summer I will try bungee jumping.' |
| Jan 12 | Tokyo to give parents a hand (Yomiuri) |
| The Tokyo metropolitan government plans to establish 150 after-school child care facilities that will stay open until 7 p.m., a move that should help working parents trying to juggle their careers and child-rearing. The facilities, which will accommodate 6,000 primary school-age children, likely will be opened in fiscal 2010 as part of the Tokyo government's plan to tackle the declining birthrate by creating an environment more conducive to raising children. |
| Jan 10 | Kansai U. trials comedy lessons to improve students' communication skills (Mainichi) |
| Manzai -- the Japanese term for a rapid-fire comedy double act -- is regarded as a form of entertainment to be attempted by professionals only. But Yoshimoto Owarai Sogo Kenkyusho, the research wing of the Osaka-based talent agency Yoshimoto Kogyo, is cooperating with universities in utilizing comedy know-how to improve students' ability to communicate. |
| Jan 09 | Bits of 81 ancient bronze mirrors unearthed (Yomiuri) |
| A total of 331 broken pieces belonging to 81 ancient bronze mirrors have been unearthed from a stone chamber of the Sakurai Chausuyama burial mound in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, according to an archaeological institute. |
| Jan 09 | 3 girls arrested for cannabis possession (Mainichi) |
| Police have arrested three girls and taken another into custody for cannabis possession, the latest in a growing number of incidents of minors arrested on drugs charges. Police are looking to press further charges of cannabis use against the arrested teens, a 16-year-old part-time restaurant worker and two 14-year-old students at junior high schools in Kobe's Suma and Nagata wards. The three, along with the 13-year-old in custody, are childhood friends. |
| Jan 08 | School sued for unauthorized use of long-selling civil law book (Yomiuri) |
| Relatives of civil law scholars have filed a 1.94 million yen damages lawsuit against a Tokyo-based school corporation for its unauthorized use of a passage that appears in a long-selling textbook the scholars cowrote for law students. According to the lawsuit filed with the Tokyo District Court last month, Ohara Gakuen quoted without prior permission a passage in the study guide to the Civil Code, coauthored by the late Sakae Wagatsuma and Toru Ariizumi, both of whom were honorary professors at Tokyo University, for the school's textbook distributed to students preparing for the judicial scrivener examination. |
| Jan 07 | National research institute director accused of plagiarism (Asahi) |
| The director of a government institute is suspected of committing plagiarism for a social welfare research paper and later using the "borrowed" information to receive public subsidies, The Asahi Shimbun has learned. The research paper on France's welfare system by Takanobu Kyogoku, director-general of the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, is believed to have drawn heavily upon a thesis written by a former National Diet Library researcher, without attribution. |
| Jan 07 | Teachers overwhelmed by cell phone abuses (Yomiuri) |
| Schools, parents and local governments are trying to stop cell phones from being used to bully and abuse children--taking such steps as prohibiting students from bringing cell phones to school and passing local ordinances--but many say the problems may be beyond their power to solve. One shocking incident came to light in February 2009, when a teacher in charge of a first-year middle school class was told in confidence by a female student in his class that nude photos of a fellow student, Eri, (not her real name) were posted on a so-called purofu site, a cell phone Web site that contains profiles of individuals. |
| Jan 07 | Gov't begins hearings on improving education for foreign students (AP) |
| The education ministry on Wednesday commenced hearings with experts and local government officials on how to improve education for foreign students living in Japan. In four hearings to be held by early February, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology will ask 24 college professors and local officials about the current educational situation of and challenges facing foreign students, including Japanese Brazilians, so that it can compile new measures to provide better education to them by the end of March. |
| Jan 07 | Japan opens doors to foreign healthcare workers (Channel NewsAsia) |
| Japan is one of the world's fastest aging societies and this is creating a demand for healthcare services for the elderly. Even though the country's unemployment rate remains high at five per cent, Japanese workers are not keen in the job, which is physically demanding and low-paying. So in order to address the labour shortage, Japan has opened its doors to foreign nurses and healthcare workers. |
| Jan 04 | The making of Japan's new working class (Japan Focus) |
 Much of the primary and early middle-school curriculum is based on a model of socialization that has been called "group living". Unlike some incipient undercurrent buried in the "hidden curriculum," group living is the articulation of a moral community that is at the core of the formal curriculum as manifest in textbooks and teachers' manuals, and as evident in everyday school life. It begins with students' acknowledgment of the legitimacy, even primacy, of collective school goals.
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| Jan 04 | Jobless teenagers opt for more schooling (Yomiuri) |
| The job market for this academic year is rough--not only for university students but also high school students. This is because many companies have refrained from hiring new graduates since the global financial downturn that began in September 2008. Some people compare the situation to the so-called employment ice age that followed the collapse of the bubble economy in early 1990s. |
| Jan 04 | Universities must look abroad to reverse Japan's brain drain (Japan Times) |
 Japan appears to be suffering from brain drain. Examples include chemist Osamu Shimomura and physicist Yoichiro Nambu, both of whom won Nobel Prizes in 2008 for research conducted in U.S. universities.
Japan is not the ideal place to seek employment for some postdoctoral researchers. According to a study conducted by Masako Asano of Osaka Prefecture University, 41 percent of postdocs in particle physics leave Japan to get jobs because there aren't enough here to go around.
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| Jan 03 | A world beyond the United States now beckons Japanese youth (Japan Times) |
| Japanese students are not being drawn to the United States to pursue their studies as they once were. When the parents of today's students were themselves of student age, too, it was a major thing to go to the U.S. to study, and friends would throw big going-away parties. In most cases, the student would be gone for a year with no visit home in the interim. There was no e-mail or Skype, and international phone calls were expensive. |