Full Text
MEXT
MEXT
Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > Japanese Government Policies in Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 2001 >Chapter2 Section2.3

PREVIOUS   NEXT
   Educational Reform for the 21st Century
Chapter2   AIMING TO FOSTER CHILDREN WITH RICH HUMANITY
Section 2:   Policy Measures
3   Future Issues and Challenges


MEXT intends to implement the policies and measures described below in addressing future issues and problems from the standpoint of fostering children with rich humanity.

  First, recognizing the importance of having everyone understand that education begins at home, the ministry has been urging various economic organizations to introduce the educational leave system separately from the conventional system of annual paid holidays so that parents of schoolchildren can actively participate in educational activities of PTAs, schools or local communities. The ministry plans to continue working with all parties concerned so as to realize the educational leave system at an early date.

  In preparation for the full introduction of the comprehensive five-day school week, the ministry plans to expand and improve systems to provide community-wide support for children's activities after school or during the weekend. Revitalization of the educational functions of local communities should lead to the development of greater support for people struggling to meet the demands of both work and child rearing, ultimately contributing to an early realization of a gender-equal society.

  While continuing efforts to provide all students of elementary, lower secondary and upper secondary schools opportunities to have social-service experience and other experiential activities, the ministry, in cooperation with other concerned ministries and agencies, has asked the Central Council for Education to consider a social mechanism under which youth in Japan can participate in volunteer and other social experience activities.

  It is necessary to create an environment where children can learn and develop their potential without anxieties. As part of the efforts to realize this environment, the School Education Law was partially revised in June 2001 to further clarify the requirements and procedures for suspending children with behavioral problems from school and to provide support measures for suspended children.

  In order to shield children from harmful information, the ministry has been calling on the broadcasting and publishing industries and other business organizations to strengthen self-regulations against potentially harmful information carried by the media while conducting research and surveys on measures to cope with the harmful environment and conditions surrounding youths. In close cooperation with other ministries and agencies concerned, MEXT plans to keep expanding and improving relevant policy measures.

Chihiro, who Found her "Zest for Living"

Director Hayao Miyazaki's blockbuster animated film Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi ("Spirited Away") touched the hearts of millions of Japanese people. The film's theme was heroine Chihiro's awakening to a "zest for living."

  In the film, a sickly 10-year-old girl, Chihiro, and her parents wandered through a tunnel into a strange world of gods and spirits. Deprived of her real name and instead called "Sen," she was forced to work at a hot-spring resort run by a greedy witch, Yubaba, to survive and rescue her parents who were turned into pigs by Yubaba. Cheered up by an old boiler Kamaji, who had seen the world, senior girl Rin and a mysterious good-looking young man Haku, Sen worked hard and gradually began to realize the real feeling of being alive within herself. Through an emotional exchange with a masked man, Kaonashi ("without a face"), who is incapable of communicating with others, and also through her self-sacrificing attempt to save the life of badly injured Haku, Sen for the first time in her life realized the meaning of "doing something for others" and of "giving to others, not being given by others," and thereby awakening to the "zest for living" long dormant in herself.

  The animation film brilliantly and skillfully described the meaning of the "zest for living," which is exactly what children living in the modern world truly need.


PREVIOUS   NEXT
(C)COPYRIGHT Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

Back To Top   MEXT HOME