Is Japan pushing a counter-inclusive policy? Movement, complexities, and voices on the ground

• In Event: Education Policy and Improvement

Proposal

“Take action and inspire change. It is in your hands to make of the world a better place!” (Nelson Mandela). Echoing these remarks, a large group of over 100 Japanese people with disabilities, their families, supporters, and media gathered at the United Nations Office in Geneva in late August 2022 to appeal to the members of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in response to the discriminatory backlash, represented by the ministerial notification issued by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) in April 27, 2022. The motto of the UNCRPD, "Nothing about us without us," was revisited by this group who succeeded to meet the CRPD Committee members ahead of its first official deliberation of the monitoring progress of UNCRPD to the Japanese governments. While the Salamanca Statement (1994) made a significant step toward promoting inclusive education, and the UNCRPD has accelerated the expansion of inclusive education globally, the group's protest implies that there still remains ambiguity in what "inclusive education" actually entails.

The overall objective of this study is to explore the complexities of inclusive education policy and voices on the ground in Japan. In particular, it focuses on the recent Japanese ministerial notification issued on April 27, 2022, entitled, Appropriate Usage of Special and General Class for Children with Disabilities (MEXT, 2022). This notification requires children registered in special classes to spend more than 50% of their time in special classes regardless of the severity or type of disability (MEXT, 2022). While this notification has no legal basis, the MEXT did not retract it even though the UNCRPD sharply criticized the MEXT notification (UNCRPD, 2023), which fueled ongoing debates. Thus, the study asks:

(1) Where do Japanese teachers believe is the best place for students with disabilities to learn in a classroom?
(2) How do local educators see the ministerial notification, Appropriate Usage of Special and General Class for Children with Disabilities? Are there any regional differences in teachers' perceptions?

The study also describes challenges to Japan’s ability to successfully implement inclusive education, such as a teacher shortage (43 percent of cities faces it as of 2022), long work hours (c.f., 56 hours per week at lower secondary school when the OECD average as 38.3 hours) (OECD, 2018), and the world’s longest history of separate education (Kishi, 2019; AUTHOR, 2021).

The study employs two guiding theoretical frameworks. The first is critical disability theory, which is based both on the social model and critical theory, understanding disabilities as cultural, historical, relative, social, and political phenomena of emancipation. Critical disability theory also represents a movement, as illustrated by the group who descended upon Geneva last summer. The second framework is functionalism, which embodies the MEXT's belief that each classroom (whether special or general) has certain functions within a school system. From the onset of the current inclusive education system in 2012, Japan has tried to encompass multiple types of school settings such as special schools and special classes as part of the inclusive education system, but under functionalism, inclusive education always remains “static” and has not exerted any “movement.”

This study's research techniques are multifaceted. In addition to the document analysis of legislation and movement, a set of questionnaires was administered to 167 instructors from 2019 onwards, along with follow-up interviews with principals, asking the ideal study environment for children with disabilities. The author used a different set of interviews to understand how teachers feel about the ministerial notification that was released on April 27, 2022.

Preliminary findings for RQ (1) “Where do Japanese teachers believe is the best place for students with disabilities to learn in a classroom?” indicates that 43 percent of Japanese instructors believe that “children with disabilities should be primarily educated in special classes.” This was followed by the statement, “children with disabilities have the freedom to choose their education, whether general or special courses” (36%). This second highest item can be explained by the fact that since the implementation of the “inclusive education system" in 2012, children and parents have been granted the option to choose special or general classrooms with reference to the school and or to the city municipal committee of education. Therefore, this might reflect the fact that teachers understand that children should have a choice.

On the other hand, preliminary results for RQ (2) “How do local educators see the ministerial notification, Appropriate Usage of Special and General Class for Children with Disabilities?” suggests greater complexities and geographical variety. For instance, Osaka prefecture, the most forward-thinking prefecture in terms of inclusion-related issues, sponsored parent orientation seminars in numerous locations to explain how the new Ministerial notification would affect incoming and current students (c.f. Suita city). MEXT's ministerial notification, on the other hand, was not actually carried out in several other prefectures, notably prefecture X, which is conservative in terms of politics and society. One principal from Prefecture X responded to the researcher; “Each student is unique. We can simply do what we believe is best for them, and the notification hasn't really mattered on the ground yet, and we will continue push-in and pull-out where necessary.” Teachers there were rather flexible, in contrast to the media's alarming concern that Japan would seek counter-inclusion.

The issue of children with disabilities is a theme often shared in common across national borders. This study, citing the Japanese inclusive education system, which has the longest separate education history, demonstrates the dichotomies and complexities of inclusive education, where protest agencies are promoting inclusive education while the nation employs a static inclusive system. Thus, the former exerts some influence on the ground, but the impact remains arbitrary as teachers are too busy with their duties to face their students. The study will benefit educators, researchers, and policymakers in the field of comparative and international education to understand the complexities of this controversial policy. (988 words)

Author

• Riho Sakurai, Hiroshima University