Kokka ga naze Kazoku ni Kansho surunoka (Why Does the State Intervene in Family Affairs?)

Japan’s Basic Act on Education was revised in December 2006. Among the various changes that were made, the establishment of provisions on “family education” is particularly important. In the old law, family education, which was only mentioned briefly as something to be encouraged in “Article 7, (Social Education)” is prescribed in Article 10 in the new law as follows: Mothers, fathers, and other guardians, having the primary responsibility for their children’s education, shall endeavor to teach them the habits necessary for life, encourage a spirit of independence, and nurture the balanced development of their bodies and minds. (2) The national and local governments shall endeavor to take the necessary measures for supporting education in the family such as providing children’s guardians with opportunities to learn and with information, while respecting family autonomy in education. This clearly stipulates what responsibilities parents are expected to have with regard to their children’s education, and what it specifically entails, as well as how the national and local governments should support them. What impact is this having in society? Let us have a look at the below example.
 
In this ordinance, a child's guardian (refers here below to a person with custody, officially recognized guardian, or any person actually providing custody) is to provide teaching and nurturing for said child regarding the following areas: 1. Basics of daily life 2. Independence 3. Self-control 4. Judgment of right and wrong 5. Greetings and manners 6. Compassion 7. Value of life 8. Importance of family 9. Rules of society.
 
This is the Gifu Prefecture Family Education Support Ordinance, enacted in December 2014. It has more detail than the new national Basic Act on Education, with an enumeration of things that guardians are expected to teach their children. But does it seem as if all these things are desirable and free of any problem? As they entail the forcing of the education of certain unmistakable values and norms in the personal realm of the family, is there not a conflict with the Constitution of Japan, a document with superior force than the Basic Act on Education, which states in Article 19, “Freedom of thought and conscience shall not be violated”? Is this not simply making use of the “family” to control in one fell swoop the feelings, thinking, and behavior of both adults and children?
 
“Family education” is not the only realm of concern. There are increasing moves, both implicit and explicit, to achieve State power’s intervention in and infringement on all aspects of family life, including marriage and divorce, eroding Article 24 of the Constitution which guarantees “individual dignity and the essential equality of the sexes.” This book is based on a symposium held in early 2017 that sought to point out just these issues, and arouse people’s interest in them.
 
Sociologists Jaber F. Gubrium and James A. Holstein suggest in What is Family? that the dominant image of the family acts as a normative control on people. We are merely bound, utterly, by the fiction of what a “good family” is said to be. However, what is happening right now in Japanese society amounts to direct and undisguised control of our private lives. Such a suppression of diversity and freedom can only lead to a dark future. We must stay fully aware and determined, resolutely resisting any such moves.
 

(Written by HONDA Yuki, Professor, Graduate School of Education / 2018)