A Study of Human Rights Education in Japan : Making Use of Cultural Resources

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The main aim of this research project is to explore an adequate method of human rights education in the Japanese cultural contexts, with reference to recent trends and developments of liberal political theories. For effective human rights education in Japan, it is necessary to explain the values of human rights in such a way that common people, including children, can easily understand their importance and feel an attachment for their ideas. More concretely, we need to develop, making good use of cultural resources in Japan (vocabulary, custom, ways of thinking, etc.), a human rights theory that can clearly show the necessity for respecting the existence of others (i.e., foreigners or social minorities) as equally as ours even if they do not share our cultural features. Based on these assumptions, I analyze the views of the person and morality predominant in Japanese society as well as the current activities of the Japanese federal government and local governments for enlightening the public on human rights. I propound, relying on these analyses, an adequate and effective method for human rights education according to which students in Japan are expected to be able to grasp the value of human rights more readily and feel more attachment to the idea of human rights.