The Ibuki Manifesto

[I have modified this entry slightly and hope to revise more fully soon. It needs some cleaning up. I have continued to look into Ibuki in general and have a better idea now of what he is saying. 3-6-2007.]

I have several entries I want to make in regards to Bunmei Ibuki's controversial comments. This will be the first of them.

I am calling it the Ibuki manifesto because I think people would be surprised to see what is on the Education Minister's official home page.

Of especial interest is this page, which is very helpful in putting Ibuki's recent remark into some kind of context.

What I will do is to summarize and paraphrase the more important aspects of this page. If you find that I've been unfaithful to the original, please comment!

Basically, the page discusses how Ibuki feels the Koizumi revolution (reformation) can be completed.

First thing Ibuki notes is that that "Ibuki-faction" supported Abe in the recent LDP leadership election.

So Ibuki is not only part of a faction, but leader of a faction. Now if the Wikipedia entry on the Liberal Democratic Party can be trusted, then as it turns out, this is the faction of Shizuka Kamei. And according to Wikipedia, the Ibuki-faction is: "considered by many to be the most right-wing grouping among the major factions."

Okay, so Ibuki is probably right wing. No surprise there given his recent comments. Now, let's look at some more of his manifesto.

Ibuki's says, basically, that Koizumi's reformation was only "half done" (中途半端) and that Ibuki now has "sense of impending disaster." (危機感) .

Why? Well, you see, Ibuki has special insight into capitalism and free competition that Koizumi didn't. Ibuki notes that there will be arrogant winners (勝者の傲慢) and apathetic losers (敗者の無気力) and that this will create a heavy burden on society.

He notes that while Koizumi's reforms were okay, they weren't enough. While it's true that self-reliance (自助努力) and self-responsibility (自己責任) are good things, they are not the main things. By pushing things in the direction Koizumi pushed them, there will now be side-effects (副作用) that Ibuki and Abe will now have to manage.

Before going into detail, Ibuki digresses into another issue, the Koizumi Reform's forgotten item (小泉改革の忘れ物), taxes. Ibuki says the govenrment will need more money to handle programs regarding health, nursing the old, and pensions. So it is urgent that we reform the tax system (税制改正). It's time to think about raising more money for the government. (I take this to mean Japan should increase the sales tax.)

After this digression into taxes, Ibuki gets back to talking about the dangerous side-effects of a competitive capitalist system with is focus on self-reliance and self-responsibility.

Of course, the main side-effect, as Ibuki noted will be those winners and losers and the great gaps (格差) this creates in society between them. So the main way this will be fixed will be via education.

Now what sort of education system will we be needed? Well, not too many specifics are given, but first and foremost we are asked to accept the following unquestionable facts:

Although there are exceptions basically -- -- Japan is one race (一民族). -- Ruled by one race (一民族の統治). -- A country of one language (一言語) -- A country without religious strife. (宗教的対立のない国) -- As we look out at the world we see how *rare* Japan is. (日本は、世界でも珍しい国) -- Throughout history, the work of (Japan's) ancestors was to form a tacit set of normative consicousness went *beyond* the law. (?) (悠久の歴史のなかでの祖先の営みは、法律以上に強い暗黙の約束ごと、規範意識を形成してきました。) -- For just one sole time, following World War II, Japan was ruled by an occupation army, and for just under ten years Japanese culture stopped. (唯一度だけ、第二次世界大戦後に、日本の統治権は占領軍に移り、約十年弱の間、日本の文化は途絶しました。) --It was during that very period when a the Fundamental Law of Education was passed creating the current educational system, an educational system that has gone on for 60 years, an educational system nearly all Japanese have passed through. (日本の統治権は占領軍に移り、約十年弱の間、日本の文化は途絶しました。この間に作られた教育基本法と教育制度は約六十年間続き、この制度で教育を受けた日本人が、人口のほとんどを占めています。) --And now as we see the (undesirable?) results, it is time to resuscitate the educational system for the next one hundred years. (教育の効果は五十年後に現れ、その再生は百年の計。)

After this Ibuki talks about how the LDP will have to win the next upper house election and so on and so forth.

And that is, in short, the Ibuki manifesto.

So does this mean we can expect Ibuki to find a solution to the growing number of international children who aren't receiving an education? Perhaps not.

However, when we put his manifesto together with his comments from last week-end we see just how distorted a world view Ibuki has.

He sees the Fundamental Law of Education, which de-emphasized national spirit and emphasized human rights as a Western perversion of the what real Japanese education should be. While we don't have any specifics to go on here, he clearly wants to return to some form the pre-WWII educational system in Japan, where rights are de-emphasized and national unity emphasized.

Specifically he wants people to learn his version of what virtue is, which for him is probably some type of far right ideology.

I will continue to look into this, and report more here later.