Nichi Bei Times, San Francisco, USA, 21 November 1987

Many Japanese Teachers Favor Corporal Punishment

KOBE -- About 60 per cent of junior high school teachers said they felt corporal punishment was necessary, according to a questionnaire that the Kobe Municipal Teachers Union recently conducted among its entire membership.

Criticism is mounting against such disciplinary measures and the survey that included elementary school teachers was undertaken to sound out union members' opinion about the issue.

Concerning junior high school teachers, seven per cent said they believed corporal punishment was necessary under present conditions, 59 per cent said that they had, at times, felt it was needed, and 32 replied they disapproved of such measures.

At elementary schools, two per cent of teachers supported physical punishment, 47 per cent said they sometimes felt it was necessary, and 49 per cent were against it.

A sizable number of the respondents said they believed physical measures should be taken in cases where pupils inflicted serious injuries on others and, more seriously, where the victims' lives were at stake. Others said they felt such steps should be applied because there were limits to oral admonishments.

Commenting on the questionnaire, Hirokuni Fujii, vice committee chairman on the Kobe Teachers Union, said it showed how difficult it is to teach pupils in junior high schools, a period when youngsters begin to assert their spiritual independence.

Meanwhile, an official in charge of junior high school student guidance at the Education Ministry said the results were regrettable in that corporal punishment is forbidden by law.