A 77 year old man in Kobe died today due to complications from H1N1, marking the second total death in Japan. Both deaths occurred in the last week, with both patients suffering other ailments in addition to the H1N1 flu. The Kobe man who died also reportedly had liver trouble, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other ailments.

The first death to H1N1 in Japan befell an Okinawa man, aged 57.

Newzjapan reported on the H1N1 virus as it broke in Japan, and over-reacted to. There have since been several minor scandals in Japan including the number of patients being underestimated in the Kansai region, criticism of the mass closings of schools in Hyogo and Osaka (and subsequent week of H1N1 partying and karaoke), and criticism of the quarantining of certain international flights while others were allowed to return home.

When H1N1 began to spread wildly it was traced to a high school boy in Kobe city who had never even been abroad, thus leading to a dead end, and making all the quarantining and thermo-imaging moot.

A science teacher at Hiraoka Elementary School in Sakai City, Osaka showed about ten minutes of a home video of his wife giving birth to fifth graders in July. In the video students were able to see the umbilical cord and parts of the actual intance of birth.

Students complained saying things such as, “It was scary,” “It was gross,” and other complaints. The principal of the school visited each students home to apologize.

The teacher showed the video as a part of a “Life and Birth” class, and showed the video to all sixty-eight fifth graders at the school. The teacher commented that he really wanted to show the students how wonderful the birth of a life is, but that his decision was careless.

My commentary:

My personal feelings are that I wish this were acceptable. I can imagine that with the right lead up and teaching, or the right attitude, or support from the parents and school, this teacher could have shown this video and taught the kids something really good about life and about where they came from.

It also exposes something about schools in Japan that I think is a big problem… There is often very little discussion about lesson plans, and what actually goes on in the classroom. If this teacher had been in a place where it was natural for teachers to discuss lesson plans and education, someone might have told him it was a bad idea, or suggested that information be sent to parents beforehand about the content of the class.

Another thing about education (and society in general) is the tendency of people to just apologize without standing up for themselves. This could be an issue for which the school could stand up for the teacher who obviously had nothing but the best of intentions. If people just give in and apologize, then all the control and power goes to the complainers.

I’m sure a lot of the people who read this blog are familiar with the work of the Japanese scholar Takeo Doi. His writings were a very important part of some of my undergraduate research and I brought the English versions of his books with me when I moved to Japan. I’m happy to be able to say that I own and have read the Japanese versions as well (it was sort of a dream of young undergraduate me).

Doi is one of the best writers of the Japanese scholars I’ve read, and added a personal touch to a lot of his works that never impeded the intellectualism.

If you are a student of Japanese culture, I highly recommend Takeo Doi’s works, especially “The Anatomy of Dependence”.

Also for sociologists and people who do business with Japan can gain a lot from reading “The Anatomy of Self”.

“The Anatomy of Dependence” seems to be readily available, but “The Anatomy of Self” seems a little harder to find. I really think these are must-reads for anyone studying Japanese culture.

If you’ve ever been fascinated by or had personal experience with such things as the concepts of “uchi” and “soto” (inside and outside), “honne” and “tatemae” (true feelings and being up front), and “omote” and “ura” (which I’ll describe as the surface vs the underside, or the open vs the hidden), then Takeo Doi’s works are as good a place to begin your studies as any.

I’m sure I didn’t do him any justice, so if you get the chance, please check out the books.

I thought my next update about this case would be some months down the line, however even at this early date the case has been settled. The victim has agreed to an undisclosed financial settlement with the six men sh accused of rape.

The settlement seems to imply that the six Kyoto University of Education students were guilty as charged although the case will now never go to trial.

So what does this mean?

There is a very good chance that all six of these guys will be teachers within the next few years. It also sets a scary precedent when you think of how the situation unfolded.

A gang rape at a party. One graduate who is currently a teacher in an elementary school in Nara was a lookout for six student athletes who took advantage of a drunk female student. The university found out about what happened but never reported it to police, instead suspending the six students temporarily and temporarily avoiding any media coverage.  By the time the story broke, the rape was months old. As far as I know, Kyoto University of Education received no penalty or reprimand for not reporting the case to police.

Once the case went public, people close to the case or people involved slandered the girl on social networking sites while the bulletin board dwellers went to her defense.

Now that the case has been settled, many of the people on the bulletin boards are crying foul for the girl having given up the case. Some people are accusing her of having had yen signs in her eyes from the beginning. Other people argue that this is clear evidence that all six were guilty, and if they really were telling the truth they would have gone to court to fight the charges. For the record, many people were unclear on the exact meaning of “settlement” or “jidan” in Japanese.

The bottom line is the case has been settled, and this clears their records. It seems to mean that they will graduate and probably be teaching children soon.

If any more news is leaked about the conditions of the settlement and what will become of the Kyoto University of Education rape case six, I will be sure to post an update.

By now, I assume that the big gang rape incident at prestigious Kyoto University (link goes to news story in Japanese) is international news, and I would not like to go into the details of the incident. However, of interest to students of the media and society in Japan are the reasons that Kyoto University of Education used to explain not having brought the crime to the attention of police in a timely fashion.

Arrested were six male members of Kyoto University of Education sports teams, including members of the (American) football team, the track and field team, the handball team, and the soccer team. They met the victim at a “kompa” or a party at which males and females of the same number get together with the intention of finding a boyfriend of girlfriend. Other than the six perpetrators, there were reportedly several other people there who had knowledge of, and could have prevented or put a stop to the crime.

The party at which the rape happened occurred on February 25th of this year. Kyoto University of Education officially knew of the incident in March. The university decided not to report the incident to police and to deal with it independently. Although the university decided to deal with the matter internally, officials also deny that Kyoto University of Education is in any way responsible in the matter because the party was not organized by the university.

The crime was never publicly announced by the university because officials said they were concerned that the perpetrators would try to hurt themselves (or commit suicide). The perpetrators were given open-ended suspensions from the university at the end of March. (Note: not expulsion!) Some of them were seniors, but I have not been able to find whether they were allowed to graduate (which would have happened in February or March).

The students involved were education majors. Most of them were future gym teachers. Teachers and coaches in the physical education department also reportedly could not agree that this was a case of rape and that (supposedly) also prevented the crime from being reported to police.

I have reported about countless cases when something happened at a university or school, and nothing is done until it is far too late. Although there is no mention in the article, my personal concern about the story is the victim. What happened to the victim in this case? Did she quit school? Will she be able to finish? What of the other people who were at the party, and according to the news, “could have prevented or stopped the crime”. Will they be prosecuted or sued? Probably not, but I would like to see the punishment fit the crime in this case.

There have been other cases in the news of a similar nature; the Keio University Med students who gang raped a student from another university during a “kompa” party at a karaoke shop, and others. I have been looking for verification of this, but I heard that many of them simply transferred to less well-known medical schools and are now working as doctors. There are also accounts of parties at well-known universities designed to set up rape situations. Here is an article from the Times Online in 2003 about some of the rapes that have occured in universities in Japan.

We need openness, and a country in which victims of crimes can feel that if they talk to someone about what happened to them, they can at least get some sort of vindication, rather than being victimized again by the system.

Karaoke shops in Osaka are reporting that their shops are packed with students who are off school (and supposed to be at home studying) for the H1N1 influenza outbreak here.

Some of the karaoke shop owners are troubled, saying they are concerned about the flu being passed on at these large gatherings, while other owners are offering half-price karaoke during this time.

If you read Japanese news with the preconception that people here follow rules you may be surprised to hear that the students are ignoring the schools’ orders to stay home. You may be even more surprised that while the world watches a mini-pandemic unfold here, shop owners are offering half-price discounts in order to encourage people to gather in large groups, but this is the way it goes here.

It should come as no surprise at all that H1N1 has found such an accommodating home in Japan.

All schools from kindergarten to college level in Hyogo have been closed for the week.

You have to feel bad for the kids who happened to be at schools for which this was just announced. Much of them went to school only to be sent home, and if Hyogo prefecture is trying to hold off the spread of H1N1, it’s not doing a good job with an (until now) half assed approach to it… (closing schools at the ward level despite their being evidence of contamination at a volleyball tournament attended by students who live all over the prefecture).

As of about 10 a.m. this morning (Monday the 18th, Japan time) there are at least 121 confirmed H1N1 cases in Hyogo and Osaka prefectures.

At least one case (possibly 3 at the time of this writing) cases of H1N1 influenza have been verified in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture. The significance of these cases is that none of the high school students involved have been abroad recently, thus the flu must have come through a source in Japan. (The other cases were students from Osaka, but those students were quarantined near Haneda Airport in Tokyo.)

The overreaction of the government is to close schools for a week in the area where the student lives, the area in which he goes to school, and areas he passes through. The underreaction aspect of this is that they are only closing schools in the wards through which the student has passed, not cities. Therefore (again, as of this writing) Chuo Ward, Nada Ward, Higashinada Ward, and Akashi City schools will be closed for a week.

If they are truly worried about contamination, maybe they should be concerned with other kids from his school that live in, or pass through other parts of the city… or the various festivals going on around town today.

We’ll see if they either extend the week off to schools throughout the prefecture, or come to their senses and let the flu be the flu.

On January 21 this year, during a free study period at a junior high school in Ibaraki Prefecture, a teacher (and head of the grade level) walked into a classroom to yell at two kids for going home too late the previous day. The two students were in their third year and had just returned from a high school entrance exam, and one student was wearing a name tag in a different name from the one he used in junior high school.

This may require a little explanation and a little extrapolation but this is an important article because it touches on the ever present and unspoken problem of racism in junior high schools in Japan.

The article never states the reason that the student is applying to high schools under his official registry name, but kept the official name secret and used his mother’s maiden name in junior high school. Often this happens when a student’s father’s name is of Chinese or Korean origin. The students are sometimes advised to enter junior high school using a Japanese name (the mothers maiden name in this case) in order to avoid bullying or prejudice. However when applying to high school, especially more open-minded private high schools, the student may opt to use their real name.

Junior high school students in Japan often wear name tags on their uniforms. In this case the student had carelessly left the name tag with his real name on his uniform. When the bad teacher came into the room, he decided to use this to embarrass the kid by repeatedly yelling out the kids officially registered name, adding comments such as, “Why did you change your name?”, “This isn’t your name!”

Students who were present also verified the incident, and that it seemed that the teacher was trying to embarrass or make trouble for the student by yelling out his name. The school initially denied that the incident took place, but after pressure from students and parents of students who witnessed what happened the school finally admitted to the allegations.

The school finally admitted to the allegations in APRIL!

This is yet another incident of schools refusing to admit they’ve done wrong until the students involved have graduated and are out of their hair. Its a very common strategy employed here to just wait and hope that the people involved will give up.

There are no hate crime  or anti-racism laws in Japan, so there is not much the family can do for legal recourse. In April, the school finally apologized to the parents and student saying that the teacher was too strict with the student and should have taken more care.

My personal reaction to this is that I’ve seen it happen before. I have known plenty of people of Korean or Chinese descent who have grown up in Japan, but still feel a need to hide their official names. Many of them get the courage to attend high school or university using their real names, but risk facing racism from professors, classmates, and prospective employers.

As Japan’s population decreases, more people are going to come from nearby countries to work here (if the entire economy does not just downsize into oblivion), so the society is going to have to come to terms with non-Japanese working here. In the meantime, some kind of hate crime or anti-racism legislation is a must.

I will end on a positive note by saying that at least a few people of non-Japanese descent that I know who have “come out” have gone on to law school specifically to fight racism in Japan.

This story comes out of Chiba City…

A 35 year old man, whom I can only assume is a bad teacher and advisor to the volleyball club at Mitsuwadai Junior High School in Chiba, beat up a 14 year old male student during a volleyball practice on March 8th.

During practice, the teacher called out to two boys on the team, but didn’t hear the response of one of them and got angry. He punched the boy in the face, grabbed him by the shoulders, and through him to the floor. When the boy tried to stand up, the teacher kicked him in the face BREAKING HIS TWO FRONT TEETH.

The teacher then brought the boy to the hospital. Later that evening the teacher and principal of the school apologized to the boy and his parents.

The teacher was relieved of his duties as volleyball team advisor, and asked to work from home starting March 30th.

The principal promised that he would discipline the teachers so that this kind of think will not happen again, however it’s also been reported in the news that this teacher had been disciplined for kicking club members in the past.

A little commentary from newzjapan:
Let’s look at the punishment for the teacher first of all… he was put on home duty starting March 30th (coinciding conveniently with Spring Vacation). My guess is that this April will be considered a new school year and he’ll be teaching kids again and advising a different club starting next week. He may even be returned to the volleyball club after a year or two.

He has done it in the past.

Outside of the school environment, if a 35 year old man had kicked and punched a 14 year old boy bad enough that he needed medical treatment, he’d be going to jail. In the school he gets a longer Spring vacation and less duties in the coming year.

Lastly, it never ceases to amaze me how much students, parents, and fellow teachers put up with. (I am referring to the fact that this has happened before, and things I’ve seen and heard of myself.)
Here’s the link to the story in Yahoo Japan News:
Teacher Kicks Student for not Responding