뉴스레터

The Abe administration has lately been heavily censured from the opposition party for its involvement in the political scandal surrounding the shady sale of Osaka (大阪) government land to the private school operator Moritomo (森友) Gakuen. And the news report that a kindergarten run by Moritomo Gakuen, where the Prime Minister's wife Akie (昭惠) was to serve as honorary principal, makes its students recite the Imperial Rescript on Education, gave rise to controversies over how Japanese Diet members view the edict that begins with the following line: "Know ye, Our subjects: Our Imperial Ancestors have founded Our Empire on a basis broad and everlasting and have deeply and firmly implanted virtue." In response to a note demanding a ban on the use of an edict that once dictated the country's moral education during its imperialistic past, the Abe cabinet released a statement on March 31st, 2017 announcing that, although it would be "inappropriate" to use the Imperial Rescript on Education as "the sole basis for the nation's education," its use as teaching material "cannot be denied as long as it does not violate the Constitution and the Fundamental Law of Education." In other words, the administration is allowing schools in Japan to teach commandments from an age of modern imperialism that negates all values other than those the commandments impart and goes against the ideas of the nation's present constitution.

The Imperial Rescript on Education is a document Emperor Meiji (明治) issued in 1890, the year following the Meiji Constitution's proclamation, to proclaim his will in terms of education. After losing the war, the Japanese Diet decided to nullify the rescript in 1948 for "being based on imperial sovereignty and a mythic view of polity" and for "undermining basic human rights." And after seventy or so years since then, it is now being resurrected and pulled back into the spotlight along with recent discussions of constitutional revision. As such, this article looks into the background, content, and implications of the Imperial Rescript on Education.

Against Threats of Westernization

As the Meiji government carried out "modernization," the rescript was conceived in response to a threat felt by the so-called "court nobles," conservatives who were close to the emperor and valued Japanese traditions. Right after the Meiji Restoration, these court nobles planned to establish principles of education based on Confucianism and Kokugaku, a school of Japanese philology and philosophy. However, their plan was set back as Westernized bureaucrats took the lead in making national policies. Furthermore, amending unfair agreements made with imperialist powers from the West had emerged as a priority for officials in the Meiji government, so they would travel to Europe to observe European laws and institutions and actively seek to adopt them at their home country.

This spread an anxiety that the Japanese emperor-oriented traditional views of order and family might collapse and triggered discussions about what the moral standard should be for the Japanese. At the time, a movement calling for traditional, Confucian moral education arose among conservatives who disapproved of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement seeking the formation of an elected legislature, not to mention the new government's policies of westernization, industrialization, and modernization. Such a movement by conservatives bolstered the argument that Japan's national polity, in other words the Japanese emperor from an eternally unbroken royal bloodline, should serve as a moral compass in forming a nation state and unifying its people.

At a conference of prefectural governors held in early 1890, Yamagata Aritomo's (山県有朋) cabinet was asked to come up with a plan to unite the people and the Japanese emperor ordered the Minister of Education Enomoto Takeaki (榎本武揚) to "compile a set of educational precepts." When Enomoto failed to carry out the emperor's order, he was replaced by Yoshikawa Akimasa (芳川顕正) as minister of education. Yoshikawa first had Tokyo Imperial University Professor Nakamura Masanao (中村正直) write a draft and two more drafts were each written by Inoue Kowashi (井上毅), director general of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau, and Motoda Nagazane (元田永孚), advisor to the Privy Council. Nakamura's draft became ruled out for carrying strong religious connotations and Motoda made corrections to Inoue's draft to produce the final draft of the Imperial Rescript on Education.

A Basic Policy for Nationalistic Education

The Imperial Rescript on Education was derived from the spirit of "our imperial ancestors," highlighting Confucian virtues and a moral education based on familial loyalty and patriotism through an introduction, main body, and conclusion. It was promulgated in the form of an imperial rescript the emperor bestowed on the then Prime Minister Yamagata Aritomo and Minister of Education Yoshikawa Akimasa.

The introduction's content limits the Japanese people's moral foundation to the teachings of the Japanese imperial ancestors and the values of a national polity. This implies that acknowledging authority in values other than those professed through the rescript's introduction would be a violation toward the national polity. The rescript's main body suggests twelve virtues people should observe as a part of their nation including filial piety, brotherly affection, benevolence, constitutionalism, and self-sacrifice for the nation and society. However, the stipulated purpose of building one’s character to observe such virtues is to become a loyal subject and glorify the customs bequeathed by ancestors. The main body’s first half that lays out general moral rules is followed by its second half that once more identifies people as subjects and calls for them to be brave in sacrificing themselves for the imperial household should the nation face an emergency. The rescript’s conclusion declares that the described virtues are infallible, universal values that transcend time and space.

The rescript was considered as the Japanese emperor’s “words” instead of a law, so it was signed by the emperor and bestowed to the minister of education. The Japanese Ministry of Education then prepared copies of the rescript along with photos of the emperor and empress and distributed them to each school to be enshrined. School principals would reverently recite the rescript in front of all the students to celebrate occasions such as National Foundation Day or the emperor’s birthday. Such ceremonial practices gradually built the rescript's authority into an absolute, ultimate guideline for national morality and moral education.

Throughout the process of building a modern nation state, the Imperial Constitution of 1889 and the Imperial Rescript on Education of 1890 played fundamental roles in uniting the Japanese. If the Imperial Constitution served as a principle for Japan’s political unification under the “Emperor System,” the Imperial Rescript on Education served as a fundamental symbol of “national polity” for Japan’s spiritual unification. So, in a sense, the two as a pair played a pivotal role in maintaining national order in Japan.

The Problem of Wider Application and Deification

Views of education based on the rescript were basically in conflict with thoughts that considered education as a right. Having set its priority as building a nation state, the Meiji government considered education as a means to attain national prosperity and military power. Parents understood having their children attend school as a legal duty according to public law, so it was hardly recognized as a right to receive education. Under such circumstances, parents were more concerned about serving their nation as subjects of the Japanese emperor based on the Imperial Rescript on Education. Yet, the notion of an everlasting “national polity” ruled by an unbroken royal bloodline coupled with education policies that enforced traditional values caused conflicts to arise at schools and within society as well. A well-known example of this would be the so-called "blasphemous incident" that occurred at a school in 1891 when a teacher named Uchimura Kanzo (內村鑑三) publicly refused to bow to the rescript. Uchimura was only being faithful to his own belief in Christianity, but the incident prompted an official order to be issued, stating that "distributed copies of the Imperial Rescript on Education must be treated with respect."

The Imperial Rescript on Education's purview as a general standard for moral training and education even extended beyond Imperial Japan to its colonies. Yet, broadening the rescript's application did not turn out to be a completely smooth process. After Taiwan became a colony as a result of the First Sino-Japanese War, debates took place about having colonies adopt the rescript. Even if the rescript could be recited alongside the Japanese national anthem Kimigayo (君が代) in schools at colonies, it would be difficult to expect colonists to "cry tears of gratitude" while doing so. The need for a secondary rescript was therefore suggested. Such a suggestion did not seem radical at a time when Japan, in between the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, had been searching for an ideology of reform that suited imperialistic rule. The liberal Japanese politician Saionji Kinmochi (西園寺公望) was among those who supported the idea of issuing a secondary rescript to supplement the imperfect Imperial Rescript on Education. After the 1900s, a core member of the editing committee for moral education textbooks who worked for the Ministry of Education even argued for the abolishment of the rescript, while one politician officially argued for it to be revised.

However, arguments and incidents that challenged or could potentially damage the Imperial Rescript on Education's authority were increasingly met with accusations of "blasphemy" and led to the Imperial Diet's approval of a proposal to more strictly honor the rescript's purpose. That decision put into further check those among authorities who had been claiming that the rescript needs to be reviewed or extended. Moreover, after Japan's imperialistic invasion of Manchuria, the rescript became further deified as an ideological backbone of education while Japan began to launch a full-blown attack upon mainland China and carry out Japanization. All students had to memorize the rescript and almost all schools reserved a special spot to enshrine it alongside goshin'ei (御真影), the official portraits of the emperor and empress.

Revival and Talk of Constitutional Revision

Among the multiple interpretations of the Imperial Rescript on Education, the line that has been pointed out for being associated with militarism is "should emergency arise, offer yourselves courageously to the State; and thus guard and maintain the prosperity of Our Imperial Throne coeval with heaven and earth." Once Japan lost the war and became occupied by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, referred to as GHQ in Japan, the occupation administration prohibited the rescript from being regarded as a basic guideline of education and ordered for it to no longer be recited at school events. The GHQ was particularly concerned about the rescript being deified and this caused the Japanese Ministry of Education to also ban the rescript from being recited or deified.

Following the ban on the Imperial Rescript on Education, the Fundamental Law of Education became enacted in 1947 to serve as the basic guideline for education in Japan. The new law was to aim for "the full development of personality" by nurturing sound, independent citizens who respect values brought forth by each individual. And this fundamental law based on basic human rights and universal values has thereafter anchored Japan to carry out an education of peace and democracy, at least until it became revised nearly six decades after its enactment.

Post-war Japan leading up to the Fundamental Law of Education's revision in 2006 has continued to be sympathetic toward nostalgia. The revival of Empire Day, the textbook attacks, the spread of historical revisionism, and the revision of the Fundamental Law of Education all point to such a trend. A series of actions, including the Imperial Rescript on Education's "revival" revealed from the recent political scandal involving Moritomo Gakuen, give reason to be concerned for a retreat in the Japanese society's perception of history. The revised law's aim stated in Article 2 mentions a "sense of morality," "our traditions and culture," "public spirit," "love of the country and region," which are all reminiscent of the aforementioned Imperial Rescript on Education revived from the Meiji Era. With the ongoing talk of revising the Japanese Constitution as the country approaches the Meiji Restoration's 150th anniversary next year, it is necessary to pay attention to which direction the revision will head toward amid a trend of regression.