[lbo-talk] Tokyo Gov. Ishihara pines for days of yore...

Gregory Lipman gregory.l at mazdaace.co.jp
Mon Apr 12 18:39:25 PDT 2004


Although a Japanese court ruled that Prime Minister Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine was "illegal", Tokyo Gov. Ishihara continues to court the WWII generation. I'm not sure what the "gender-free education policies" are but I don't think they are talking about abolishing skirted uniforms for girls. ----------------------------------

Ishihara backs sexist schooling

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara has slammed gender free education policies, labeling them "ludicrous" and "grotesque" and accusing their advocates of being "sorry people with weakened sensibilities."

Ishihara also used a Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education meeting to laud Japan's World War II kamikaze suicide pilots.

He also spoke out strongly on behalf of respecting Japan's controversial national flag and anthem, which many leftist educators despise, saying they are symbols of the country's military aggression.

"Kimigayo," the national anthem, and the Hinomaru Rising Sun flag "present us with a great opportunity to consider our ultimate responsibilities in a human society where membership of a state or a race is inevitable," the governor told the meeting held in Shibuya to discuss education facilities in the capital. "We can change all of Japan from Tokyo."

Ishihara also told the crowd of roughly 2,300, including many public school principals, of his admiration for kamikaze pilots, while at the same time taking a shot at current education policies that emphasize sexual equality.

"(A kamikaze pilot) headed for battle would be given a quiet farewell off away from others by a woman he loved, but whose hand he had never even held. And he would go in the belief that he was sacrificing his own life for the sake of someone of the same age but the opposite sex," Ishihara told the throng. "We're implementing grotesque education policies that don't even take into consideration such relations between a man and a woman." (Mainichi Shimbun, April 10, 2004)

http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20040410p2a00m0dm011000c.html

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