From: Julian Dierkes (julian.dierkes@ubc.ca)
Date: 2012/12/27

One of the appointments that immediately jumped out at me in the Abe Cabinet is Shimomura Hakubun (下村 博文).
He is perhaps known most for controversial comments he made in 2007 about sexual slavery during the Asia Pacific War, but he has now been appointed Minister of Education (and all the other things that MEXT is in charge of).

In Japanese education circles (policy, academic,
practitioners) there has been a frequent, almost unanimous lament that there is very little grounded understanding of primary and secondary education in the Diet which has added to the already powerful role that Monkasho plays in policy-making. There are very few Diet members that might be identified or identify themselves as education specialists.

Shimomura is also not exactly an education specialist, but he did run a juku (塾, supplementary education
school) briefly before entering politics, so many people in the education industry (corporate and smaller juku, a well as the many publishers of learning
materials) think of him as one of theirs.

In any decisions he makes, his conservatism will probably override this experience as a juku operator, but there have been parts of the LDP (including
Shimomura) that have been talking about a radical liberalization of education (giving juku a quasi-official status so that attendance there would fulfill compulsory education requirements), so I will be curious to watch whether he attempts any movement in this direction, particularly given the Diet majority available to the LDP.

Julian Dierkes
Institute of Asian Research
University of British Columbia=