Job Discussion Forums

[wangtesol]

I found a Yomiuri newspaper article from June 2005 titled "Reported cases of child abuse soar" where the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare revealed figures that reported child abuse cases went up by 12% between 2002-2003 with 26,573 cases in all for 2003. In 1997, less than 5000 cases were reported.

[womblingfree]

[bshabu]

In the USA, If a child is abused at home and a teacher suspects such and dosn't report it. The teacher could be arrested and charge with the parent(s).

[wangtesol]

right. I wonder if the same holds for certified teachers in Japan.

This would make a huge difference between what ALTs and teachers in Japanese public schools are obligated to do.

And if one has an ALT dispatching company, then you would think they would do a criminal background check on ALTs. But they do not. So why not? And why doesn't Japan Association of Language Teachers care?

[womblingfree]

[wangtesol]

So, okay employees and teachers are not given a background check. But what usually happens if it comes out that an employee does have a record?

[Sody]

[wangtesol]

Good to know someone has set a standard. Thanks.

[BradS]

I reported a suspected case to the Japanese staff when I was at Nova and their attitude was basically "It's none of our business. We don't want to lose customers."

There seems to be an attitude (and not just at Nova) that the victim and those who report the crime are frowned upon for causing trouble. Basically "Ignore it and it'll go away".

[womblingfree]

[MrCAPiTUL]

[stillnosheep]

There's no contradiction here at all.

Both instances reflect the fact that a Teacher's primary duty of care is towards her/his students.

[wangtesol]

[JimDunlop2]

For those of you who are concerned about childrens' rights in Japan, the following was sent to me by e-mail by a friend. It's interesting.

---------------------------

JAPANESE AMBASSADOR TO CANADA ON CHILD ABDUCTIONS TO JAPAN

In an important interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Company, broadcast March 31, 2006, three people talked about the issue of how Japan has become a safe haven for child abductions after international marriages break up.

Interview excerpt, a quote from Jeremy Morley, a lawyer in New York City specializing in international family law:

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[Morley] Children are not returned from Japan, period, and it is a situation that happens a lot with children of international marriages with kids who are over in Japan, they do not get returned. Usually, the parent who has kept a child is Japanese, and under the Japanese legal system they have a family registration system whereby every Japanese family has their own registration with a local ward office. And the name of registration system is the koseki system. So every Japanese person has their koseki, and a child is listed on the appropriate koseki. Once a child is listed on the family register, the child belongs to that family. Foreigners don't have a family register and so there is no way for them to actually have a child registered as belonging to them in Japan. There is an international treaty called the Hague Convention on the civil aspects of international child abduction, and Japan is the only G7 country that is not a party to the Hague Convention. I think it's horrible. It is an international outrage and it is an enormous problem that is not being addressed by the international community.
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The interview opens with the plaintiff, Murray Wood, talking about his case, where he won custody of his children from Canadian courts, but was refused custody by Japanese courts essentially because of "who dares wins": The judges simply refused to uproot the children (currently residing in Saitama where he is denied any access, let alone custody). Regardless of the international arrest warrant out on ex-wife Ayako Wood.

See Canadian Ambassador Sadaaki Numata get all defensive and hint at cultural imperialism in his responses to the interview:

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[Numata] That is precisely, precisely, what I am disputing. And to cause suspicions, like saying Japan is a haven for abducted children and so forth, I don't think it's just, it's not the way I go about this business of diplomacy. And, and, and we are considering the question of whether or not to become a party to the convention, but there are a number of factors that need to be taken into account. Its impact on the Japanese Family Law system, and also what I might call the sociological impact on the question of to what extent it would serve, it would be in the interest of the Japanese people. And we are in the process of studying all of these issues carefully.
----------------------------------------------

Probably by one of those elite "government panels", no doubt.

See the interview in transcript with links to the original audio file at
http://www.crnjapan.com/articles/2006/en/20060331-japanambassadorsadaakinumatainterview.html

(Thanks as always to the Children's Rights Network of Japan for all their good works!)

[Glenski]