Because there is no comprehensive, mandatory training on gender and sexuality for teachers, each teacher’s response to an LGBT bullying case depends on their individual opinions of LGBT people. Human Rights Watch found that LGBT students who attempt to report cases of bullying to their teachers receive a wide range of responses. LGBT students are not mentioned anywhere in the policy. The policy emphasizes student education on social norms and teacher awareness-raising over children’s rights and mandatory teacher training. Nevertheless, Japan’s Basic Policy on the Prevention of Bullying, issued in October 2013, by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, has proved to be inadequate. In a few instances the artist added language to provide necessary context. These comics tell the stories of specific individuals Human Rights Watch interviewed, using their own words to describe their experiences. In meetings with Human Rights Watch, for example, officials in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology repeatedly stated that they took a “holistic” approach to bullying and suggested that specifically addressing the needs of LGBT and other groups of students would afford special treatment to those students. Instead, the government has promoted social norms and a climate of harmony in schools, and officials insist that no child is any more vulnerable to bullying than another. However, while bullying has received media attention – especially in cases that resulted in death – and been publicly debated for decades, the Japanese government has failed to address its root causes, including the vulnerabilities of LGBT students. Students often target other students they perceive as different with harassment, threats, and sometimes violence – including by singling out students on the basis of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity, Human Rights Watch said. A law that requires transgender people to obtain a diagnosis of “Gender Identity Disorder” as a step toward gaining legal recognition can have a harsh impact on youth.īullying generally is a notorious problem in Japan.
However, the national bullying prevention policy is silent on the specific vulnerabilities of LGBT students – a gap compounded by the lack of binding policies on LGBT-inclusive curricula and inadequate teacher training on gender and sexuality. In recent years, Japan’s Education Ministry has issued guidelines related to LGBT students, sending an important message that schools should care for sexual- and gender-minority children. LGBT students told Human Rights Watch that teachers have told them that by being openly gay or transgender, they are being selfish and should expect not to succeed in school. Instead, the national bullying prevention policy promotes social norms at the expense of basic rights. Bullying is widespread and brutal in Japan’s schools, yet government policies addressing bullying do not specifically address LGBT students, who are among the most vulnerable to bullying. The 84-page report, “‘ The Nail That Sticks Out Gets Hammered Down’: LGBT Bullying and Exclusion in Japanese Schools,” examines the shortcomings in Japanese government policies that expose LGBT students to bullying and inhibit access to information and self-expression. Japan has a bullying prevention policy, which is up for review in 2016 amid a growing national debate on equal rights for LGBT people. (Tokyo) – The Japanese government has failed to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students from school bullying, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.