Kumiko Manda
Prefectural high school Japanese teacher. After her introduction into women's liberation in the 1970s, she became a high school teacher at the age of 36 stemming from her motivation to develop gender-equality education. She teaches Japanese and elective workshops on women's history. She also conducts research into teaching materials working with organizations and groups outside the school.

Ikuko Kato
Prefectural high school English teacher. After teaching English in high school for some ten years, she took a women's studies course provided by Osaka Prefecture. Building on this experience, she has been participating in human rights education focusing on gender-equality ever since. She has been involved in compiling sex education teaching samples for Osaka Prefecture and continues to conduct research in volunteer groups outside the school.

Toshiko Honda
She works as a school counselor at different junior high schools in Osaka Prefecture. After her graduation she became a junior high school social studies teacher and has been promoting gender-equality in the school system. At the age of 46, she studied clinical psychology and became a counselor. Sharing her perspective as a woman, she has also worked as a counselor at the Dawn Center.

Hiroko Higashi
Former elementary and junior high school teacher, director of WES(a women's empowerment support group). She has worked as an elementary school teacher for many years. She has been actively participating in the development of gender-equality teaching materials that can be used in Japanese, moral education, human rights, and sex education classes in elementary schools.

Kihara: What is the environment like for children?
Manda: There are more students that casually develop sexual relationships with people that they meet though the Internet and mobile phones. Behind this trend, there is this idea that high school students have these days, which is that love is the most important thing, and therefore, they think that if they don't have a boyfriend or a girlfriend, there is something wrong with them. I think the media has had a lot of influence on this idea.
Kato: Almost all the students have mobile phones now. Mobile phones have become a tool that they can't live without even when they are in class, at the dining table, or in bed. Some students exchange dozens of text messages a day. Some of these are slanderous or involve sexual insults being directed at individuals. It is not rare at all to see people pretending to be someone else when sending these types of e-mails. This is a new problem at many schools. I think students need to be given the opportunity to learn and think about the issues that arise in an Internet-oriented society.
It is also worrying that students are having a difficult time imagining the future. They might be able to picture themselves graduating university and getting a job, but they have a difficult time imagining working after they get married and have children. They can dream about their twenties, but it isn't easy for them to think about anything further.
Manda: It's the same for the students who attend my women's history classes. I think it is partly because they don't have any lifestyle models around them. So, when I get the chance, I invite lecturers with professions that my students are not usually exposed to, such as politicians, lawyers, and architects. Listening to these women is very inspiring for the students.
Kihara: What is it like in junior high schools?
Honda: In junior high and high schools, problems such as delinquency, violence, anorexia, and truancy develop while they are going through the difficulties of adolescence. There still exists the strong idea that "mothers are the cause of these problems." During counseling sessions when I listen to children and their mothers, I can see that there are parents behind the children, and there is a society behind the parents. This is an example of "Personal is political." I see the importance of listening to them from a gender perspective.

Kihara: Traditionally in Japanese schools, the names of male students were always above the female students on class rosters. Getting rid of this stereo-typical system by introducing non-gendered class rosters was controversial.
Kato: When I raised questions about this system over ten years ago, many male teachers didn't understand. They had never thought about what it implied to divide students into two groups based on their gender; nor did they see how unnatural it was that "men always came first." I also tried using examples from other countries.
Manda: It's probably in part because being a teacher involves so much work and they are often too busy to learn or adapt to new things.
Kato: At one school, students raised questions about the gender-based roster after studying about gender, and it was later changed to a non-gendered class roster. This shows positive results coming from their education.

Kihara: I think that teaching materials need to have a gender-equal perspective.
Higashi: I have been researching materials for elementary schools since the 1980s. In those days, most of the writers and main characters of the Japanese language teaching materials were men and portrayed the typical idea that strong and wise men rise up in the world. For alternative materials, I tried to find stories written by women that also had women as their main characters, but I could only find Cinderella type stories. However, after further searching, I found very good teaching material in the story of "The Clever Princess" by Diana Coles. The main character of this story is a strong and wise girl.
In social studies classes, I helped to adopt teaching "labor" to first grade elementary school students and also added women's history to sixth grade history classes. This allows students to learn about gender equality systematically throughout the six years of elementary school. I have also been par-ticipating in compiling teaching samples that are used in moral education, human rights, and sex education classes as part of Osaka Prefecture's program for sex and gender equality education. I have over thirty years of experience in developing teaching materials. Once the materials are established, they aren't easily gotten rid of.
Kato: I once looked into some high school English teaching materials. They change with each generation, but there are few materials that encourage gender equality. Last year our school adopted "women's and men's barrier free" as the theme for the school's human rights event. Students showed a strong interest in marriage and romantic relationships between men and women. I think it's important to find and create materials that students can relate their own lives and issues with.

Kihara: I think schools are a good environment for women to work in compare to other workplaces. Is that the case?
Manda: When I first started working as a teacher, I was astonished with the commonness of discriminatory attitudes and expressions. In those days, women who expressed their ideas and opinions weren't welcome. It is quite different these days; however, we see very few women in administrative positions, and students and parents still have the preconception that women in administrative positions are incompetent. Women can of course dispel this myth by producing positive results, but compared to men, they have to start from a different point in order to get a good evaluation.

Kihara: I think the role of education is to foster children's "ability to think." Please tell me your views about this in the future.
Manda: Simultaneous education was Japan's strong suit. It was an effective approach for academic development for many people all at once, and as a result, we saw social development. On the other hand, in order to systematically teach the ability to think, simultaneous education's approach of transmitting knowledge is inadequate; we need an approach that encourages individuals to participate. Both approaches are important, and we should find a good balance.
Kato: Internet sites and TV shows that "objectify" women are having a strong affect on students. These images are being seen in presentations and performances at school festivals, and it has a strong potential to lead to sexual harassment. It is important to give students the opportunity to think about these issues. In order to do so, schools need to have an environment that promotes communication between teachers and students. It might not be easy, but I have hope in students' positive attitude towards communication.
Honda: Children are still surrounded by gendered terms such as "womanliness" and "manliness." Schools should take the lead and provide a curriculum that allows or encourages children to think about gender equality and human rights. I promote "peer support," which provides children who tend to have shallow relationships with people to develop skills that help them build deeper relationships.
Higashi: I have been working as a teacher motivated by the idea that I don't want the next generation to experience the same hardships that we had because we were women. Education is surely a long-term investment in people. We never know when their education will bloom and bear fruit. The same thing is true with gender equality education, though it is very influential work.
Kihara: Thank you very much for your meaningful comments today.