Justification of Legally-Prohibited Corporal Punishment in Japanese Schools

Following the Meiji Restoration, corporal punishment in schools was prohibited by government ordinance in 1879. However, its definition became very vague after specific examples disappeared from the ordinance in 1890. Subsequently, a clause concerning disciplinary punishment was newly added to the ordinance. As a result, the point of view was born that violence as a disciplinary punishment would be permitted if it did not inflict any injury upon pupils. This justification of corporal punishment was supported on the one hand by the idea that the teacher was acting as substitute for parents, and on the other hand by the idea that the teacher was a governmental official who exercised authority over the people. Eventually, in the period of Showa fascism, the former idea, which had been justified by relating the teacher-child relationship to the blood relationship between parent and child, came increasingly to be replaced by the latter idea, which premised a special power relation (das besondere Gewaltverhaltnis).3KJ00004276190論文Articledepartmental bulletin pape