Kenji Kosaka

Kenji Kosaka (小坂憲次 "Kosaka Kenji", born March 12, 1946) is a Japanese politician. He was appointed Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology on October 31, 2005.He worked in London as top level office manager for JAL in the 1980s. Returning to Japan he became secretary to the then Prime Minister, Yasuhiro Nakasone in 1986. Nakasone was very interested in Education reform and there seems to be some continuity between current policies and Nakasone's. Nakasone was interested in raising young people to have a strong sense of their national identity at the same time as being outward looking and independent. It is likely that in the next few years Japan will reform its Fundamental Law on Education, which has been in place since 1947. Reform is also planned for the constitution, which is likely to be controversial due to the question of the status of the Strategic Defense Force. The reform of the education law is less controversial but has one area likely to generate discussion, which is that of moral education. At present the law specifies a certain amount of curriculum time for moral ed., but it appears that it is not strictly enforced. With both juvenile crime and crime against juveniles on the rise, it is thought by some that moral education might serve to improve the state of society. Here is a link to Kosaka's web page in Japanese. (An English page is under construction at present (August 2006).http://www.kenjikosaka.com/