What is the content of the “unusual request” made by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to libraries nationwide in the wake of the former Unification Church issue?

Calls for “more books related to the abduction issue

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is increasingly being named in connection with the issue of the former Unification Church. Behind the scenes, it has also been a hot topic in its response to the abduction issue.

The MEXT sent a letter to prefectural boards of education requesting that public and school libraries enhance their collections of books and displays on the abduction issue, prompting criticism and concern from library staff and others. The letter, titled “Cooperation in Enhancing Books and Other Materials Related to the Issue of Abductions by North Korean Authorities,” was issued on August 30 of last year, according to the Ministry of Education.

The All-Japan Teachers Union (ZENKYO) was quick to submit a letter of request to the Ministry of Education on September 8, demanding its withdrawal, which caused a stir immediately afterward among those involved in education. There has never been a case where the MEXT has made such a request to public libraries or school libraries, and I have to admit that I was surprised at first,” said one person who specializes in library and information science.

I must admit that I was surprised at first,” said Professor Shinya Yamaguchi of Okinawa International University’s College of Arts and Sciences, who specializes in library and information science.

On October 9, the Library Problem Study Group requested the Ministry of Education to withdraw its request, and on October 11, the Japan Library Association issued a statement expressing concern that the request threatens the principles of the “Declaration on the Freedom of Libraries” and asking for understanding of the Declaration.

The “Declaration on Library Freedom” was adopted in 1954 at the National Library Congress and the General Conference of the Japan Library Association (revised in 1979). The background of the Declaration is a reflection on the role played by libraries before and during World War II, when they served as institutions for the government’s “ideological guidance” by focusing on books that had passed censorship, thereby hindering the “freedom of knowledge” of the people. The Declaration states, “Libraries shall make their collected materials and well-equipped facilities available to the public on their own responsibility, without being subject to the intervention of authority or social pressure.

The “Declaration on the Freedom of Libraries” was created in reflection of the fact that wartime libraries had been complicit in national policy, and the library world has moved forward in the postwar period in light of this historical background. While understanding that an early resolution of the abduction issue is desirable, many people in the library industry must have felt uncomfortable with the fact that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, which has a hierarchical relationship with Japan, sent a document requesting the enhancement of books in a specific field, no matter what the topic was.

To begin with, it seems that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology asked public and school libraries nationwide to enrich books on the abduction issue for the North Korean Human Rights Violation Awareness Week in December, because the Cabinet Secretariat’s Task Force on the Abduction Issue requested their cooperation in response to a request from the Association of Families of Certain Disappeared Persons.

Did the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology officials not realize that the act of asking for cooperation would violate the “freedom of libraries?

The Ministry of Education’s official said, “The collection and provision of materials by libraries is part of our educational activities. If the Ministry of Education had considered the direct involvement of the state in the content of education as a sensitive issue, it might not have come up with the idea of passing on the Cabinet Secretariat’s request to the libraries as is.

Perhaps the quality of the Ministry of Education bureaucracy may be seriously deteriorating.

Not that the government needs to be told…

The Ministry of Education has not even responded to the withdrawal of the administrative communication requested by Zenkyoku and the Library Problem Study Group.

The law states that it is the responsibility of the national and local governments to raise public awareness regarding the abduction issue. Perhaps it is the Ministry of Education’s belief that we did what we did on a legal basis.”

Kazuhiro Araki, head of the Association for the Investigation of the Problem of Specified Disappeared Persons, which works with the Association of Families of Specified Disappeared Persons, wrote the following on his blog about the ZENKYO’s request to the Ministry of Education to withdraw the policy as “an extremely dangerous thing that binds the thoughts of children and the people of Japan.

The “freedom of libraries” is not the “freedom of library staff” in the first place.

I remember seeing similar opinions on social networking sites. I think it is natural that there is such a perception, so I would like to explain so that there is no misunderstanding. First of all, library-related organizations do not consider efforts to raise awareness of the abduction issue to be ‘dangerous’.