Ima wo kangaeru kai
// GROUP TO THINK ABOUT TODAY'S ISSUES//
Declaration in Support of Academic Freedom and the Rights of Non-Japanese Faculty Members
2014
0715
The Sankei Shinbun newspaper has been conducting a vociferous campaign against a university class which was given as part of a course at Hiroshima University called “Drama and Film”, a general education course taught by a team of faculty members. The newspaper claimed that a documentary shown in the class gave a one-sided picture of the ‘comfort women’ issue, and the newspaper also highlighted the foreign nationality of the lecturer who gave the class. Subsequently the lecturer has been subject to an escalating tirade of unjust verbal assaults on the Internet, and a member of the Diet criticized the class in a Cabinet Committee of the House of Representatives. Hiroshima University has also received many complaints from members of the public.
Unfortunately, many of the comments have deteriorated into serious slander of the faculty member concerned, to the extent that their basic human rights have been placed under threat. We believe that this is a serious situation that even requires legal action. The attacks are also a serious assault on academic freedom within Hiroshima University, putting at risk its ability to function as a place where students and teachers can freely exchange different opinions based on a relationship of trust.
Hate speech calling for the removal of non-Japanese faculty members is a serious threat to Hiroshima University, which in its articles of foundation promotes to be “a single unified university, free and pursuing peace”, and which is presently endeavoring to be a university open to the world, educating students capable of playing an active role in international society. It is also a threat to all Japanese universities that wish to protect academic freedom and promote internationalization. In the midst of various changes to university governance and concerns about loss of autonomy, it is important that Hiroshima University in particular should hold firm to its founding spirit as “a single unified university, free and pursuing peace”, able to maintain academic freedom and protect the safety and well-being of non-Japanese faculty members.
A group called in Japanese “Ima wo kangaeru kai” (“Group to think about today’s issues”) considered the situation so serious that we held an emergency meeting at Hiroshima University Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences on June 18th. We decided to publish a declaration supporting academic freedom and the rights of colleagues of non-Japanese nationality, and opposing any kind of discrimination in our university community. Now we are asking for approval of this declaration and are calling for many people to join us.
Higashi-hiroshima, June 20, 2014
Toshio AOKI (Hiroshima University)
Toshihisa ASANO (Hiroshima University)
Hiroshi ICHIKAWA (Hiroshima University)
Sayaka OKI (Hiroshima University)
Hidemichi KAWANISHI (Hiroshima University)
Manabu TSUJI (Hiroshima University)
Takeo NISHIMURA (Hiroshima University)
Hiroshi NUNOKAWA (Hiroshima University)
Tomohiko HIRATE (Hiroshima University)
Carolin FUNCK (Hiroshima University)
Takashi MARUTA (Hiroshima University)
Nobuo MIZUHA (Hiroshima University)
Claude LEVI ALVARES (Hiroshima University)
[Update: July 15, 2014]