By KAZUYA ITO/ Staff Writer
February 25, 2022 at 08:00 JST
The Justice Ministry (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
A Civil Code provision granting parents the right to discipline their children may be deleted and replaced with one prohibiting corporal punishment under a proposed revision to the law by an expert Justice Ministry panel to crack down on child abuse.
The ministry’s Legislative Council, an advisory body to the justice minister, submitted a package of recommendations Feb. 14 that among other things called on parents and guardians to “respect their children’s personality.”
The aim of the clause is to deprive parents and guardians of the excuse they were only disciplining the child when in fact they had resorted to abuse, either physical or verbal.
The Civil Code stipulates that parents and guardians have rights and obligations to take care of, supervise and educate their offspring. It also stated that they “may discipline the child.”
While the legislation previously allowed people to discipline their children as the need arose, a 2011 amendment said such steps were only warranted when it was in the child’s interest and “necessary for care and education.”
However, concerns remained that the wording could be exploited to justify child abuse with the excuse that ill-treatment simply constituted discipline.
As a result, it was decided in 2019 that the parental right of discipline should be reconsidered in two or so years after the April 2020 enforcement of a revision to the Child Welfare Law. The decision was included in the supplementary clause of the revised law that prohibits corporal punishment against children.
In June 2019, the Legislative Council started discussing the issue at the behest of the justice minister.
During divisional-level meetings, it was suggested that the word “discipline” be replaced with “instructions and guidance.” But participants roundly condemned the alternative wording, arguing that it could be used as an excuse for abuse.
Experts also pointed out that cases of abuse simply stem from parents imposing their own values on their offspring and placing excessive demands on children as they grow older.
With these arguments in mind, the council recommended that the right to discipline be omitted and children be defined explicitly as independent beings. It also stated that those with parental responsibilities must pay “attention to the child’s age and degree of growth.”
Child abuse involves not only physical violence but also mental cruelty. In an effort to root out all forms of mistreatment, a phrase was inserted into the recommendation stating that parents and guardians must refrain from “words and actions that can cause harm to healthy physical and psychological development.”
Other recommendations made by the council included revision to the Civil Code provision for determining paternity.
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February 2, 2022
Civil Law faces revision to lower unregistered births
February 10, 2021
Wary of politics, officials to move cautiously to fix paternity clause
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73 children die of abuse in Japan in FY2018, many due to neglect
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