What does Corporal Punishment in Schools Mean? : Trend of Case Law

Authors

Hitoshi Miyahara, Faculty of Law, Toyo University

Keywords

Corporal Punishment in Sports Training, Physical Contact, Discipline, Discretion of Teachers, Bodily Injury, Inquiry of Teachers

Received Date

9-27-2019

Revised Date

11-28-2019

Accepted Date

12-6-2019

Publication Date

2-28-2020

Abstract

Since the Meiji era, school education statutes have consistently prohibited corporal punishment. However, corporal punishment never disappeared from schools. We have to consider the reasons why teachers are unable to avoid them. The Supreme Court of Japan has ruled that corporal punishment is illegal, but that teachers could adopt certain forms of “physical contact” in the course of instruction. Their conduct becomes illegal only when they abuse their power. Case law indicates that a decision on whether they abused it is made after considering all circumstances, for example the necessity to use force, purpose of instruction, and method of discipline.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Miyahara, Hitoshi (2020) "What does Corporal Punishment in Schools Mean? : Trend of Case Law," Japanese Society and Culture: Vol. 2, Article 3.
DOI: 10.52882/2434-1738-0203
Available at: https://gensoken.toyo.ac.jp/japanese-society-and-culture/vol2/iss1/3