2. Education and training of women

（1）Promoting gender equality by opening the way for a diversity of choices through enrichment of education and learning

1）

Enhancing elementary and secondary education for gender equality
The Ministry of Education provides prefectural boards of education with information, guidance and support in order to promote the guidance in respect for human rights, equality between men and women, and mutual cooperation and understanding, to give due consideration to textbooks and educational materials used at school, and to enhance training of teaching staff through school education.

Based on the revised Course of Study of March l989, in elementary school both girls and boys are now required to study Home Economics under an identical curriculum. The new curriculum has been applied to secondary schools since FY l993, and in High Schools since FY l994. Through various training programs for improving the education program and through the presentation of research results, the new curriculum is being smoothly implemented today in secondary and high schools.

2）

Promoting gender equality in institutions of higher education
Research institutions on women's studies have been set up at some universities recently. Among national universities, Ochanomizu University set up the Institute for Gender in May l996. The Women's University of Osaka Prefecture (public) and Aichi Shukutoku University (private) have also set up gender study centers.

In FY l996, 351 institutions of higher learning offered a total of 786 courses on women's studies. The number of such institutions increased by 5.4% and the number of courses by 274 when compared to the survey results of l993.

3）

Promoting social education
Since FY l996, the Ministry of Education has been holding the "Gender Equality Seminars for Youth" at institutes of higher education on a consignment basis to educate young men and women about gender equality in the home, local communities and workplace. In FY l997, 16 such seminars were offered.

4）

Promoting women's social participation and life-long learning
As a model project for promoting women's participation in society, the government requested an NGO to prepare a pamphlet about the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women for easy understanding in l997.

5）

National Women's Education Centre
The National Women's Education Centre, the only national education institution for women in Japan, will open a homepage on the Internet in January FY l999 to provide 24 hour access to its database.

The Centre has been holding the "Forum on| Women's and Gender Studies" since FY l996 and provides an opportunity to present achievements of organizations, groups or individuals active in research and education of women's studies and gender studies at local levels, and to promote exchanges of views and networking among such organizations, groups and individuals. The Centre has published handbooks of the education methods for women's studies, and is also undertaking research regarding women in development and home education.

In November l997, the Centre held a commemorative ceremonies to mark the 20th anniversary of its founding and held the International Lifelong Study Forum on the view point of gender, and also published the National Women's Education Centre Bulletin.

6）

Course and employment guidance
The government calls on universities to offer career guidance for students. Since FY l995, national employment guidance meetings have been organized where employment counselors at universities and company officials in charge of recruitment can exchange views and information. The government has also promoted measures to provide employment-related information to students promptly, has dispatched employment counselors in universities to enhance employment guidance to women students, and called on corporations to give equal employment opportunities to women students.

Since FY l995, the Ministry of Labour has held seminars for women high school students, their parents and guidance counselors at schools to raise their awareness as to the importance of not being swayed by gender-based stereotyped ideas in deciding the future course of the students.

7）

Program for educational reform
In April l998, the Ministry of Education revised the "Program for Educational Reform" to concretely and positively tackle educational reform, one of the six reform policies set forth by the government. One of the items included in the program is to promote education to heighten the awareness of gender equality. For the purpose of discarding the gender-based stereotype roles and promoting gender equality based on the awareness of human rights in order to realize a gender-equal society, the Ministry of Education is enhancing the education and learning regarding gender equality through the training of persons involved in education, and the development of teaching materials in school and social education.