Moral education would seem to be a subject that is on everyone’s lips right now, unfortunately for the wrong reasons. The fact that moral behavior is declining rapidly can no longer be avoided.

On an international level over the past few months, we have seen the general degradation and scandal of political leaders, (witness Gov Spitzer in New York), the mass killing of students on campus in Illinois and so on. On a local level here in Japan, we have mass suicide pacts being arranged over the Internet adding to an alarming statistic of over 90 suicides a day and the recent example of a young boy waking up one day and deciding he wanted to kill someone and thus pushing someone in front of a train.

The fact is that what happens in the United States, doesn’t take long to catch on in Japan. This can easily be traced by looking at how moral education has taken a serious detour, starting in the 1960s and the “Power to the People” brigade. This led to a downtrend in moral activity and an uptrend in drugs and alcohol intake.

To reverse these addictive trends, the 1980s championed the “Just say no” campaign. Moral education was based on saying no to vices such as drugs, smoke, drink and sex. The theory being that without any actual education in why it is necessary to be virtuous, people were supposed to become free of defective character traits just by being able to resist temptation. If only humans were so easily programmed!

By the 1990s, the yuppies and the “look after number one” crew had taken over. This was a transplant from the world of therapy (Carl Rogers/Abraham Maslow) and their psychology-based influence. As long as you feel good about yourself, who cares about anyone else?

The theory is that if someone feels good about himself, he won’t want to do anything bad. But what applies in therapy doesn’t apply in real life. A person can equally as well decide that he can’t do anything wrong. He may have self esteem, but with no self-awareness. Look at the Tokyo schoolgirls who turn to prostitution just so they can afford to buy the latest designer bag.

What happened in the 1990s was that virtue became redefined as a value. The family has all but disintegrated and teenage pregnancy and an omnipresent sexual culture have become the order of the day. Kids get their examples of moral conduct from TV and the cinema and drug induced hip-hop bands. Their role models are so called celebrities who break the law regularly, have sex indiscriminately and are “rewarded” for their conduct with obscene amounts of money.

How can someone be expected to tell right from wrong when he’s never been taught the difference between the two? Yet very little moral education is formally recorded in lesson plans and teachers are expected to teach without any formal training on the subject of morals. 

It is my opinion that all of these systems didn’t work. Instead, they have led to a decline in the need for moral awareness and are all trying to solve the problem from the wrong end. They are solutions to situations that have already happened.

For younger kids, we need a preventative moral education that puts attention on virtue at an early age where they can develop moral character before they get into bad habits. For teenagers and young parents, we need to have a technique that makes them able to confront and handle the defects they have developed and to redirect them to the need and desire to want to live a virtuous life. This starts at home and should be reinforced by social groups, schools, volunteer and religious groups and so on.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that moral education systems could do with some improvement. Of course, it’s not all doom and gloom; there are many people who still uphold traditional values and live an ethical life. Perhaps it is to those that we must appeal in order to take responsibility for those who have fallen by the wayside.

But something that actually works and can be used by everyday people quickly and simply is needed. The simplest way to do this would be by character education. And how do you create good character? Through good example and good habits.

The writer organizes workshops in Tokyo on a new educational program based on
the works of Aristotle.

Latest 15 of 42 Total Comments Show All

• 

  tclh at 12:22 PM JST - 26th April

  umbrella,if there is no such thing as morals;you can be sure that someone out there will wait for you to make tons of cash then point a gun at your head and take away your cash! Or they just simply get inside your luxurious house and throw you out onthe street.It can also be worst than that.Morals are created in a way that human society can funtion and last.

• 

  jeancolmar at 10:24 PM JST - 26th April

  The author of this unfortunate article writes:

  The fact is that what happens in the United States, doesn’t take long to catch on in Japan. This can easily be traced by looking at how moral education has taken a serious detour, starting in the 1960s and the “Power to the People” brigade. This led to a downtrend in moral activity and an uptrend in drugs and alcohol intake.

  First off, the Japanese do not need to learn from the United States about being immoral. They can do it on their own. They were doing it on their own before there was a United States. Secondly, the activism of the 1960s was highly moral. It was largely unselfish and concerned itself with civil right and ending the war in Viet Nam. Even the hippy drug culture, which burned out quickly, had a moral base that was spiritual and anti-materialistic.

  There is more rubbish in this article which is essentialist and historically either superficial or dead wrong. Let me sum up what is wrong with this article. It is scattered. Thus even the things that are right--the bit about foreigners being denied entrance to hot springs for instance--end up as didactic dead meat.

  And this guy makes money giving seminars. Good grief.

• 

  Orangeporange at 08:24 AM JST - 27th April

  Moral education in schools is not going to make any kind of impact as long as parents are raising their kids to be immoral. Many parents lie, cheat, steal, gamble, drink, smoke, abuse and neglect their children on a large scale, so how do you expect children to change their ways?

  Kids need role models, good practice, dicipline and even reasons for why they should behave morally, not textbooks and teachers. Parents need to monitor behavior at home and teach children to control their impulses and behavior and this means, parents themselves need to do the same thing.

  Don't get me wrong, there are good and virtuous homes out there and even a few good kids are coming out of rough homes, but until society changes (starting in the HOME, not the schools) things can only be expected to get worse.

• 

  anderstungtwist at 02:22 PM JST - 27th April

  otaku types with monster man packages....

  What is a monster man package? Have I missed another mega trend?

• 

  Terinati at 02:31 PM JST - 27th April

  /agree with Orangeporange. The problem is at a deeper, societal level (in all countries, not just Japan), and giving an hour or two of propaganda at school each day or week is not gonna change it. In fact, it may make things worse.

  Nevermind the effectiveness of so-called "moral education" in schools, in anything like a democracy we should be beyond that kind of garbage. People disagree on what is moral and what is not, and they have that right. Free will is what makes morality meaningful. I would not send my kid to a school that had a "moral education" program. It's nobody's job but mine to teach my kid how to conduct himself morally.

• 

  clambaker at 02:33 PM JST - 27th April

  But seriously, what qualifies this as a "Feature" article? This is just a hodge-podge of random factoids and personal opinion. The main thread of your argument here: "what happens in the United States, doesn’t take long to catch on in Japan" is inherently flawed and incorrect. Just because Japanese people like American things doesn't mean they have adopted American thinking and behavior. And exactly whose moral standards do you intend to use as your goal? Japan will be just fine without your help, thanks. We have our problems, but compared to every other country I think we still come out looking pretty good.

• 

  Triple888 at 07:52 AM JST - 28th April

  Morals belong to ancient times. Today is all about taking advantage and survive of the fittest.

• 

  yamecha at 11:39 AM JST - 28th April

  I live in the countryside in Japan and don't see problems like prostitution, drugs, and indiscriminate sex. However, I have met a lots of Japanese people who just don't seem to have much self-esteem or self-confidence. I think this comes primarily from being unconditionally loved as children. They seek out love for the rest of their lives in destructive ways: getting together with people who aren't good for them, unhealthy addictions, and getting used by people as emotional punching bags. Also, in these unconditionally loved people the "scarcity mentality" is strong. They get jealous easily for the happiness of others thus unable to have good relationships with others. People who are unconditionally loved become a product of their environment. They easily get involved into drugs, gambling, prostitution, etc. The same holds true for people in the city I think. With a lacking inside, people do strange things to compensate for it.

  So what is the solution to this problem? It would be nice to just go back in to a time machine and install unconditional love in their families but this is not possible. Yes, I think self-awareness is a start. As human beings we all have this. In addition we all have conscience ~ knowing what is right and wrong. And yes, these "bad" teenagers inherently know and feel what they are doing is wrong. They need to realize that their short-term pleasures and leading to long-term destruction. The key to the 99 is the one. Everyone of the 99 is a one. So start education and helping one person at a time. In fact, start by helping yourself first. No one is perfect. We all have room for improvement. Spend too much time watching TV? Overweight? Relationships not going so well? Not exercising regularly?

  In reply to morals... a moral is defined as : relating to the principles of what is right and wrong.

  Principles such as honesty, trustworthiness, diligence, etc. These are here forever to stay. The consequences of every thing you do are based on them. Know them. Understand them. But most importantly, value them and align yourself with them. If you don't you will break yourself on them every time.

• 

  the_sicilian at 07:28 PM JST - 28th April

  > What is a monster man package? Have I missed another mega trend? >

  It's the digitized or hidden areas in J-manga.... He he..

  I do agree that the "moral" decline is an issue all over the world. No religious ideologies here, just right and wrong. And I really think this starts in the home. Good, loving parents that treat their kids with the right amount of discipline and love (it can be done) will help. I didn't exactly have that growing up, but I'm giving it to my kids now. This is the starting point. Your kids may surprise you with the decisions they make if they are brought up correctly.

  Addiu

• 

  johnalex40 at 01:46 AM JST - 29th April

  It has been shown throughout history immoral families or societies never prospered. Misery, internal death, sadness, and deformation usually follow. Only when individuals decided to control their urges the town, city or, even country benefits. They prospered with enormous wealth. However, when the immoral began to slip in, then that prosperity started to dwindle ever so slowly. So slow, that it is not noticed until it is almost too late. It is really good that Mr. Peter Zimmatore inserted some truth into an area really needed of a break through.

  Unfortunately, Japan has gone through some really tough years and is trying to move on. They are trying to hang on what is good in Japan, at the same time being reminded how horrible their grand parents were 50 to 80 years ago. No one wants to accept THAT kind of responsibility. They can’t help it that they inherit this. It is hard to hold your head up when you are being yelled at.

  What happened is what the price of freedom is. Freedom is not free! Japan is free from the judgments that the Christian nations have done to themselves throughout the ages. The Christians should leave Japan alone and let them be whom they are.

  Good and loving people who love a bottle of sake with their sushi. To hike in the mountains on a spring day and have a small barbeque with their families and friends. To give to the world something the world doesn’t have. A great car with a great stereo.

• 

  stan08 at 02:56 PM JST - 29th April

  The positive moral views of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow are unchallengeable. If the authors knowledge in other areas matches his knowledge of these psychologist the credibility of the author is seriously in doubt. Of course you could read them and judge for yourself.

• 

  princebuster at 06:29 PM JST - 29th April

  The fact is that what happens in the United States, doesn’t take long to catch on in Japan. This can easily be traced by looking at how moral education has taken a serious detour, starting in the 1960s and the “Power to the People” brigade. This led to a downtrend in moral activity and an uptrend in drugs and alcohol intake.

  Yeah, I suppose life was much more "moral" before civil rights and anti-war protests.

  This article should have been aborted.

• 

  hail0xenu at 10:30 AM JST - 30th April

  xenu says your writing sucks!

• 

  DanManjt at 02:06 PM JST - 1st May

  there are many people who still uphold traditional values and live an ethical life.

  Mr. Zimmatore,

  First, you have falsely linked these two things. Many traditionalists lead unethical lives; many progressives lead ethical lifes. And FYI, ethics are not morals.

  More importantly, many traditional values are immoral. Jim Crow had its biblically inspired defenders.

  Finally, you have offered nothing, absolutely nothing, to clarify what you mean by moral.

• 

  rajakumar at 12:38 PM JST - 26th June

  Japan really needs to work hard on moral educations promotions among the youths. More morality in japan, more sucess for japan.

Register or login to add a comment!