With the voting age being lowered from 20 to 18 starting in the Upper House election next year as a result of a recent amendment to the Public Offices Election Law, it is all the more important to improve education aimed at enhancing young people's awareness of the crucial role citizens must play in maintaining and promoting democracy.

In early July, the Liberal Democratic Party proposed punishing high school teachers who deviate from neutrality in teaching students on political participation. The LDP made the proposal in view of the fact that some high school students will now be able to vote before their graduation. It is difficult, however, to define neutrality. Would taking up concrete political issues or historic events in classes, for example, be regarded as violating neutrality because doing so will inevitably refer to related opinions and views? The question of how education authorities can objectively decide whether teachers have violated neutrality will also be hard to resolve.

Apart from these problems, the proposal could have the effect of leading teachers to take the safest course and avoid making any creative efforts to rouse students' interest in politics and increase the chance that they will want to vote. This could result in just teaching in a perfunctory manner the system of elections. The LDP should instead come up with a meaningful proposal on how to improve education designed to help students make autonomous judgments on political matters by fully considering the issues at stake, their historical backgrounds when applicable, and the effects they can have on people's lives.