ABSTRACT
Corporal punishment – loosely defined as the beating, hitting or kicking of the body to discipline or punish, by a person in a position of authority relative to a person in a subordinate position – is not a social phenomenon unique to Japan (Miller 2009a). Despite recent movements towards its eradication ( Economist 2008; Miller 2009b), corporal punishment remains a widely used disciplinary practice throughout the world, more commonly used by parents at home than by teachers at school (Donnelly and Straus 2005: 4). Corporal punishment has been used in Japan for centuries, but it was first labelled ‘taibatsu’ in the Meiji Period. This chapter demonstrates how the definition and educational value of taibatsu have been debated ever since, and how the term has alternatively been seen as a ‘solution’, ‘problem’ and even ‘marginalized non-issue’.
