A/HRC/17/33/Add.3 women owing to their special vulnerability, as they depend on their husband’s approval to acquire or renew their spouse visa. Therefore, foreign spouses are in an extremely vulnerable and unequal situation: they cannot leave the household for the fear of losing the visa and being deported. Some husbands have taken advantage of their dominant position, in some cases using violence. 61. The Special Rapporteur heard various testimonies from Filipino women and their children who are abused by their Japanese husbands or de facto partners. In these cases, he is concerned about reports that the courts do not take into account factors such as domestic violence and abuse against the children in determining their custody. K. Limited access to education by migrant children 62. According to the School Education Act, elementary and middle education is compulsory for Japanese children, but not for foreign children, since the law obliges only Japanese nationals to send their children to an elementary school and junior high school. According to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japanese elementary and secondary schools may accept foreign children of school age “if they wish to enter” schools.16 Schools and municipalities have no legal obligation to accept migrant children and education is not secured for those children as a legal right. Moreover, there is no obligation for municipalities to offer specific services or language teaching to migrant children. Each municipality determines its own policy at its discretion. 63. While migrant children are generally accepted by Japanese schools, there are a number of obstacles for migrant children to completing their education in Japanese schools. Despite measures that have recently been put in place by the Government, the majority of migrant children do not receive necessary assistance to develop appropriate language skills and tend to find themselves lost in Japanese schools. In addition, discrimination against them is still common, despite the fact that human rights education has been incorporated into the school curricula. The Special Rapporteur heard many cases of migrant children who feel discriminated by both students and teachers. Compounded by their language difficulties, many migrant children end up leaving Japanese schools. 64. Given these difficulties, the majority of migrant children attend foreign schools, while a considerable number do not attend school at all.17 Most foreign schools are not accredited as “schools” as defined in article 1 of the School Education Act, as they do not fulfil the accreditation criteria determined by the Ministry of Education, such as the minimum qualifications of teachers and the implementation of school curricula using Japanese textbooks approved by the Ministry. Many Korean schools and some Brazilian schools have been only accredited as “miscellaneous schools”, while others do not receive any accreditation. 65. The lack of accreditation as “schools” under the School Education Act has a number of adverse implications on these foreign schools. First, the Government does not provide 16 17 Office, 13.3 per cent of women living in Japan feared for their life in 2008 because of domestic violence. Also in 2008, 68,196 cases of domestic violence were reported to relevant government bodies” (A/HRC/14/32/Add.4, para. 38). Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Guide for foreign students to start school procedures to enter Japanese schools, p. 1. Available from http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shotou/clarinet/003/001/009.pdf. According to governmental statistics, as of May 2008, the number of migrant children enrolled in public elementary, middle and high schools was around 75,000. About 29,000 required Japaneselanguage teaching. 15