NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo Prefecture--A foreign English teacher has been disciplined by a university here after he poked fun at a student from Fukushima Prefecture, where the nuclear meltdown occurred after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.
Kwansei Gakuin University took the disciplinary action by docking the instructor’s pay over the incident that occurred in 2014 but was not reported until April 2016.
The student in question took the matter up with university officials after a new harassment consultation center was established.
According to university officials, the woman from Fukushima Prefecture entered the university's education school in the spring of 2014.
In autumn that year, the student signed up for an English class of about 30 students taught by a non-Japanese male part-time instructor in his 40s.
The instructor asked the students where they were from. When the woman said Fukushima Prefecture, the instructor turned off the classroom lights and said he thought she would glow in the dark because she had been contaminated with radiation.
The woman was shocked by the statement, considering it discriminatory. She began skipping classes, but did not complain to university officials.
When the harassment consulting center was established, the woman visited it from late April 2016 on a number of occasions to discuss the issue. In late October, she submitted a formal harassment complaint against the instructor.
University officials questioned the instructor in November. He said he could not remember if he turned off the lights, but admitted to the comment, saying that it was meant in jest. He offered to apologize to the student.
The joke did not go over well, and the officials decided to cut his pay for three months, effective from Feb. 17, and plans not to renew his contract, which ends in March.
Shoichi Ito, a university vice president, issued a statement that said: "We extend our deepest apology to the student as well as to all those who were affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake. We will make efforts to prevent a recurrence by promoting greater awareness among our faculty."
Kwansei Gakuin University was established in 1889 by the American missionary Walter R. Lambuth, based on Christian principles.