The Democratic Party of Japan is considering proposing that security officers be stationed at kindergartens, elementary and junior high schools nationwide to protect children from attackers, sources at the largest opposition party said Sunday.
The initiative is part of a school safety bill by a DPJ task force, which would oblige the national and local governments to envisage and finance comprehensive anticrime measures to make schools safer.
The DPJ is aiming to get the bill passed during the current Diet session through Aug. 13.
The move comes in the wake of a media and political frenzy over a series of school stabbings.
In the latest case, a 17-year-old boy entered an elementary school in Neyagawa, Osaka Prefecture, and stabbed a teacher to death in February.
In 2001, a man fatally stabbed eight children, wounded 13 others and two teachers at an elementary school in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture. He was hanged last year.
The incidents have led to patrols by police officers at schools, the hiring of private security guards and calls from politicians for teachers to learn how to fight or restrain armed intruders before the police arrive.
While the education ministry and the National Police Agency are cooperating to step up security measures at schools, the central government is under pressure to help some financially weak local governments with new anticrime measures.
But some DPJ lawmakers are concerned about the central government's involvement in financing local governments, arguing it contradicts a policy of decentralization.
The gist of the bill calls for "active" involvement of the central government in envisaging the safety measures at schools.