This article provides a philosophical foundation for the legitimacy of multicultural education by developing the analyses of Rawlsian political philosophy. For Rawls the most important primary good is that of self-respect, and this can be reinterpreted to make a convincing argument for multicultural education, provided that it has a strong connection to cultural minorities' sense of self-respect. After clarifying this connection, this article addresses the objection raised against the idea of equating multicultural education with a social basis of students' self-respect. It ends with a brief overview of a recent example of multicultural education in Japan.