Hokkaido panel annuls reprimand of teacher over 'Kimigayo' tape

SAPPORO — The Personnel Committee of the Hokkaido prefectural government has annulled a disciplinary action against a 49-year-old junior high school teacher who took away a recording tape of the "Kimigayo" national anthem during the graduation ceremony at his school in the town of Kucchan in 2001, prefectural officials said Monday.

The committee has determined the teacher removed the tape from a tape player as the school principal decided to play it without consent from other teachers and that the prefectural board of education "transgressed its discretion" by reprimanding him for the action. The committee has also said the principal erred in exercising the authority and that playing the Kimigayo tape without hearing what students had to say was against the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, the officials said.