Teachers' suit against action over Hinomaru, 'Kimigayo' rejected

The Tokyo District Court turned down Thursday a damages suit filed by a group of teachers in Tokyo who had claimed that their constitutional rights had been infringed upon for being punished and forced to go through a retraining program after they had refused to stand up and face the Hinomaru national flag and to sing the "Kimigayo" anthem at school events.


Presiding Judge Shigeru Nakanishi, acting on the suit by a group of 130 teachers at schools run by the Tokyo metropolitan government, rejected the plaintiffs' demand for the payment of 10,000 yen each in damages.

Wakayama grades anthem-singing by teachers, students at local schools

The Wakayama prefectural board of education has been appraising how well teachers and students sing the "Kimigayo" national anthem at school ceremonies since April 1999, board officials said Wednesday. "The appraisal is in line with the nation's school curriculum guidelines, which seek respect for the anthem," a board official said.

According to the board, its officials sit in on entrance and graduation ceremonies at elementary and junior high schools and grade the singing on a scale of "good," "relatively good" and "poor."The education board has also checked if the singing is part of the ceremony, if the anthem is sung to a piano accompaniment or to recorded music, and where the "Hinomaru" national flag is displayed.

Of some 400 schools in the western Japan prefecture, singing at seven schools was judged to be "poor" at entrance ceremonies in April 2004, but the number has remained zero since graduation ceremonies in March 2005.

Hiroichi Yamaguchi, superintendent of the prefectural education board, said, "We will collect opinions on the assessment process from local schools and district education boards, and decide whether or not the practice should be continued."

Kimigayo and Hinomaru are legally defined as Japan's national anthem and flag, respectively. However, forcing teachers and students to sing the anthem and show respect for the flag at school ceremonies has been criticized as infringing upon freedom of thought and conscience as guaranteed under the Constitution.

Tokyo gov't punishes 35 teachers over anthem

The Tokyo metropolitan board of education on Friday punished 35 public school teachers for refusing to stand up and sing the "Kimigayo" national anthem in front of the "Hinomaru" flag during graduation ceremonies this month, board officials said.

Of the 35, three were suspended from school for one, three and six months, respectively, and 12 others received pay cuts, while the remaining 20 faced admonitions, the officials said. The move has brought the total number of teachers in Tokyo reprimanded over the Kimigayo and Hinomaru issue to 381 since the education board in 2003 notified teachers at public schools that they could face punishment if they refuse to give respect to the flag and the anthem during school ceremonies.

Top court rules principal's order to play national anthem constitutional

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a ruling that says it is constitutional for a public school principal to order a music teacher to play the piano to accompany Japan's "Kimigayo" national anthem at a school ceremony.

This is the first ever decision by Japan's top court on a series of lawsuits over teachers rejecting the national anthem in various ways such as declining to stand up or sing it on public occasions.

The top court upheld the Tokyo High Court's ruling in July 2004 after telling relevant parties last week it is handing down a decision on the case without listening to arguments by the plaintiff.

The suit was filed by a 53-year-old elementary school teacher in the suburban Tokyo city of Hino who sought to repeal a reprimand the Tokyo metropolitan school board issued to her for refusing to play the piano during an entrance ceremony in 1999.

Like other teachers, she cited a violation of freedom of thought and conscience when refusing the order. The Tokyo school board issued the reprimand on the grounds of a violation of the Local Public Service Law.

The Tokyo District Court ruled in December 2003 that "public servants must serve the whole of society and their freedom of thought and conscience are subject to restraint from the point of public welfare," and concluded the principal's order was constitutional and the reprimand was lawful.

The Tokyo High Court upheld the decision in July 2004.

In August 1999, the government instituted a law defining the Kimigayo as Japan's national anthem.

Since fiscal 2000, some 875 public school teachers across Japan have been reprimanded in various ways for actions against the national flag and the Kimigayo, such as refusing to stand up and sing the anthem in front of the flag.

A series of lawsuits have been filed by some of those teachers. While many of them have lost their cases in lower court rulings, the Tokyo District Court last September judged it unconstitutional for a local government to force teachers to stand up for the flag and sing the song in school ceremonies.

The court noted the Hinomaru flag and the Kimigayo have a history of being used as pillars of militarism and they are therefore not value-neutral and penalizing those who refuse to stand for the flag and the song is an action which violates freedom of thought and conscience under the Constitution.

Lawyers demand teachers not be forced to sing anthem

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations said Wednesday it has urged the government and the Tokyo education board not to force teachers to stand and sing the "Kimigayo" national anthem in front of the Hinomaru national flag and not to reprimand them for refusing to do so.

The federation, the country's sole organization of lawyers, also said it issued its gravest admonition to the Tokyo education board on Tuesday for violating the human and educational rights of five public schoolteachers by reprimanding them for not showing respect to the flag and the anthem during school ceremonies in 2004 and 2005. The move comes amid a series of lawsuits filed over the controversial notice the Tokyo metropolitan government issued Oct 23, 2003, demanding that teachers show respect to the flag or face reprimands.

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.