Discussing with friends at the cafeteria today (I did not read the papers yet) I heard that in today's Asahi there are accounts of graduation ceremonies in Hiroshima prefecture that went like this :
[background info : the rate of school that had Kimogayo sung this year raised from 20% (1999) to almost 100% in Hiroshima prefecture. The Ministry has put special pressure on Hiroshima Board of Education for this purpose, last year a pricipal commited suicide when he realized that he would have to force the kids learn the anthem that was sung by Japanese troops to hail the Emperor when they razed China, Korea and other countries in Asia]
"in the graduation room of a junior high, 70% of the kids stayed sitted and did not sing. All of them were asked one by one at the end of the ceremony why they did not sing. Teachers have been pressured by the boe and the moe to force the kids into singing lest they are fired."
A few prefectures in Japan never made it compulsory to learn or use Kimigayo, among them Hiroshima, of course, but also Nagano (where the winter olympics took place 2 years ago). In the prefecture where I live (Kagawa) the boe is very strict on this matter and most of the schools here (from primary to high school) teach and sing the anthem at every ceremony. A lot of people are not even aware that other prefectures have other policies, and wonder why everybody makes such a fuss about that.
The high school where I work as a part time french teacher had a very progressive principal for the last two years. This year he made a very progressive speach and did not salute the flag.
All this may sound a little exotic from abroad, but the politics here have allowed 3 conservative parties who have a majority in both houses and virtually no oposition to pass all the mesures they wanted since this fall. Among them the National Anthem and the National Flag (that's been an issue for decades as Yoshie mentions) after only a few hours of debate. The National Security policy that gives even more power to the police and many other that restrain democracy and freedom. The biggest fear is a referedum about a change in the constitution that would allow Japan to maintain a offensive army force. In the actual state of the public opinion, such a referendum seems very likely to be a succes for the gvt.
I don't really know how the left feels in the States about possibilities of reform, but here in Japan, I don't see an end to this conservative nightmare. The other day there were unions having their traditional "spring demonstration". They walked up and down the arcade (not even a main road, a walkers covered shopping arcade) shouting without any conviction slogans that were obviously cut off from what's going on in the rest of the world.
I'm worried. Help !
JC Helary