Sitting out but standing tall

Today, public school teachers in Tokyo are being punished for refusing to stand when the "Kimigayo" is played at school functions such as graduation ceremonies. Kimiko Nezu, a teacher at a Tokyo junior high school, has been suspended without pay for between one and six months every year since 2003. This year's suspension, if it comes, will be her last.

"This time the board will dismiss me rather than suspend me until June, when I'm scheduled to retire," she says.

For most of Nezu's professional life, the majority of schools did not bother playing the "Kimigayo" and raising the Hinomaru. And when schools did hold these patriotic rituals, teachers who dissented by not standing at attention for them were never punished. All that changed in 2004.

For Nezu, this one simple act of dissent — refusing to stand — has destroyed her career.

"It's not just the suspensions," she explained. "For years I've been denied the opportunity to be a homeroom teacher. I am severely marginalized at the workplace. Moreover, they transfer me to a different school every year. My commuting time is up to two hours. This is all to punish me."

On Sept. 21, 2006, the Tokyo District Court ruled in favor of 400 teacher-litigants — up from the 150 instructors that initiated the case — in a suit against the capital's school board. The court sided with the plaintiffs on all counts, ruling that: 1) Teachers have no obligation to stand, sing, or play piano at ceremonies; 2) punishments for teachers who do not stand are unacceptable; and 3) the Tokyo government must pay each plaintiff ¥30,000 yen in compensation. Moreover, the judge wrote, forcing teachers to stand violates Japan's Fundamental Law of Education.

Undeterred, the Tokyo Board of Education has appealed to the Supreme Court. Again, a decision is not due until 2010. In the meantime the board continues to harass and punish educators who do not obey the dictates of bureaucrats.

More recently, in a separate case, a group of 12 contract teachers and one clerk who had refused to stand won a lawsuit against the Tokyo school board.

On Feb. 7, the Tokyo District Court awarded each litigant approximately ¥2.1 million for their inappropriate dismissal.

Hirokazu Ouchi, a professor at Matsuyama University, sees a clear link between the move toward "patriotic education" and militarism.

"The meaning of the patriotism to be incorporated is clear. It is to develop people who will voluntarily follow the government's orders for war," he explains. "The imposition of 'Kimigayo' and the Hinomaru embodies the worsened Education Law. Therefore, resistance to 'Kimigayo' is a struggle to refuse war efforts at school, as well as to defend the freedom of thought and conscience."

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