Japan Press Weekly

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2011 March 9 - 15 [CIVIL RIGHTS]

High court nullifies punishment of teachers over Kimigayo and Hinomaru issue

The Tokyo High Court on March 10 overturned a lower court decision that stood by the disciplinary actions taken against public high school teachers opposing the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s compulsion of standing for the Hinomaru and Kimigayo.

This ruling was made on the appeal filed by the 168 plaintiffs against the Tokyo government demanding the retraction of disciplinary actions and compensation because the Tokyo government’s measure violated their freedom of thought and conscience.

In the ruling, the presiding judge Ohashi Hiroaki recognized that the plaintiffs refused to stand up for the Hinomaru flag and sing Kimigayo based on their personal beliefs, and that in the process of enacting the national flag and anthem law in 1999, the government repeatedly stressed that no one will be obliged by law to sing Kimigayo.

Ohashi said that the punishment of teachers by the Tokyo Metropolitan government was illegal because it misused its authority.

However, Ohashi acknowledged that the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education’s directive forcing teachers to stand up for the Hinomaru flag and sing Kimigayo did not run counter to the Japanese Constitution, and rejected the plaintiffs’ demand for compensation.

On the same day, Ohashi also made the same decision in regard to the similar lawsuit filed by two former public elementary school teachers in Tokyo.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education in September 2003 issued the directive instructing teachers to stand up at the hoisting of the Hinomaru flag and sing Kimigayo at school events such as at graduation ceremonies.