The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 6 | Issue 3 | Article ID 2703 | Mar 03, 2008

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Sitting Out but Standing Tall: Tokyo Teachers Fight an UphillBattle Against Nationalism and Coercion

John Spiri

Sitting Out but Standing Tall: TokyoTeachers Fight an Uphill Battle AgainstNationalism and Coercion

John Spiri

In Japan at War: An Oral History, Hideo Satorecalls being forced to hoist the hinomaru, theJapanese flag, in tandem with the playing ofKimigayo — “His Majesty’s Reign,” theJapanese national anthem — as a schoolchild inthe 1940s. If the flag reached the top of thepole too early the teachers would beat him.More than 60 years later, he’s “chagrined thatthey still raise the flag.” [1]

Today, public school teachers in Tokyo areofficially punished for refusing to stand whenKimigayo is played at school functions likegraduation ceremonies. Nezu Kimiko, a teacherat a Tokyo junior high school, among otherpunishments, has been suspended without payfor between one and six months every yearsince 2003 — and 2008’s suspension, if itcomes, she says, will be her last.

Nezu cheerfully enduring suspension seated outside herjunior high school.

“This time the board will dismiss me ratherthan suspend me until June, when I’mscheduled to retire,” Nezu says.

For most of Nezu’s professional life, mostschools did not play the Kimigayo or raise thehinomaru. And when schools did hold thesepatriotic rituals, teachers who dissented by notstanding at attention for them were neverpunished. All that changed in 2004.

“These punishments trace back to right-wing(Tokyo) Mayor Ishihara Shintaro,” says laboractivist and filmmaker Matsubara Akira. “Other

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regions of Japan don’t punish dissentingteachers, or in the rare cases that they do, thepunishments don’t become cumulatively moresevere.” For Nezu, this simple act of dissent —refusing to stand — has destroyed her teachingcareer.

“It’s not just the suspensions,” she explains.“For years I’ve been denied the opportunity tobe a homeroom teacher. I am severelymarginalized at the workplace. Moreover, theytransfer me to a different school every year. Mycommuting time is up to two hours. This is allto punish me.”

It’s not just the Tokyo school board that ispunishing Nezu. A number of students — Nezuspeculates they are fed propaganda by theirparents — are sarcastic or even hostile. Lastyear it spilled over into violence.

“I was pushed on the stairway by a teenage boyand dropped all my books. It was terrible.”

In addition, Nezu has to live with hate mail andphone calls. Callers and writers tell her to quitteaching. A common taunt is: “Why don’t yougo live in North Korea? You’re not Japanese!”

“It can be disheartening to constantly get thatsort of message.”

For teachers like Nezu the issue is not aboutdisrespecting Japan or its institutions. Rather,it’s an act of defiance against authoritarianedicts that have, in Japan and elsewhere, led tomilitarism or war.

Nezu is not the only teacher who has sufferedunder strict measures taken against dissentingteachers. Some 400 teachers have refused tostand in the past several years, and while manyhave received reprimands, three have beensuspended for repeat offenses: Nezu, KawaraiJunko, a special education teacher, and afemale teacher named Watanabe. FushimiTadashi, a high school science teacher has

suffered various other punishments.

In addition to being reprimanded for notstanding in 2003 and 2004, Fushimi received a10 percent pay cut. Fushimi, like Nezu, getsfrequent punitive transfers: he’s teaching at histhird school in five years, which is virtuallyunheard of. The school’s solution to his refusalto stand has been to station him outside to“guard” the gate during school ceremonies.While Fushimi admits feeling some reliefbecause he no longer faces spiraling penalties,he feels pained that colleagues and studentsinside are being forced to stand.

“As a child I was expected to stand for theKimigayo and hinomaru, which I did,” he said.“At first I had no idea why. Later, when Ilearned history and that the Kimigayo wasglorifying the emperor, I felt betrayed. I don’twant my students to feel that same betrayal.”

Fushimi, Nezu, and other teachers have alsobeen subjected to “reeducation sessions”(saihatsu boushi kenshu) aimed at “helping”them see the error of their ways. To protest thispunishment, Nezu and others came to theirsessions wearing clothing emblazoned withmessages of dissent and reaffirmation of theiropposition to compulsory expressions ofpatriotism. They received further penalties forwearing such clothing.

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Clothing emblazoned with messages ofdissent got teachers in further trouble.

Even more vindictive is the action takenagainst Fujita Katsuhisa, a teacher whodistributed fliers before his high school’sgraduation ceremony requesting that thosewho felt uncomfortable with the Kimigayo andhinomaru rituals show their feelings byrefusing to stand. The school board took him tocourt for disorderly conduct for, they claimed,delaying the ceremony for five minutes. Theprosecutor demanded that Fujita serve an eightmonth prison sentence for allegedly causingthe delay. Instead, the court ruled Fujita pay afine of 200,000 yen.

The Tokyo District Court ruled in favor of 400teacher litigants — up from the 150 instructorswho initiated the case — in a suit against theTokyo School Board On Sept. 21, 2006. Thecourt sided with the plaintiffs on all counts,

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ruling that: 1) Teachers have no obligation tostand, sing, or play piano at ceremonies; 2)punishments for teachers who do not stand areunacceptable; and 3) the Tokyo MetropolitanGovernment must pay each plaintiff 30,000 yenin compensation. Moreover, the judge wrote,forcing teachers to stand violates Japan’sFundamental Law of Education. Undeterred,the Tokyo Board of Education has appealed tothe Supreme Court. A decision is not expecteduntil 2010. The school board continues toharass and punish educators who do not bendto the dictates of bureaucrats.

Recently, in a separate case, a group of 12contract teachers and one clerk who refused tostand won a lawsuit against the Tokyo schoolboard. On Feb. 7, 2008, the Tokyo DistrictCourt awarded each litigant approximately 2.1million yen for their inappropriate dismissal.

Despite the monetary settlement, Matsubaraconsiders the victory only partial.

“On the one hand, the judge ruled that theprincipal’s decree — that teachers who refusedto stand be punished — was ‘rational;' on theother hand the judge considered the schoolboard’s punishment excessive.” Matsubara isoptimistic that the decision will bear fruit forNezu, who faces possible dismissal, when shehas her day in court. A victory could mean thereturn of years of lost wages for Nezu, but noterasure of the years of humiliation.

In 2006 Matsubara and Sasaki Yumi issued a90 minute DVD, Against Coercion, subtitled inEnglish, documenting the teachers’ struggles.In particular, the DVD follows Nezu as shecheerfully endures her suspension by sittingoutside the school gate in all sorts of weather,as a further act of defiance. There she is seeninteracting with students and passersby,informing them of the reason why she is beingdenied the chance to fulfill her duties as ateacher. In addition, the DVD documentsteacher protests, tense confrontations between

supporters and bureaucrats, and details of thelawsuits.

Teachers and supporters protesting inTokyo

Japanese nationalists have been pressuringschools for several years. In August 1999, a lawinstituting the hinomaru as the official flag ofJapan and Kimigayo as the national anthemtook effect. That same year, a school principalin Hiroshima, feeling caught between thedemands of the school board and teachers whorefused to participate in the graduationceremony’s patriotic rituals, committed suicide.

Nationalist pressures have also been felt inuniversities, where one faculty member

was said to have been disciplined foropposing the Iraq War and the raising of

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the hinomaru.

Several events have fueled neonationalistdetermination to instil patriotism in studentsand punish dissenters. The recent media focuson Japanese citizens abducted by North Koreain the 1970s has stoked public anger andoffered nationalists a golden opportunity topush for a militarized and militant Japan.

Ishihara, in a call for economic sanctionsagainst North Korea in 2004, complained:“Japan's foreign policy is immature; it is alwaysbased on humanitarianism.”

The Japanese government supported theinvasion of Iraq in 2003, dispatching SelfDefense Forces (SDF) to Iraq and maritimeSDF to refuel U.S. and allied ships in thePersian Gulf. This provoked debate on thefuture of Article 9 of the Japanese constitution— the “no war” clause. On this issue, Ishiharasaid in 2004, “I am wondering who made sucha nonsense constitution. I cannot find anyhistorical reasonability in it.”

One of only a few missions that wereaccomplished on the agenda of conservative ex-Prime Minister Abe Shinzo — who resigned inSeptember 2007 after a scandal-rocked year inoffice — was revising Japan’s Fundamental Lawof Education. Enacted one month before theJapanese Constitution on March 31, 1947,Article One of The Fundamental Law ofEducation stated:

“Education shall aim at the full development ofpersonality, striving for the rearing of thepeople, sound in mind and body, who shall lovetruth and justice, esteem individual value,respect labor and have a deep sense ofresponsibility, and be imbued with theindependent spirit, as builders of peaceful stateand society.” [2]

In its place, Abe and his allies passed a bill thatdemanded schools instill “a love of one’s

country” in children. Some critics of the newlaw saw shades of Japan’s 1890 edict decreeingthat children must recite stanzas of patrioticpraise before the portrait of the emperor. [3]

In Against Coercion, Ouchi Hirokazu, aprofessor at Matsuyama University, sees aclear link between the move toward “patrioticeducation” and militarism.

“The meaning of the patriot ism to beincorporated is clear. It is to develop peoplewho will voluntarily follow the government’sorders for war,” he explains. “The imposition ofKimigayo and the hinomaru embodies theworsened education law. Therefore, resistanceto Kimigayo is a struggle to refuse war effortsat school, as well as to defend the freedom ofthought and conscience.”

In Japan at War, World War II veteranKobayashi Hiroyasu says, “I wonder what waris. I wonder why we did it. … Young kidsworked so hard. Without complaint. It makesme seethe.” [4]

Nezu and other educators of conscience believethey have the answer.

April 1, 2008 update courtesy of NakanoKoichi:

The disciplinary actions of the TokyoMetropolitan Board of Education against thepublic school teachers who refuse to stand forKimigayo in school ceremonies was announcedon March 31. The two teachers, Nezu-san andKawarai-san, who faced the prospect ofdismissal, were each given 6-month suspension.For Nezu-san, it's the second time she has beensuspended for 6 months, andshe is also being transferred to yet anotherschool (the board of education has been makingthe point of "relocating" her almost every year,and each time to a school far and far away fromhome).

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It certainly is a "victory" of a kind, since thetwo teachers faced the possibility of beingfired. Thesupporters of Nezu-san and Kawarai-san arerejoicing. see their blog.

For more information about the AgainstCoercion DVD, contact Matsubara Akira inEnglish or Japanese at mgg01231@nifty.ne.jp.

Further information is available at an Englishlanguage support website here. The originaldirective (in Japanese) of the Board ofEducation on October 23, 2003 is here .

This article was revised and expanded from anarticle that originated in The Japan Times. It

was posted at Japan Focus on March 18, 2008.Updated April 1, 2008.

John Spiri is an Associate Professor and writerat Tokyo University of Agriculture andTechnology.

Notes:

[1] Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook.1992. Japan at War: An Oral History (NewYork: The New Press) 235-236.[2] For more on the Fundamental Law ofEducation, click here.[3] Adam Lebowitz and David McNeill,“Hammering Down the Educational Nail: AbeRevises the Fundamental law of Education,”Japan Focus.[4] Cook and Cook, Japan at War, 353.