Lower house passes flag-anthem bill

Japan Policy & Politics, July 26, 1999

TOKYO, July 22 Kyodo

The House of Representatives approved at a plenary session Thursday a bill to legally recognize the Hinomaru as Japan's national flag and "Kimigayo" as the national anthem. The bill, immediately sent to the House of Councillors, is expected to be enacted before the current Diet session ends Aug. 13. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), its coalition partner the Liberal Party (LP) and the New Komeito party supported the bill, while the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party voted against it. The result of the vote was 403 in favor and 86 against the government-proposed bill. The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) submitted to the lower house plenary session an alternative bill that would only recognize the Hinomaru, but the bill was voted down.

About half of the DPJ lawmakers voted for the government-proposed bill after the party's own bill was voted down. "It is significant that (recognition of) the flag and anthem was approved" by an overwhelming majority, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said at a news conference. "We hope the flag and anthem will be accepted by the people naturally...so that we will not enter a new century without resolving conflicts over them," the top government spokesman said. The Hinomaru (the rising sun) and "Kimigayo," unofficially translated as "his majesty's reign," have long been used as Japan's national flag and anthem. But the question of whether to legally recognize them as national symbols has been sensitive because of their links to Japan's imperial system and past militarism. The bill consists of only two articles, proposing the flag in one and the anthem in the other. It has no clauses to call for public respect for the flag and the anthem or to stipulate punishment for not respecting them, although some conservative politicians have called for such clauses. Appendices to the bill state that the diameter of the sun on the flag shall be three-fifths of the flag's length and the center of the sun correspond to the center of the flag. The sun will be red on a white background, the bill states. The lyrics and score of "Kimigayo" are also provided in the appendices. A well-known translation of the lyrics, which are in ancient Japanese, is: Thousands of years of happy reign be thine/ Rule on, my lord, till what are pebbles now/ By ages united to mighty rocks shall grow/ Whose venerable sides the moss doth line. There is no official translation for the title or the lyrics of the anthem, nor for the flag. During lower house deliberations on the bill, debate was focused on interpretation of the words for "Kimigayo" and the question of whether the use of the flag and anthem will be forced in schools. The same points are expected to be the focus of deliberations in the upper house. During the lower house deliberations, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi provided a new government interpretation of the words for "Kimigayo." Obuchi said the "Kimi" in "Kimigayo" refers to the emperor, who is "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people, deriving his position from the will of the people with whom resides sovereign power," as stated in the Constitution. Under the previous Constitution, which was in place until the end of World War II, "Kimi" referred to the emperor as a figure governing Japan. The government began studying legislation on the flag and the anthem in early March, following the suicide Feb. 28 of the principal of a senior high school in Hiroshima Prefecture, western Japan. The principal had been ordered by the prefectural board of education to hoist the flag and have the anthem sung at the school's graduation ceremony Feb. 29, while teachers at the school had opposed the idea, especially the singing of "Kimigayo." Obuchi told the Diet just before the suicide that he had no plan to legally recognize the flag and the anthem, but some days after the headmaster killed himself, the premier instructed the government to study legislation on recognizing the flag and anthem.