Nara to check schools' flag use on royalty day

The board of education in the city of Nara is planning a potentially contentious survey on whether schools displayed the Hinomaru national flag Thursday, the 20th anniversary of Emperor Akihito's enthronement.

It was the only major board of education that clearly said in a recent questionnaire it is planning such a survey, which could be interpreted as pressuring schools to show the flag despite criticism that forcing its display would resemble the militaristic practices of the war.

The government, which decided last week to organize a ceremony and raise the Hinomaru at its offices Thursday to commemorate the anniversary, has asked public offices, schools, companies and other bodies to follow suit.

Although the education ministry requires schools under its curriculum guidelines to display the flag and sing the national anthem at enrollment and graduation ceremonies, the latest government request is not compulsory because it is not related to education.

But the Nara board said it has already conducted a preliminary survey on the 70 elementary and junior high schools under its jurisdiction before the planned fact-finding survey, in a move labeled by one critic as an overreaction.

Tetsuya Takahashi, a professor at the University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy, said the Nara board overreacted to the ministry's tacit pressure to display the flag and that its survey cannot be justified on the basis of school curriculum guidelines.

The Japan Teachers Union said the survey should not result in forcing schools to raise the flag.

The board said it knows its survey has no official grounds but will nevertheless conduct it following a request by a local assembly member. It believes the fact-finding survey will not act as pressure.

To ensure that the flag is displayed and the anthem sung during enrollment and graduation ceremonies at every school, the education ministry until 2003 conducted a similar survey through boards of education at the national level.

Among prefectural boards of education, the one in Kochi said it has told school principals via e-mail it might conduct a similar survey and will check for information about schools not raising the flag.

It said it needs the data to respond to an anticipated question in the local assembly and wants to know why some schools do not show the flag.