Farce of “Recurrence Prevention Training” Continued as Ex-Governor Admits Not Singing National Anthem

Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education implemented another Recurrence Prevention Training on April 4. TANAKA Satoshi and two other teachers of municipal schools who refused to stand up while the national anthem Kimigayo (meaning 'the monarch's reign') was performed in graduation ceremonies held in March were required to attend the 3-hour “training” where they were told to give up their belief and obey the prefecture ordinance of 2003. The program was imposed in addition to salary cuts. Some 60 people staged a protest while the program was being held at the board's school staff training center in central Tokyo.  One of the protesters was holding a sign in which ISHIHARA Shintaro, the governor of Tokyo in 2003, says “I won't sing the national anthem!” (Photo)  Ishihara disclosed in an interview in a recently published literary magazine that he doesn't sing the national anthem. Since 2003, the education board of Tokyo has forced teachers to stand up and sing Kimigayo in school ceremonies and imposed punishments on more than 400 teachers, while Ishihara has disobeyed the ordinance endorsed by himself. How long will the board shamelessly continue with such a farce of unconstitutional imposition of Kimigayo?  (By M）

Photos (in the full report written in Japanese)  

石原元都知事「僕、国歌 歌わないもん」～「再発防止研修」の茶番つづく

「僕、 国歌 歌わないもん」。石原元都知事のプラカードがひときわ目を引く（写真）。4月4日、今年も卒業式で「君が代」不起立した教員に対して、「再発防止研修」な る転向強要が行われた。会場の東京・水道橋「教職員研修センター」前には、約60人の人が集まり抗議の声を上げた。石原元都知事は「君が代」強制の張本 人。その人間が『文學界』3月号に堂々と「国歌なんか歌わない」と公言したのだ。都教委は10年以上、国歌を起立斉唱することを強制し、400人以上の教 員を処分してきた。それに基づき、この日も減給処分を受けた田中聡史さんなど3人の教員が、3時間以上にわたって強制研修をさせられた。憲法を踏みにじり 開き直る「茶番劇」は、いったいいつまで続くのだろうか。（M） 

 写真速報