At least today.

In the climax to a two-year legal and constitutional battle over Japan’s national anthem, Kimigayo, and national flag, the Hinomaru, the Tokyo District Court decided yesterday that the Tokyo board of education (and our good friend Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro) acted unconstitutionally and illegally when it issued a notice in October 2003 requiring teachers to stand, face the flag, and sing Kimigayo at school ceremonies and punishing those who refused.

Several teachers in Tokyo had been punished for offenses ranging from refusing to play the piano to accompany the national anthem to explaining their disagreement with the government’s 1999 official establishment of what had been, since the end of WWII, de facto national symbols. Both the Hinomaru and Kimigayo were used by Japan’s pre-War and wartime militaristic government.

Oddly, the board of education plans to challenge the decision on the grounds that the teachers’ rights were not at issue, thus meaning the Court lacked standing to hear the case.

君が代　(Kimigayo)

君が代は　(Kimi ga yo ha)

千代に (Chiyo ni)

八千代に　 (Yachi yo ni)

細石の　 (Sazare ishi no)

巌となりて　(Iwao to narite)

苔の生すまで (Koke no musu made.)

Which means (my unpoetic translation):

May your reign last for a thousand ages, for eight-thousand generations, until pebbles become boulders covered in moss.

And comes from a Heian era (late 8th to late 12th century) waka poem set to Meiji era (1868 - 1912) music based on Imperial court chant.

Repeat it, and there you have it.

kimigayo.mp3

Orchestral version, because it actually does have a nice melody, if you ask me.

Make of it what you will.