Q: Who causes the problem?
A: Usually school teachers.
Q: Why around this time?
A: Because graduation ceremonies are taken place during March, which is the end of the Japanese schools' fiscal year, and the National Anthem is sung at the ceremony.
Q: So, what's the problem?
A: Some teachers refuse to stand up and sing the National Anthem at the ceremony although they are now required to do so by some regulation or law.
Reasons why those teachers refuse to sing the National Anthem may vary depending on each teacher, however, basic idea seems that those teachers believe that the Japanese National Anthem is a song to worship the Emperor.
Well, I don't know any further details for this issue. I'm not either a extreme right or left person but maybe somewhere between. Accordingly, I'm not in a position to explore the above issue, although I feel an ideology of each person should not be denied, to the extent that the ideology does not cause others troubles.
What I would like to point out here is that we Japanese need a national anthem which we can sing without being bothered by any complex issues. I also hope such a national anthem have easy words and inspire citizens.
To be honest, I think the current Japanese National Anthem has too difficult words and does not inspire the people very much. I don't know whether or not a national anthem should usually be expected to inspire the people of the nation, but my honest feeling is I would like to have such a national anthem, which the people can sing certain pride or happiness to be a citizen of the nation.
Knowing that there were discussions to make another national anthem in Japan before, I think it is worth resuming this kind of discussions.
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