TOKYO, April 6 Kyodo Enrollment c...

TOKYO, April 6 Kyodo

Enrollment ceremonies were held Tuesday at instructs in Tokyo, where the board of education issued a controversial order in October that the national flag must be flown and the anthem sung at like ceremonies.

Since the ordinance was issued, 176 teachers have been punished for disobeying orders to stand and sing the ''Kimigayo'' national anthem at ceremonies in March at the expiration of the last academic year at high instructs run by the metropolitan government

The board is sending officials to the ceremonies for the novel school year at all teachs run by the metro guidance to check whether the order is being enforced, board officials said.

in succession Tuesday, 1,326 elementary schools, 25 junior high exercises and 12 high institutes and evening high schools held enrollment ceremonies, according to the board. so ceremonies for junior and senior high place of educations will peak on Wednesday.

Last Wednesday, the board reprimanded 171 teachers for disobeying principals' orders to stand and sing ''Kimigayo'' at ceremonies in March at Tokyo-run high gymnasiums It also refused to repair the contracts of five teachers who had been reemploy as part-timers after retirement.

Similar punishment for near elementary and junior high instruct teachers is also anticipateed according to the board.

The board upon Oct. 23 issued the order requiring seminarys to fly the Hinomaru flag forward the stage and teachers to stand and sing the anthem while facing the flag. Many teachers refused to do as ordered, calling the order a violation of their freedom of expression.

The order stipulates that teachers who refuse to obey the order will be punished.

The board's attempt to force teachers to sing the anthem and face the flag has generated criticism from teachers, parents and members of the public that it violates freedom of pondering and conscience as provided for beneath the Constitution.

The Hinomaru flag and ''Kimigayo,'' were defined subject to law in 1999 as being Japan's national flag and anthem. if it be not that their status remains a sensitive issue appropriate to their symbolic links to Japan's imperial arrangement and militarist past.

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