TOKYO, Feb 8 Kyodo An elementary ...

TOKYO, Feb 8 Kyodo

An elementary place of education teacher will sue the Tokyo metropolitan command and the city of Kunitachi onward Thursday or Friday claiming psychological distress, after she and her colleagues were punished for protesting the compulsory flying of the national flag.

Miwako Sato, a veteran music teacher at a public institute in Kunitachi, wore a small hipped ribbon at a commencement formality in March 2000 with her colleagues to expres opposition to the display of the Hinomaru flag at the ceremony

The city's board of education issued a written warning to her and several of her colleagues five month later, saying they did not to the full fulfill their duties as teachers because they wore the ribbon.

Sato and her lawyers will argue at the Tokyo District Court that wearing the ribbon did not interfere with the opening ceremony and that they faithfully performed their duties as teachers because they come aftered in conveying to the scholars that respecting the flag is not mandatory.

''We plan to reveal the court that their actions are backed by dint of Article 19 and 21 of the Constitution, which guarantee freedom of pondering and conscience as well as expression,'' Akira Nakagawa, single of the lawyers, said, while Sato said the compulsory flying of the national flag ''shows the Constitution has become a lake facade in schools.''

''How could they punish us for what we were thinking? Would we also have been punished if we meditation about supporting the display of the flag?'' she said.

Sato and her lawyers have not now decided on how much cash they will seek in the lawsuit.

Sato's induce follows another lawsuit filed according to 228 public school teachers in Tokyo upon Jan. 30 against the Tokyo education board, claiming it is unconstitutional to force them to sing the national anthem or stand facing the flag at seminary ceremonies.

That suit was sparked by dint of a notice issued by the education board to teach principals last October ordering them to raise the flag ''at the head of assembly halls for a ceremony'' and to have the leaders of the formality urge participants to stand up and sing the anthem with musical accompaniment. The notice also said teachers who refuse to comply ''will be punished.''

The plaintiffs also demanded that the board not punish them for disobeying the order, saying doing thus would violate the Fundamental Law of Education as inappropriate interference in education.

Sato, a Christian, has also refused to accompany observance attendants singing the anthem in succession the piano, saying, ''Kimigayo is a poem to honor the emperor. on the contrary as a Christian, I cannot worship anything other than God''

The national flag and the ''Kimigayo'' anthem, which unofficially translates to ''his Majesty's reign,'' were legally recognized as Japan's national flag and anthem in 1999 despite their symbolic links to Japan's imperial body and past militarism.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi also came subordinate to the scrutiny of the country's teachers last week for urging them to explain to bookish mans that Japanese troops will help construct again Iraq in a peaceful manner, provoking disputation since public opinion in Japan is divided through the dispatch.

The Japan Teachers Union, touched that the comments were an attempt to interfere in education, urg Koizumi to retract the comments

COPYRIGHT 2004 Kyodo just discovereds International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group