The Japanese government yesterday downplayed rare political comment by Emperor Akihito, who said he did not support a nationalist policy of forcing students to face the flag and sing the national anthem.
The emperor is barred from political meddling and is officially a symbol of the nation under the Constitution, imposed after Japan's defeat in World War II when Akihito's father Hirohito was revered as a demi-god.
Japan shied away from most overt displays of nationalism after the war, but a year ago the city of Tokyo began requiring the display of the rising-sun flag and the singing of the national anthem at public school enrollment and graduation ceremonies.
The emperor made his unusually blunt remark on Thursday when he was speaking with Kunio Yonenaga, a member of the Tokyo metropolitan board of education, who was invited to an imperial garden party.
Television footage showed Yonenaga, rigidly standing in his formal kimono, saying he had helped push through the flag and anthem requirements, in an apparent bid to please the emperor.
But the reply from Akihito was a slap in the face.
"It is desirable that [such activity] is not compulsory," the emperor said. Yonenaga immediately agreed and thanked the emperor for his "wonderful words."
The Imperial Household Agency explained that the emperor's remark was "in line with the government view and within good sense," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said.
"We think there is no special problem as the emperor made the remark under full understanding of his status as the symbol," Hosoda told reporters.
More than 230 teachers in Tokyo have been punished for refusing to stand and sing the anthem, according to the Tokyo government.
When asked whether the emperor's comment was meant to be a criticism of such punishment, Hosoda said it was "inappropriate to speculate."
The national flag, known as the Hinomaru -- a red sun on a white background -- and the national anthem, which prays for the emperor's everlasting reign, are viewed as symbols of Japan's militaristic past by Asian neighbors who were invaded and occupied.
China and South Korea have also expressed outrage at Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's regular visits to the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, which honors Japan's war dead, including convicted war criminals.
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