By age united to mighty rocks shall grow Whose venerable sides the moss doth line. This issue was even more controversial this year because a Hiroshima high school principal committed suicide the day before his school's graduation ceremony. The government had planned to submit a bill to that end to the Diet, but ended up dropping the idea. The Daily Yomiuri takes a look at the history of the debate.
Every country has a national flag and anthem, a fact most people take for granted.
The Hinomaru is said to symbolize the sun. The use of the flag in its current form dates back more than 300 years, although a similar design had been in use for hundreds of years before then. In the mid-19th century, the shogunate decreed that all Japanese ships fly the flag as trade and other contact with foreign countries became more frequent. In 1870, John Fenton, a British military bandmaster, wrote music to accompany the song. In 1880, the music was rewritten by Hiromori Hayashi and other court officials.