TOKYO -- Japan gave official status Monday to the rising sun flag and an ode to the emperor, ending years of debate over whether symbols linked to Japan's wartime aggression should be recognized under law.
The upper house of parliament approved the bill in a 166-71 vote. The law goes into effect Friday.The flag -- a red disc on a white field -- and the "Kimigayo" anthem have long been de facto national symbols: Both are widely used at sporting events, school ceremonies and on other official occasions.
But many in Japan contend that they are reminders of a dark period in the country's history -- the years early in this century when Japan's war machine sought to build an empire in Asia.
The rising sun was Japan's national flag from 1870 until the end of World War II but was banned by U.S. occupation authorities. The Kimigayo has never been legally designated as the national anthem.
While the new law gives official recognition to the flag and anthem, it stipulates no punishment for failing to show respect for the symbols.
Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's government decided earlier this year to seek legal recognition for the flag and anthem after the suicide of a high school principal set off a national debate over the symbols.
The principal killed himself after failing to resolve a dispute between teachers on whether to fly the flag and sing the anthem at the school's graduation ceremony.
The anthem is more controversial than the flag because the "kimi" expresses reverence for the emperor, in whose name Japan became a war machine. Now, the government says, the song is a prayer for peace and prosperity that refers to a different kind of emperor -- one defined by the postwar Constitution written during the U.S. military occupation that followed World War II.