English Parody of “Kimigayo”

A Kyodo News report is claiming that some Japanese teachers have been singing a English-language parody of “Kimigayo“(Imperial Reign), Japan’s national anthem, at school ceremonies. Some well-educated teachers realized that being required to sing the emperor-praising anthem at school ceremonies is an unpleasant reminder of Japan’s militaristic past, so they created a new version. The new version, “Kiss Me”, uses English words with similar sounds to the Japanese original version, and is about comfort women.

One website operated by a group opposed to the compulsory singing of Kimigayo and the hoisting of the Hinomaru flag at school graduation and entrance ceremonies says the parody is a “small pillar” to support the mental protest of people who are forced to sing the anthem.

Education boards in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan have punished teachers who did not sing the anthem at school ceremonies.

The daily says the lampooning lyric is about a Japanese girl who remembers deceased women who were forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers before and during World War II.

The following is a version of the English parody cited by the Sankei:

Kiss me, girl, your old one. Till you’re near, it is years till you’re near. Sounds of the dead will she know? She wants all told, now retained, for, cold caves know the moon’s seeking the mad and dead.

The protest lyrics are kind of hard to understand, even in context. Out of context they would probably be indecipherable. But they might be considered better than the original emperor-loving lyrics:

Kimi ga yo wa
Chiyo ni
Yachiyo ni
Sazare ishi no
Iwao to narite
Koke no musu made

May your reign
Continue for a thousand years,
For eternity,
Until pebbles
Grow into boulders
Covered in moss.

Frighteningly militaristic, or harmless?