TOKYO - "What is wrong with a Self-Defense Forces member singing the national anthem?" That was one reaction I saw on social media to criticism of an SDF member singing the anthem in uniform at the Liberal Democratic Party convention on April 12.
Singing the anthem itself is not inherently wrong. Indeed, when the government welcomes foreign heads of state and other dignitaries, SDF personnel performing the anthem as part of official ceremonies should be regarded as a solemn and appropriate act.
But this time the situation was different. When an SDF member sings the national anthem at a political party's convention as a private citizen, it raises doubts about that member's "political neutrality."
Needless to say, SDF personnel, as public servants, are "servants of the whole" and not "servants of a part." The LDP may be the largest ruling party in national politics, but it is still only one of a number of political organizations. When an SDF member sings the national anthem at a political convention, it creates the appearance that the member is serving a particular party.
Of course, SDF personnel are citizens before they are public servants and therefore hold constitutional rights as private individuals. As long as they have the right to vote, they are free to hold political beliefs, and supporting a particular party or even becoming a member of it is not prohibited.
Still, as long as they bear the responsibilities of SDF personnel, the exercise of those rights is subject to limits different from those imposed on ordinary citizens. One example is that the Self-Defense Forces Law and its enforcement order prohibit SDF personnel from using their public or private influence for the benefit of a specific political party.
The reason political activities by SDF personnel are restricted in this way is that public trust in their duties rests on the political neutrality of those duties.
If SDF personnel were to act politically, the public would lose the means to control the SDF. We know from Japan's history since the Mukden Incident how perilous collusion between an armed organization and politics can be. To avoid repeating that mistake, it is crucial for the SDF, as an armed organization that obeys only the Constitution and laws, to maintain a clear distance from politics.
Some may say it is an overreaction to make an issue of singing the anthem while off duty. Certainly, if an active-duty SDF member had sung the anthem purely as an individual, there would have been no problem.
But that was not the case. The member sang the anthem at a gathering of a political organization while wearing a uniform and appearing as an SDF member. Whatever the individual's intent, objectively speaking, it would not be unreasonable to view the act as using the SDF's symbolic authority to suggest support for a particular party.
What is being tested here is a commitment to strictly maintaining the boundary between public and private. Public anger over issues surrounding the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, formerly the Unification Church, stemmed from the normalization of a pattern in which politics used religion and religion encroached on politics -- an entrenched confusion of public and private.
If so, situations in which political parties borrow the SDF's authority and SDF personnel make use of politics must also be subject to harsh criticism.
Criticizing an SDF member for singing the national anthem at a party convention may look unpatriotic. But the truth is the opposite. Precisely to ensure that performances of the anthem by SDF personnel continue to retain their public dignity, the anthem must not be used privately in a partisan context.
(Shohei Eto was born in Hyogo Prefecture in 1981. He completed graduate studies at the University of Tokyo. After serving as an associate professor at Sophia University and elsewhere, he assumed his current post as a professor at Hitotsubashi University in 2024. His specialty is constitutional law. His books include "Modern Constitutionalism and Others.")
