The Japanese National Anthem

During seeing FIFA World Cup 2010, I suspected that people of the world thought the Japanese national anthem  seemed to be off-putting.  It has solemn sound.

The Japanese national anthem has the unique scales that come from Japanese original scales.  Western scales is Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti.  It has 7 scales.  The Japanese national anthem don't have Fa, Ti.  It has 5 scales.  I guess that Western people don't get used to Japanese 5 scales.

The lyrics of Japanese national anthem is Tanka (短歌).  Tanka is Japanese traditional poem style that makes 5-7-5-7-7 syllables.  Japanese lyrics is;

君が代は 千代に八千代に さざれ石の 巌になりて 苔のむすまで.

Translated into English lyrics by Wikipedia is;

May your reign
Continue for a thousand, eight thousand generations,
Until the pebbles
Grow into boulders
Lush with moss.

Tanka might be too short poem for national anthem.

Kimigayo (君が代), the Japanese national anthem, was sung in the period of militarism of World War ll.  The country that Japanese military advanced violently don't have good feeling about Kimigayo.  So, some people in Japan worry that singing Japanese national anthem at the public space offends neighbor countries.  It's the long dispute in Japan.  Can Kimigayo be a national anthem even when people cannot sing loudly in some public place?  Some people insist that Japanese national anthem should be changed.

Especially, this dispute has erupted in teachers and schools.  Teachers and schools cannot settle the robust way of teaching the history of the past militarism in Japan. Some teachers considered that Kimigayo wasn't suitable for teaching at the school because it’s the inheritance from militarism.  In fact, I didn't learn Kimigayo at the school, though it's a national anthem.

Recently, people start to forget the World War ll.  National anthem dispute tend to decline.  Furthermore, Japanese national anthem is sung at every national match.  Many people have become to sing Kimigayo without hesitation now.