It was the only one among major education boards across Japan to have clearly planned such a survey, which may be taken to be pressuring schools to raise the flag despite criticism that forcing display would resemble militaristic practice before and during World War II.
The government, which decided last week to organize a ceremony and raise the Hinomaru, or the Rising Sun flag, at its offices Thursday to commemorate the anniversary, has asked public offices, schools, companies and other bodies to follow suit during the day.
Although the education ministry requires schools under its curriculum guidelines to hoist the flag and sing the national anthem at enrollment and graduation ceremonies, the latest government request is not compulsory as it is unrelated to education.
But the Nara board said it has already conducted a preliminary survey on the 70 elementary and junior high schools under its jurisdiction before the planned fact-finding survey, in a move labeled by one critic as an overreaction.
Tetsuya Takahashi, a professor at the University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy, said the board overreacted to the ministry's tacit pressure to hoist the flag and that its survey cannot be justified on the basis of school curriculum guidelines.
The Japan Teachers' Union said the survey should not result in forcing schools to raise the flag.
The board said it knows its survey has no official grounds but will nevertheless conduct it following a request from a local assembly member. It believes the fact-finding survey would not act as pressure because it has not made the plan public.
In order to ensure that the flag is hoisted and the anthem sung in enrollment and graduation ceremonies at every school, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology had until 2003 conducted a similar survey through education boards at the national level.
Among the education boards of prefectures and major cities covered in the Kyodo News poll, the board of Kochi Prefecture said it has told school principals via e-mail it could conduct a similar survey and will examine if there is information about schools not raising the flag.
It said it needs data to respond to an anticipated question in the local assembly and wants to know the reasons if some schools have not raised the flag.
The boards of Miyagi and Ibaraki prefectures said they won't conduct a survey, with Miyagi saying the government request differs from the requirement for enrollment and graduation ceremonies and Ibaraki saying the flag is believed to be raised on a daily basis.
Schools are divided between those willing to abide by the government request and those not doing so.
The Nara board's preliminary survey has found that only nine schools planned to hoist the Hinomaru, while 38 schools had no plans and 23 were undecided.
Of schools with no plans, one junior high school principal said it cannot raise the controversial flag as a mere gesture of celebration, and another junior high's vice principal cited the lack of time for teachers to discuss the matter amid efforts to counter the new-type flu epidemic.
A public junior high in the city of Tsu hoisted the Hinomaru around 8 a.m. Thursday, and a city-run elementary school in Niigata said it planned to given an explanation to pupils when doing so.
