National Character Compared Through National Anthems (Japan and France)

National Character Seen in National Anthems

This time, we will compare the national characters of Japan and France through their national anthems. A national anthem is something sung when people gather for competitions, conflicts, or ceremonies representing the nation. At that time, there is a premise that everyone belongs to the nation. Therefore, naturally, the country's view of the state is revealed.
Although it is surprisingly little known, in that sense, Japan's 'Kimigayo' is a quite unique national anthem. It contains the grandeur of a cosmic time axis within just 32 characters, the shortest lyrics in the world. Most countries' national anthems are more like military songs, and their performances are lively.

France, Where Heads Roll in the Name of Justice

For the French, I believe the core of belonging is 'anger.' This is revealed in the national anthem sung when citizens gather. The 2024 Paris Olympics were a disaster. In particular, the bad taste of the Olympic opening ceremony drew boos from all over the world. Among them, the performance of blood spurting from a queen's severed head is famous, but did you know that this is the content written in the French Republic's national anthem? To summarize,
Tyranny and foreign enemies come to defile our country—they are bloodthirsty tyrants.
Citizens, take up arms to protect freedom and the motherland. Fight, cut off the enemy's head,
stain the earth with their blood, and let us carve out a future in the name of justice and the Republic.
It is very alarming, but this is the national anthem of that 'France.'
The memory of the French Revolution that crushed the monarchy, and the story of winning freedom through it. As a symbol of this, in the national anthem 'La Marseillaise,' behind the cheerful and elegant melody, the lyrics shouting, 'It is not enough to just kill the enemy, cut off their heads and stain them with blood,' are meant in all seriousness.
This 'enemy' is one who rejects liberty, equality, and fraternity—in other words, the target of the anger that the citizens must unite against.
The spirit is also expressed in the famous line President Macron said when he declared the lockdown:
'We are at war. However, the opponent is a virus.'
Although the majority of today's French citizens are completely hostile to him, they were once calmed by this. However, due to repeated lockdowns and high-level behavioral restrictions based on vaccination status, demonstrations soon began to occur frequently. Parts of the city burned, but such extreme scenes were localized, and usually, they were like festivals. However, the demonstrations in Paris during this period burned really intensely. The citizens were hungry for a festival. The festival here is not a party (though it is a little bit like that). A festival where both the sublime and the terrifying emerge in a jumble; a festival as a community with risks.
First, they gather at the Place de la République. Next to the protesters is a hot dog stand, and men and women of all ages, starved for human contact during the long isolation, hug their friends in reunion. They sing 'La Marseillaise' with beer in hand. Banks and luxury brand stores are destroyed, so the riot police use weapons on the citizens without mercy. The citizens respond to the riot police's tear gas with Molotov cocktails, burn trash when it gets cold, and wash their eyes at a bar on the way home before toasting again. During the lockdown period, 'wreckers' brought bank documents outside and had a bonfire. Even though France is quite strict about the environment, it is a country that likes to emit CO2 every time there is a demonstration.
For that reason, in all seriousness, demonstrations are the 'festival' itself in a non-religious society. This contradiction of using violence in the name of reason is also like a myth. The unity of the French people is this 'belonging centered on righteous indignation.'

Is Kimigayo a Military Song?

Kimigayo is simple, solemn, and poetic. If you interpret the 'Kimi' part of Kimigayo as 'for the Emperor,' it takes on a military song-like connotation, but in the present day of popular sovereignty, I interpret this as representing the mutual relationship between the Emperor and the people.
I used to think it was a gloomy, dark national anthem, but by comparing it with other countries, I have come to think that it is in the very elegant category as a national anthem.
Kimigayo is
For a thousand, eight thousand generations
Until the small pebbles
Become boulders
Covered in moss
'For a thousand, eight thousand generations' means forever. 'Small pebbles' are stones that have become a single boulder over a long period of time. The mind-boggling time until moss grows on it is a cosmic scale.
In other words, this song expresses the prayer that 'the community called Japan is a place where people, who are originally scattered small universes, connect and continue forever.' Each small stone is already a god, a harmony based on the diversity of the gods. It is a vision of fusion and tranquility, not of fighting or domination. It is also the way of Japanese evolution, which has incorporated foreign cultures and sublimated them into its own form. And what supports it is not 'state power' but 'myth' rooted in the region.

I have an attachment to my hometown, but I would never sacrifice my life for the state along with this song and the Rising Sun flag. This is because I can immediately recall the scenery of my hometown, but I have never seen the scenery of what is called 'Japan.'

I understand the essence of polytheism to be that each and every person is a god, and one should live in a way that is not shameful to that. I think this is extremely equal to the Gnostic idea of training oneself and opening up the divinity within. In modern Japan, the austere idea of 'you must not cause trouble for others' is central. However, Hindus, who are also polytheistic, seem to think, 'Since you are living by causing trouble for others, you should also forgive the trouble caused by others,' and I imagine that this was closer to the Japan of the past.
It is very trivial, but for some reason, when I listen to Kimigayo, something like a sweet covered in matcha powder comes to mind, and I want a bitter drink.

The comparison of the second verse is even more interesting

The French national anthem 'La Marseillaise' has seven verses, but the lyrics at the beginning of the second verse are very interesting.
Que veut cette horde d’esclaves,
De traîtres, de rois conjurés ?
Pour qui ces ignobles entraves,
Ces fers dès longtemps préparés
If I were to paraphrase it,
What do you want, you horde of slaves,
You traitors and kings joined in conspiracy?
For whom are these ignoble shackles,These iron chains prepared long ago?

Something like that. The point here is that it describes citizens who follow those in power as slaves. And the kings of betrayal and conspiracy are like what we call the Deep State today. It sings that obeying the orders of a corrupt state is the mentality of a lowly slave and should be condemned. It is a mentality I wish Japan had a little bit of today. I want the outdated rules told by a corrupt government to be refreshed.

Although it is not sung in formal settings, Kimigayo also has a second and third verse (and apparently up to a fourth). I am not familiar with the third verse and beyond, so I would like to end by introducing the second verse that was displayed at Kumano Hayatama Taisha in Wakayama Prefecture.

Kimigayo is, at the bottom of a thousand fathoms,
Until the small pebbles,
Appear as a rocky shore where cormorants dwell

It means something like, 'May this world continue until the small pebbles at the bottom of the sea appear as a rocky shore in the shallows.' Next to these lyrics, a large and magnificent small pebble was displayed along with an instruction manual.
'This small pebble, strangely, was discovered on February 2, 2020, when it was suddenly washed up on the Oji-ga-hama coast in Shingu City from the bottom of the Kumano Sea, just as in the second verse of the lyrics. It takes tens of millions of years to reach this size.'
It says so. The point is that it was discovered on February 2, 2020 (2222 = angel number), just like the second verse. And this day is also 2/2/2020 in the Western calendar. If it's true, how occult is that!? Even if it's a lie, how occult is that!? When compared to the French national anthem, you can see that we are living on a completely different dimension.
I personally love this explanation at Kumano Hayatama Taisha.

When comparing the second verses, France sings of the spirit of 'condemning the slave mentality of fawning over power and uniting using anger as fuel,' while Japan sings of the tranquility of 'entrusting prayers for permanence even to stones, moss, and the seabed.' The second verse of a national anthem, like the subconscious of a nation, reflects what that community believes in, what it hates, and what it entrusts its future to.
However, if the meaning contained in Kimigayo is a wish that 'the blood of the Fujiwara family will continue forever,' then personally, that is a letdown. But it does feel a little like that, too.