LDP Approves Bill Criminalizing National Flag Vandalism

Tokyo, June 1 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Monday approved a bill that criminalizes vandalism of the Japanese national flag. The party plans to submit the bill during the ongoing Diet session after coordinating with its junior coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party. Criminalizing flag vandalism is a key policy goal of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, and was included in the coalition agreement between the LDP and the JIP. The ruling bloc plans to seek support for the bill from opposition parties, because it lacks a majority in the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet. However, there are persistent concerns that the bill could violate freedom of expression. Opposition to the bill remains even within the LDP. Former Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya walked out of the day’s party meeting, and later told reporters, “The national flag is an object of natural respect, but it could become a symbol of state authority as people would be punished for not respecting it.” In a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday, Democratic Party for the People leader Yuichiro Tamaki slammed the bill as extremely rough and unconstitutional. He wrote that it “curbs the freedom of expression very broadly.” Japanese Communist Party executive Akira Koike said at a press conference that his party opposes criminalizing flag vandalism and will seek to kill the bill. Meanwhile, Naoki Hyakuta, head of the Conservative Party of Japan, told a separate press conference that establishing a law to criminalize vandalism of the national flag is “only natural” and that he sees no reason to oppose it. The bill calls for a prison sentence of up to two years or a fine of up to 200,000 yen for individuals who “publicly damage, remove, or deface the national flag” in a way that causes “extreme discomfort or disgust to others.” It would also criminalize the mass distribution and public display of such acts, including posting one’s own acts of flag vandalism on social media. The crime would apply only to a tangible object that is recognized as being used as a national flag under common sense. Flag-shaped decorations on children’s meals, flags depicted in animations, comics and games, and flags in creative works generated by artificial intelligence would not be covered. Whether an act of flag vandalism is done in a way that causes extreme discomfort or disgust to others would be assessed holistically based on the act’s external form and the surrounding circumstances. The bill emphasizes the need to avoid unnecessarily violating freedom of expression. When asked by reporters after the meeting about which acts would be punished, Eikei Suzuki, secretary-general of the LDP task force on the issue, said only that they would ultimately be decided by courts. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]