Scholars Oppose Japan’s National Flag Desecration Bill

Tokyo, July 9 (Jiji Press)–A total of 148 people, including criminal law scholars, in Japan issued a statement Thursday opposing a bill that would criminalize the act of damaging the Japanese national flag. In the statement, they said the proposed law would “restrict freedom of expression.” The Cabinet Committee of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, the country’s parliament, on Thursday began substantive deliberations on the bill, submitted by the ruling camp led by the Liberal Democratic Party, the opposition Democratic Party for the People and Sanseito, another opposition party. “The statement has attracted support from so many people,” Takaaki Matsumiya, a specially appointed professor at Ritsumeikan University’s School of Law who led the initiative, told a news conference in Tokyo. “We want to convey to lawmakers what legal experts find troubling about the bill.” The bill stipulates that anyone who publicly damages the national flag in a manner deemed likely to seriously offend or disgust others could face up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 200,000 yen. The statement said the bill’s definition of the national flag as “a tangible object commonly recognized as the national flag” is vague and ambiguous and is highly likely to restrict political expression and have a chilling effect on freedom of expression. It also said that, because people hold differing views on the national flag, criminal penalties should not be imposed simply because some people are offended. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]