Japan Lower House Begins Discussions on Flag Vandalism Bill

Tokyo, June 24 (Jiji Press)–Substantive discussions started on a bill to criminalize the act of damaging the national flag, at Japan’s House of Representatives on Wednesday. The Cabinet Committee of the lower chamber of the Diet, the country’s parliament, heard an explanation about the bill’s purpose and held a question and answer session. Criminalizing national flag vandalism could violate freedom of thought and conscience guaranteed by the Constitution, said Takeshi Shina, secretary-general of the opposition Centrist Reform Alliance. Defending the bill, Akihisa Shiozaki of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said, “It’s not intended to penalize thoughts or sentiments.” The bill is among the measures the LDP and the Japan Innovation Party plan to enact during the current special Diet session under their deal to form a ruling coalition, concluded last October. It was jointly submitted by the ruling parties and the opposition forces of the Democratic Party for the People and Sanseito. Under the bill, those who publicly damage or deface a national flag in a way that causes the public to feel extremely uncomfortable or disgusted would be subject to up to two years’ imprisonment or a fine of up to 200,000 yen. The CRA’s Shina said that the bill is aimed at protecting the sentiment of citizens who value the national flag. Creating the proposed law “would amount to enforcing respect for such sentiment by using criminal punishment,” he continued. The application of punishment “would be limited only to acts that became apparent externally and were conducted in public,” Shiozaki responded, stressing that the law would not intrude on inner thoughts. Asked whether the planned law would penalize damaging acts related to political expression, such as demonstrations, Shiozaki said, “Such acts could be considered an element constituting a crime if they were carried out publicly in an extremely uncomfortable or disgusting way.” The Cabinet Committee plans to hear expert opinions Thursday. The ruling bloc hopes to hold a vote on the bill as early as this week. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]