Japan passes law criminalising public damage to national flag

Japan enacted a law on Friday making it a crime to publicly damage, remove or deface the national flag in a way that causes significant discomfort or revulsion to others. The offence can be punished by up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 200,000 yen, or $1,200.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has pushed the measure as part of a conservative agenda. The government said the law was needed because Japan already had criminal rules against damaging foreign flags but no equivalent law covering its own flag.

Critics raised freedom-of-expression concerns. In a statement submitted to lawmakers last week, 148 legal experts said they had strong concerns that the measure could restrict political expression and serious concerns from a criminal law perspective.

Opponents also said the rules on foreign flags were mainly intended to stop damage to foreign national symbols from becoming diplomatic problems, and that similar concerns applied to Japan's flag. The source also noted that a US Supreme Court decision has treated burning the US national flag as protected expression under the First Amendment, invalidating state laws against desecrating it.

At a July 9 news conference, Takaaki Matsumiya, a law professor at Ritsumeikan University, said Japan has a history of wars of aggression and that some Japanese people have a negative image of the national flag. Opposition lawmaker Ayaka Shiomura said on Friday that destroying national flags has historically been one of the strongest forms of political expression used to resist state power and condemn discrimination.

The bill passed the upper house and became law with support from the ruling bloc and some opposition parties.