🇯🇵🔥 — Japan enacts nationalist-backed law banning violation of national flag
➡️ Japan's parliament on Friday enacted a divisive law introducing criminal penalties for desecrating the national flag, a proposal pushed by nationalists, achieving a key legislative goal of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in the current Diet session.
📝 The ruling parties argued the law was needed because Japan already criminalized desecration of foreign flags but had no equivalent provision covering its own.
🤓 Some liberal and leftist opposition parties and legal experts criticized the measure, saying it may infringe on freedom of expression and could be unconstitutional.
🇯🇵 The bill, jointly submitted by the ruling coalition of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party and the libertarian-minded Japan Innovation Party, along with the opposition center-right Democratic Party for the People and the nationalist Sanseito, cleared the House of Councillors.
➡️ Under the law, individuals who damage, remove or defile the national flag in a way that arouses "strong feelings of discomfort or disgust" in others could face up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 200,000 yen ($1,200).
➡️ The penalties mirror existing provisions in the Penal Code on the desecration of foreign flags and follow an October agreement between the LDP and Japan Innovation Party identifying the legal discrepancy as one to be resolved.
🔗 Source: Nikkei Review