Japan Enacts Law for 'Dignified Election Posters'

Prohibition of Defamation Against Others or Political Parties
Ban on Content Undermining Public Morals
Fines of Up to 9.75 Million Won for Commercial Use

The scenes in Japan where posters unrelated to candidates filled the walls during election periods are expected to disappear.

According to Kyodo News and Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei), the House of Councillors (upper house) of Japan passed an amendment to the Public Offices Election Act on the 26th in a plenary session, establishing regulations that require dignity in election posters.

Election poster-related footage from Japanese news network NNN. Japan NNN

Accordingly, it will be prohibited to include content in election posters that damages the honor of others or political parties or that undermines public morals.

Furthermore, if posters are used for commercial purposes such as advertising products, a fine of up to 1 million yen (approximately 9.75 million won) will be imposed. It is mandatory to include the candidate's name.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that these regulations will also apply to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election in June and the summer House of Councillors election. The Japanese political sphere pushed for legislation on "dignified posters" after socially problematic posters that caused public displeasure were posted in various places during the Tokyo gubernatorial election in July last year.

During last year's Tokyo gubernatorial election, posters claiming "Dokdo is Japanese territory" or posters printed with photos of women close to Jeolla were also posted in large numbers.

This phenomenon occurred because the political organization "NHK kara Kokumin wo Mamoru To" (The Party to Protect the People from NHK) sold poster posting spaces for money. Japanese media pointed out that appropriately restricting candidates' acts of supporting other candidates' election and the spread of false information via social networking services (SNS) during the election campaign period remains a future task.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.