Posting Videos of Japanese Flag Defacement to Be Punished... Japan to Introduce "National Flag Defacement" Crime

Proceeding Amid Political Controversy
Considering Regulation of Video Transmission and Posting

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Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has decided to introduce a new crime of "national flag defacement" that would punish acts of damaging the Japanese flag.

According to the Asahi Shimbun on the 12th, the LDP held a meeting of senior officials from its project team the previous day to discuss the creation of the new crime and agreed to establish punitive provisions.

The LDP plans to finalize consensus within the party soon, aiming to pass the bill during the current regular session of the National Diet.

The party is expected to define acts of damaging the national flag in a manner that causes significant offense in situations where an unspecified large number of people can recognize it as punishable offenses.

However, the scope of punishment will be limited to acts of damaging the national flag, excluding the national emblem (coat of arms).

Specific penalties will be determined with reference to existing criminal law provisions on defacement of foreign emblems and property damage.

Under Japan’s criminal code, the crime of "defacement of foreign emblems" prescribes imprisonment for up to two years or a fine of up to 200,000 yen (approximately 1.88 million won) for damaging a foreign national flag.

The LDP is considering setting the penalties for the new national flag defacement crime at a similar level, or at the level of the general "property damage" crime, which is punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment.

Additionally, according to Kyodo News, the party is discussing including as punishable offenses not only the act of damaging the flag but also transmitting or posting video footage of such acts on social networking services (SNS).

The LDP plans to hold another meeting within this week to discuss punitive measures for sending or posting videos of national flag defacement.

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