Two Important Laws Are Enacted

The Diet enacted two important laws on July 17th, the last day of current session. One of them was the law to punish vandalism of national flag. Another one was revision of Imperial House Law which enables adoption of male in the male line of former Imperial Families. Both reflects strong preference of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi who are backed by conservative groups. To make further attempt to pass remaining bill, the leading parties pushed extension of the term of the session for 8 days. 

National Flag Vandalism Punishing Act is to impose up to two years detention or up to 200 thousand yen of fine on a person who publicly damaged national flag of Japan causing extremely uneasy or disgusting feelings. The bill was approved in Plenary Sittings of the Upper House with support of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Japan Innovation Party (JIP), the Democratic Party for the People (DPP) and Sanseito. Those parties are recognized as upholding conservative political agenda.

 

After the discussion in both chambers of the Diet, it is still unclear what kind of activity the law will punish. For instance, publishing live streaming of damaging national flag will be punished, while publishing recorded video of damaging national flag will not. It is highly unusual to legislate a law which does not determine exactly what activity will be penalized.

 

Some specialists on criminal law argued in Diet discussion that the law would violate the Constitution of Japan which guarantees freedom of expression. In another discussion, it was revealed that there had been only four examples between 1987 and 2008 in which national flag of Japan was publicly damaged. The destroyers were punished as the crime of damaging property, which indicated that this kind of action could be punished without National Flag Vandalism Act.

 

Another important law that passed the Diet was revised Imperial House Law. It enables female members of Imperial Family to remain in the family after marriage and adopting male in the male line of former Imperial Families. The law gives the son of adopted male a status to succeed to the throne of the Emperor. Although “unanimous opinion” of the Diet did not refer to succession to the throne, the Takaichi Cabinet added it to the bill.

 

Although the bill received approval from five parties (LDP, JIP, DPP, Komeito and Sanseito), three opposition parties (Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Japan Communist Party and Reiwa Shinsengumi) voted no to the bill. The bill passed with 184 votes of yeses and 57 of noes. It is hardly said that the new system of succeeding to the throne reflects unanimous will of the Diet.

 

The passage of two bills represents recent rampage of conservative power in the Diet. It was JIP which included legislation of punishing national flag vandalism in the agreement for leading coalition with the LDP last October. One of the JIP lawmaker insisted that the law is needed for generating patriotic sentiment among the people.

 

The revised Imperial House Law enables LDP Vice-President Taro Aso an ancestor of future emperor of Japan, because his younger sister, who married with Prince Mikasa, can be adopting a child. Polls indicate that majority of Japanese people do not think that the adoption issue does not need to be concluded so soon.

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