(Tokyo) – The Japanese Diet on July 17, 2026, adopted a flag desecration law that criminalizes damaging Japan’s national flag, a violation of the right to freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said today. Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its coalition partner Japan Innovation Party, and three opposition parties supported the bill during a session of the Diet’s upper house, following passage by the lower house on June 30.
The law prohibits “publicly damaging, removing, or defacing” Japan’s national flag in a “way or situation that evokes significant discomfort or disgust in people.” People charged with this offense face penalties of up to two years in prison or a maximum fine of 200,000 yen (about US$1,250), identical to article 92 of Japan’s Penal Code, which criminalizes the desecration of foreign flags.
“Japan’s flag desecration law poses a direct threat to the right to freedom of expression,” said Teppei Kasai, senior Asia program officer at Human Rights Watch. “By chipping away at this fundamental right, the law sends a message that puts everyone’s basic liberties at risk.”
The flag desecration law undermines the right to freedom of speech and expression in violation of international human rights law. Japan is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which in article 19 protects the right to freedom of expression, including symbolic acts. Legal restrictions to protect public order or national security are permitted only if they are necessary and proportionate.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee has been clear that causing offense to patriotic sentiment or speech regarded as “deeply offensive” does not justify criminal punishment. The committee specifically “expresse[d] concern regarding laws on such matters as … flags and symbols.”
Before the bill was passed, a number of legal scholars said that the law was inconsistent with the Japanese Constitution. During a Diet session on June 25, the constitutional scholar Yoko Shida said:“It is extremely likely the bill in its current form will be ruled unconstitutional if it were to be brought to court.” Shida said the act is “extremely broad… [A]s a result, it will inevitably restrict various constitutional rights.”
Hisashi Sonoda, a criminal law expert, wrote that punishing an action that causes “discomfort” to others is a “serious violation” of article 21 of the Japanese Constitution, which protects freedom of expression. Nearly 150 criminal law researchers and several bar associations have also expressed opposition to the bill.
Other governments have used flag desecration laws to stifle dissent, Human Rights Watch said. In Hong Kong, the government has in recent years revived two colonial-era laws—the National Flag and National Emblem Ordinance and the Regional Flag and Regional Emblem Ordinance—that criminalize the desecration of China’s national flag and Hong Kong’s regional flag and used them against democracy activists.
In August 2019, Hong Kong authorities reportedly arrested five activists for removing the Chinese national flag and throwing it into the sea. In December 2019, a Hong Kong court sentenced a 13-year-old girl to 12 months of probation for burning a Chinese flag during a pro-democracy protest. In 2020, a Hong Kong court sentenced Tony Chung, a student activist, to four months in prison for damaging a Chinese flag during a 2019 protest. The late democracy activist Koo Sze-yiu had also been convicted at least eight times for violating the anti-flag laws.
“The flag desecration law hands the present and future governments of Japan a ready-made tool to silence protest against the state,” Kasai said. “The Japanese government should repeal this law and demonstrate to the world that Japan’s democracy is strong enough to tolerate dissent.”