Japan’s Takaichi revives push to criminalise defacing flag

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, buoyed by a commanding majority in the powerful lower house after this month’s election, is poised to revive one of her longest-standing conservative causes: making it a crime to deface the national flag. At issue is the hinomaru, the national flag, which currently carries no specific criminal penalty if damaged or desecrated – even though the Penal Code sets punishments for defiling foreign flags displayed in Japan with the intent to insult. Takaichi ha...

By Julian Ryall