January 25 & 28, 2026

Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae on January 27, the day the general election campaign officially started, delivered her first campaign speech together with the co-leaders of the “Nippon Ishin no Kai” party in downtown Tokyo’s Akihabara district. She called for criminally punishing acts of desecration or damage to Japan’s national flag, the “Hinomaru”.

Takaichi said, “Both Japan’s national flag and foreign flags should be respected equally,” complaining that Article 92 of the Penal Code only penalizes the desecration of the insignia or flag of foreign countries. She expressed her desire to revise the Penal Code, stressing the importance of introducing a “crime of damaging the national emblem of Japan”.

She recalled that a similar bill had previously been submitted but scrapped, and that its proponents had subsequently failed to resubmit it due to a lack of support from opposition parties. She then stated that, in order to make damaging the Hinomaru a criminal offense, it is necessary for the LDP and the Ishin to obtain a Lower House majority, appealing to voters to vote for the ruling coalition.

Concerns exist that criminalizing the destruction of the national flag could infringe on people’s constitutional rights to freedom of expression and freedom of thought and could lead to the coercion of patriotism.

The Takaichi government is also seeking to enact an anti-spy law that would monitor citizens and abuse fundamental human rights. It also intends to review the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, and even aims to lift the ban on Japan’s arms exports completely.