Diet passes bills to revise imperial law, penalize flag desecration

July 17, 2026 at 18:28 JST

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Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara acknowledges passage July 17 in the Upper House plenary session of a bill to revise the Imperial House Law. (Nobuo Fujiwara)

The Diet passed three landmark bills on July 17 that were strongly pushed by Prime Minister Sanae Takachi that include revising the Imperial House Law and criminalizing desecration of the Hinomaru, the national flag

The other will severely limit prosecutors’ ability to appeal court decisions granting a criminal retrial, which has been blamed for delaying justice for wrongly convicted inmates

Meanwhile, the ruling coalition asked the heads of the two Diet chambers for an eight-day extension of the ordinary Diet session beyond the scheduled end on July 17

The ruling coalition still wants to pass legislation to establish a secondary capital beyond Tokyo that has long been a goal of junior coalition partner Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party)

One bill that did pass on July 17 was the first real revision of the Imperial House Law since the current one was enacted in 1947

The new law allows female imperial family members to choose to retain their status while also allowing the adoption into the imperial family of male descendants of former branch families from the patrilineal side

Takaichi and other right-wing elements had strongly pushed the measure because of its emphasis on patrilineal succession to the Chrysanthemum Throne

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan voted against the bill in the Upper House plenary session because of the adoption provision, which demonstrated the loss of what was considered the consensus of the legislative branch when the executives of the two Diet chambers compiled their initial proposal

The government later added wording that would give sons of the adopted individual the right to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne. That addition sparked an outcry among the opposition

Another measure strongly pushed by Takaichi and right-wing elements that passed into law on July 17 will penalize damaging or defiling the national flag

The measure passed despite strong reservations expressed by experts during Diet deliberations that free speech would be threatened by the law

Anyone found guilty of desecrating the flag in a public setting and which made others extremely uncomfortable or filled with hatred could receive a maximum sentence of two years in prison or a fine of 200,000 yen ($1,230)

The third bill passed would revise the Criminal Procedure Law to review the process of seeking retrials

Four opposition parties voted against the bill in the Upper House plenary session on the grounds that the revised law left the possibility of covering up evidence that could lead to a not guilty verdict

This is the first revision of the Criminal Procedure Law since it was enacted in 1948 shortly after the end of World War II during the U.S.-led occupation of Japan

The lack of rules regarding the disclosure of evidence that might have produced a not guilty verdict was a major point raised by critics of the old law, which they said led to long delays before a retrial was approved for wrongfully convicted individuals