Upper House Passes Bill for Decency in Campaign Posters; Supported by Ruling LDP, CDPJ, Komeito, JIP, Others

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:21 JST, March 27, 2025

The House of Councillors passed a bill by a majority vote to revise the law on elections for public office, with the aim of ensuring decency in election campaign posters.

The revised Public Offices Election Law was passed and enacted at a plenary session of the upper house on Wednesday, with the support of the Liberal Democratic Party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Komeito, the Japan Innovation Party, the Democratic Party for the People, the Japanese Communist Party and other parties.

It is expected to be promulgated soon and take effect after a one-month period of public notice, making it applicable to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election in June and the upper house election this summer.

The revised law includes a new provision that “prohibits the inclusion [in posters] of content that is offensive to decency.”

Specifically, it lists the following: content that damages the reputation of others, other political parties or political organizations; content that offends public morality; and commercial advertisements or other forms of business promotion.

The legislation also imposes a penalty of up to ¥1 million on those who commercially exploit such content, and requires that the candidate’s name be clearly visible.

In February, seven ruling and opposition parties submitted a bill to revise the law in response to the controversy surrounding the Tokyo gubernatorial election in July, in which posters with images of nearly naked women and animals unrelated to the election were displayed.

In addition, the supplementary provisions of the revised law explicitly state that “necessary measures” will be taken, taking into account the use of social media during election campaigns and activities such as “two-horsepower” campaigns, in which candidates support other candidates without seeking their own election.