Japan has joined a small and contested group of democracies that legally protect their national flag from public desecration, as the Hinomaru law took effect Thursday under Prime Minister Takaichi's conservative government. The measure draws a line between national dignity and expressive freedom — a boundary that societies have long struggled to locate with precision. Where most flag-desecration incidents in Japan are rare, the law's significance lies less in what it will prosecute and more in what it signals about the relationship between the state, its symbols, and the citizens who may wish