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Heisei's legal legacies include greater civic participation

View from the top: The Grand Bench of the Supreme Court of Japan is pictured in 2017. The country's top court has only found statutes to violate the Constitution 10 times in the seven decades since its creation, and half of those rulings came during the Heisei Era. | KYODO

By Colin P.A. Jones
Contributing Writer

Mar 31, 2019

With Emperor Akihito abdicating on April 30, the Heisei Era that began Jan. 8, 1989, after his father's death will also come to an end. With this column I'd like to look back at some of the noteworthy changes that occurred to Japan's laws and legal institutions during the past three decades.

National flag and anthem

Believe it or not, it was not until the passage of a 1999 statute that Japan's national flag and anthem achieved official legal status.

Heisei's legal legacies include greater civic participation

National flag and anthem

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