The Yokohama Municipal Assembly voted Tuesday to expel two of its members for occupying the assembly chair's seat earlier this month to protest raising the Hinomaru flag in the chamber.
The assembly expelled Sakura Inoue and Hiroko Yonahara, both 37 and members of the Citizens Party, by a majority vote of 69 from the Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of Japan and New Komeito. Twenty-one members, mainly from the Japanese Communist Party, voted against the step.
The heaviest punishment under the Local Autonomy Law, expulsion has never been imposed on an assembly member of a major city.