In recent Japan, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) has issued a statement opposing the proposed law criminalizing the desecration of the national flag — a development that raises serious concerns about the direction of a body meant to uphold the rule of law. A statement that defends the act of damaging one's own national flag as a form of "political expression" reads less as a legal argument than as an expression of a specific political stance, and gives the impression that the organization has effectively become a vehicle for left-liberal political activism. In fact, dissenting voices from within the legal profession have pointed out that the leadership's position does not represent the consensus of all member lawyers, and the media has an obligation to report that structural bias alongside the statement itself.