The Supreme Court's Second Petit Bench on April 11 found three antiwar activists guilty of trespassing when they entered a housing compound of the Self-Defense Forces in Tachikawa, Tokyo, in January and February 2004 to distribute leaflets urging SDF personnel and their family members to oppose the deployment of SDF units to Iraq. The three were fined a total of ¥500,000. Because the ruling will intimidate people planning to distribute leaflets, an important means of expressing one's opinion, it could restrict the freedoms of speech and expression, cornerstones of democratic society.

The three entered the partially fenced eight-building compound despite the presence of signs warning against entering without permission and placed the leaflets in the mailboxes of residential units. At that time, as now, public opinion was divided over the government's decision in December 2003 to dispatch SDF troops to Iraq. In January 2004, SDF members began arriving in Iraq. The investigative authorities' actions against the trio was unusual. After their arrest in February 2004, they were detained for 75 days. Amnesty International declared the three to be "prisoners of conscience."

Public prosecutors demanded six months' imprisonment for them for trespassing. In December 2004, the Hachioji branch of the Tokyo District Court acquitted the trio, saying that although their actions constituted trespass, the degree of infringement on the residents' privacy was small and their violation was not grave enough to merit punishment. The branch also pointed out that the distribution of the leaflets falls into the category of political expression, which is guaranteed by the Constitution.