rising sun flag offensive?

hey guys!

i heard that the rising sun flag might be offensive. kinda like a swastika flag. is that true? would i be pigeonholed if i would walk around in japan wearing a rising sun flag t-shirt for example? maybe some japanese could tell something about that.

thx in advance!

Ninja,

It would be about as offensive as wearing an "I Love NY" T-shirt in New York. Would it scream "I am a tourist"? You bet.

was used by imperial Japan before and during WW2. So to some people (particularly koreans/chinese) it may cause offense, in a similar fashion to a Nazi flag. I do see it being used quite frequently by younger Japanese.

Personally, I don't think you would run into much trouble wearing one in Japan, but it would look a bit odd. I wouldn't wear it in China or Korea though.

please, don`t call the nazi-symbal swastika, because it`s mirror-inverted...
swastika is just the old indic term for the sun gear...

What Western visitors mistakenly believe is a Nazi sign is in fact a proper swastika, a very old Buddhist symbol that was turned the wrong way around and misused by Nazis. On Japanese map the swastika denote the location of a temple.

That flag is associated with WW2, militarism and ultra-right wing nationalism, so doesn't have the nicest of associations for many Japanese people.

As a non-Japanese, people would just assume you had no idea what it stood for.

Yes, it seems to be very offensive to the Chinese and Koreans. And because we know it's so offensive for them, many of the Japanese find it offensive, too. They feel that the design may give the wrong impression that Japan is fascist.

But at the same time, as Sira suggested, if you're not Asian-looking, at least the Japanese would assume you're a tourist who knows nothing. Actually, a well-known half-Japanese American guitarist plays a guitar with a design of the rising sun. There are dozens of his photos on guitar magazines in Japan. But Japanese internet posts by his fans say it's "tasteless." And I don't really notice many "young people" wearing the design either. Only the ones I notice are extreme right-wingers, young and old.

On a related note, the company flag of Asahi Shinbun, known to be the most left-winged among major newspapers in Japan, is the rising sun ("asahi" means "rising sun"), but they've used it for so long that people don't care. Plus, they don't use it to appeal their power or patriotism or what not. It just stands there to show that they're selling news.

The flag of rising sun is also used by Jieitai(JSDF) still now.
http://www.mod.go.jp/e/about/index.html

The people thinking it is offensive are ultra-left or communist. Almost Japanese don't think it is offensive.

@S and Elie: oh sry that i used the word ''swastika'', i should've known it better, yeah i do. i just don't know some other word in english for it. in germany we usually call it ''hackenkreuz'' instead of swastika, just because of the fact it not the original swastika anymore, like you explained.

@Uco: what's the name of that musician?

Am I Right wrote;
"The people thinking it is offensive are ultra-left or communist. Almost Japanese don't think it is offensive."

Perhaps so, but still, most Japanese won't wear it. I am no ultra-left nor am I a communist, but I dare not wear it. I have better ways to love and show my flag.

Ninja,
You will definitely know the musician if you see his guitar.

You can find anything and everything online. Just find the right sights. Take a look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rising_sun_flag

"You will definitely know the musician if you see his guitar. "

sry... i'm clueless... give me a hint.

I believe the guitarist they are referring to is in the band Trivium am I correct?

yeah, trivium, it's matt heavy! http://www.heavymetalmonster.com/UserFiles/501-Files/Im...

Yes, like ''guest'' I was aware that the rising Sun, which any Japanese flag is actually a rising sun anyway, but the sun complete with dawning red rays, was actually a Japanese naval ensign, and might even still be in use by the Naval branch of the JSDF.
Its a funny question because that emblem has actually even been featured on some designer labels like ''musashi'', its been on t-shirts and it was even a fad to wear a rising -sun Hachimaki headband in western youth in 80s and 90s, I saw many, most probably did not even know what the other contexts of either the RS or a sunburst Hachimaki was....(ie that it was commonly worn by WW2 Japanese airmen especially suicide pilots)
You go out to Yasukuni Shrine for a visit as I am planning on my own itiniery, where all the far-right revisionists are, Im sure you will see many Rising suns and they are most welcome there.

There was an incident in Australia a few years back which was briefly controversial, where an older Japanese man, possibly a Japanese war veteran, visited a War Memorial of some kind, it may have been the one at Cowra where a large number of escaping Japanese POWs were killed in 1944...and this fellow pulled from his bag a rising sun flag on a stick and waved it while grinning faintly.

This was picked up by a photographer, published, and there was an angry reaction from local WW2 Pacific War vets...it was interpreted along lines of how waving a swastika around Jewish people would be received, it was unwelcome, but it was not really possible to interpret this man's intentions with certainty....it was possible that it was silly insensitivity rather than waving the red rag at a bull, as it were.
Anyway, if he was trying to get a ''rise'' out of the fellow WW2 old-timers from the other side, his old enemies perhaps, he succeeded.

Unless there's a particular reason for them to congregate that day, Yasukuni shrine isn't usually crawling with right-wing revisionists, and the old style rising sun flag isn't that much in evidence. There is usually a handful of old guys hanging around who probably hold right-wing views, but you wouldn't know for sure unless you asked them!

T/y for that insight.I had assumed t the activity there might have been daily and ongoing to some extent, Ive mainly seen it on current affairs/foreign news grabs. I'm interested in that place including the museum anyway..perhaps i'll be either fortunate or unfortunate , Im not sure which, that the day I visit coincides with one of these special days or anniversaries when that crew are there..Im probably hoping and counting on some photos of them.

A lot of left-wingers enjoy cherry blossom picnics inside the premises of Yasukuni Shrine. I know a guy who despises the Shrine, but goes there every year for the beer.

Actually, you can more often see right-wingers waving rising sun flags at the Yachiko Crossing in Shibuya, home of the unconventional and liberal youth.

ok...so they would show up there to jeer at and appall and irritate the liberal youth?