Meaning of the Japanese flag

In Japan there are two flags with a red circle that look very alike and are often confused. One is the national flag, loved or accepted by almost everybody. The other, with rays, is a military ensign that causes rejection in other Asian countries. In this article we explain the difference, where each one comes from and why one of them is so controversial.

The short answer

Hinomaru (日の丸): the national flag. A red circle on a white background.
Kyokujitsu-ki (旭日旗): the “rising sun flag”. A military ensign: the red circle is shifted towards the pole and rays come out of it.

The Hinomaru, the national flag.

The Kyokujitsu-ki, the imperial flag.

The national flag: the Hinomaru

Officially its name is Nisshōki (日章旗, “flag of the sun”), but it is better known as the Hinomaru (日の丸, “disc of the sun”). It is a white rectangle, in a 2:3 proportion, with a crimson disc in the centre. It represents the sun.

The sun carries a lot of weight in Japanese culture. The origin of the flag is usually linked to Amaterasu Omikami, the sun goddess of Japanese mythology and ancestor of the imperial family, which is why Japan is known as the “land of the rising sun”. The colours are given meanings such as honesty and purity (white) and sincerity and passion (red), but these are traditional readings, not official definitions.

How it became official

Year 701
A court document already mentions the use of a flag with the sun, under Emperor Monmu.
16th century
The oldest surviving example, at the Unpō-ji temple (Yamanashi Prefecture), dates from at least this century.
1854
The Tokugawa shogunate orders its ships to fly the Hinomaru.
1870
Two proclamations set the designs for the merchant navy and the navy. The Hinomaru becomes the flag of merchant ships. The disc is placed slightly towards the pole.
1866–1869
During the political change, the Hinomaru gains prominence as it is used by the Imperial Japanese Navy and later by the Japanese Empire.
13 August 1999
The Act on the National Flag and Anthem officially declares it the national flag (until then it was so de facto) and centres the disc.

The Battle of Shiroyama.

The rising sun flag: the Kyokujitsu-ki

The Kyokujitsu-ki (旭日旗, “rising sun flag”) has a red circle and sixteen red rays coming out of it. In the naval version the sun is closer to the pole and the proportion is 2:3. In the army version the sun was centred.

It was already used by feudal lords (daimyō) in the Edo period (1603–1868). After that:

15 May 1870: it becomes the war flag of the Imperial Japanese Army.
7 October 1889: it becomes the naval ensign of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Until August 1945: both were used until Japan’s surrender in the Second World War.
30 June 1954: the Maritime Self-Defense Force re-adopts the 16-ray version, and an 8-ray one is approved for the Ground Self-Defense Force.

Today the Kyokujitsu-ki is the flag of the Ground Self-Defense Force (8-ray version) and the ensign of the Maritime Self-Defense Force (16-ray version).

Japanese naval flag.

Flag of today’s Japanese ground army.

It is also part of everyday life: it appears on the fishermen’s “good catch” flags (tairyō-bata), on birth and festival flags, and in company logos, such as Asahi Breweries or the newspaper Asahi Shimbun.

The Imperial Standard.

The Japanese Empire (1868–1945)

The Japanese Empire, also known as the Empire of Greater Japan and Imperial Japan, lasted from 1868 until 1945–1947 (the surrender at the end of the Second World War and the 1947 Constitution). In that period Japan expanded mainly in the Sino-Japanese wars to dominate Korea and part of China, and in the Russo-Japanese War. Control of Manchuria (today’s north-east China) came later, in 1931–1932.

On entering the First World War it conquered the Marshall Islands, Palau, the Carolines, the Marianas and part of Micronesia, until then ruled by Germany. During the Second World War it invaded the Philippines, the island of Guam, Wake Island, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma and Vietnam. At Midway (1942) it suffered a decisive defeat.

Japanese Empire from 1868 to 1945.

Why “Sino-Japanese war” and not “Chinese-Japanese”? The prefix “Sino-” comes from late Latin Sinae (“China”) and is the one used in words such as “sinology”, the study of Chinese culture, language and literature.

Japanese soldiers in the Second World War

Japanese soldiers during the Second World War.

Japanese Axis propaganda (Japan, Germany and Italy) in the Second World War.

The Skull Squadron in Manchuria.

American soldiers with a captured imperial flag: it was the most sought-after war trophy.

After the war

During the first years of the American occupation both flags were restricted. The restrictions were gradually lifted from 1947 to 1949, and from early 1949 the Hinomaru was used normally again.

Japanese ground army.

Sailors raising the flag of the Japanese naval fleet.

Why is one flag controversial?

In the West, the Kyokujitsu-ki is often seen with indifference and appears on T-shirts and sweaters. In East Asia it is not so: in Japan’s neighbouring countries, such as South Korea and China, it is associated with Japanese militarism and imperialism, and critics link it with the atrocities of the war. Some Allied veterans of the Second World War, mainly in Australia, see it the same way.

In South Korea the campaign against the flag intensified after an incident at a football match in 2011, and since 2012 its opponents have called it the “war crime flag”. In 2018, South Korea asked the participants in a fleet review at Jeju to fly only national flags; Japan withdrew, saying it could not accept removing its flag. FIFA bans the flag, and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) sanctioned Japan after a 2017 match where Japanese fans flew it. The International Olympic Committee says it handles each case separately.

The Japanese government replies that saying the flag expresses militarism is “absolutely false”. The Japanese Vexillological Association points out that it is not the same as the Nazi flag, which was created to symbolise the ideology of its regime. The political scientist Koichi Nakano, however, thinks the Confederate battle flag is a better comparison. The Hinomaru is also a subject of dispute, especially in public schools, where its use, together with the anthem Kimigayo, has led to protests and lawsuits. Even so, in Japan it is the national flag established by law and there is no majority proposal to replace it.