Yasukuni houses the war dead from ALL wars, not just WWII and only the losing side is considered criminals though the winning side may have done some pretty messed up things as well.  Think about that.

That’s because Swastika was the symbol of National Socialist Party but not the German military.The Bundedwehr still uses the good ol’ cross of iron.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundeswehr

Even Japan’s most notorius terrorism cases were committed by Communists.

Communism had killed more people than any other “ism” including Nazism, and Japanese imperialism. Although admittedly these other “isms” only lasted a decade or so each, thus less time for racking up a high score.

But, Communist flags and Communist leaders get a pass in the left-leaning media, who would rather just ignore this inconvenient truth.

Personally I feel this regulation should be ignored and Japanese fans should display the symbol they desire. This doesn’t mean being rude about it, but if the Chinese can’t take seeing a flag they shouldn’t be hosting the Olympics in the first place.

In a perfectly cogent world, no one would object to the flags themselves, only to what they may stand for. But of course it doesn’t work that way, and it’s difficult for Chinese people to dissociate the rising sun from the wrongs Japan did to them some decades ago, even though I doubt Japanese supporters would mean it that way.

It would certainly befit Japanese supporters better to take the high road and simply use the regular flag to cheer. Olympics, especially for this iteration, are after all more about diplomacy than sports, and you wouldn’t want to make a poor showing.

Because its banned in Germany. Every form of it. Everything what could be related to the Nazis…
Imho its ok to ban flags, but its retarded to ban a symbol for being missused. (i´m from Germany)

We have the same issue in the USA with the old Confederate flag or the rebel South, which was still flown alongside or used in the state flags of Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia until around 2001, while the state of Mississippi STILL has it as part of their state flag.
It is mainly seen as a symbol of racism and slavery by most, or a symbol of rebellion by the rednick hicks who still insist on displaying it.

But in general, I always thought it was kind of improper for a country that loses a war to keep flying the old flag, especially if they started the war and are neighbors to several countries they had invaded.

The continued display of the rising sun flag still seems wrong to me. It’s just another gesture to pay homage to the right-wing nuts who also require the leaders to visit Yasukuni Shrine each year. Are they going to visit next week, I wonder? The Olympics will still be going on then. If Japan doesn’t want to anger Chinese fans with this flag, are they also going to take steps this year on the Yasukuni Shrine insanity?

In addition, the Imperial Navy’s image was not as bad as the Imperial Army at that time, so it was relatively easy to succeed the flag.

Another reason is, the rising sun flag is the symbol of creating the modern navy, which protected Japan from the western colonization. I’m not meaning anything, but Japan was the only state which could modernize in the non-white states at that time. In Asia, Thai and Japan were the only exceptions from the western colonization. Of course, the rising sun flag also became the symbol of Japan’s aggression later though.

But the Imperial Navy defeated the Russian Baltic Fleet during the Russo-Japanese War. So from the positive aspects of the history and tradition of the rising sun flag, many people supported it as the new MSDF’s official flag. Not only the US, but also others didn’t claim about this at that time. I remember they rather welcomed the MSDF’s decision to succeed the good tradition of the Imperial Navy since the history of defeating the Russian Baltic Fleet was widely recognized as one of the greatest marine victories in the world history. So the rising sun flang has two faces, which are bright and dark.

If I’m a supporter in Beijing now, I’ll not use the rising sun flag in China though.