Comments

Posts

Did the DPJ desecrate the Japanese flag?

One of the most-viewed videos on YouTube Japan today is this clip, apparently showing that the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) doesn’t care much about honoring the Japanese flag:

Hanging over the stage at an August 8th DPJ event in Kagoshima was a banner depicting the party’s official logo. Zooming in on the banner, we can see that it was made by cutting and pasting together two Japanese national flags. The uploader of the video can’t believe that a Japanese person would do such a thing to their flag and asks what athletes representing Japan in international competitions would think of such an act. Near the end of the clip, we can see former party president Ichiro Ozawa speaking with the desecrated flag in the background.

According to the Yomiuri, a photo of Ozawa in front of the cut-up flags was even uploaded to the DPJ’s official homepage. Prime Minister Aso brought up the flag desecration at a debate yesterday, calling it and act that is “sad” and “difficult to forgive.” DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama has admitted that the mark was probably made by cutting up two Japanese flags and has apologized for the incident. He added that his party must be more careful when representing its “sacred” mark.

Cutting national flags to make a logo banner was a:

—

Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

28 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - August 18, 2009 at 1:16 pm

Categories: Politics Tags: anti-japanese, DPJ, japan, nationalism, patriotism, Politics

Iago

Well, giving the opposition any additional opportunity to take a swipe at you during election time is clearly a bad idea, and I’m sure some people are willing to ham up the outrage for political points.

Not being Japanese, I can’t speak for them how they relate to the Hinomaru or how offensive this may be. Not offensive to the DPJ, apparently.

I do see some pretty “creative” uses of other countries’ national flags around Japan, particularly in the fashion industry, so I would question how much they really consider “disrespect the flag, disrespect the country”.
Stereo

It is illegal to destroy foreign flags in Japan, but it is OK to destroy Japanese flags in Japan.

Penal code
Article 92　A person who, for the purpose of insulting a foreign state, damages, removes or defiles the national flag or other national emblem of the state shall be punished by imprisonment with work for not more than 2 years or a fine of not more than 200,000 yen.

Iago

Article 92　A person who, for the purpose of insulting a foreign state, damages, removes or defiles the national flag…

Context is everything, then. Strictly speaking, I guess, it’s only illegal if the intent is to insult. Neither the fashion industry, nor DPJ, I assume had intent to insult…

Richard

I’m not terribly bothered by flag desecration, but I am disappointed that the DPJ had to cut and sew the flags to make their logo. It seems like cheating, considering that some clever folding could have produced a similar effect.
helical

Making “cutting up something symbolic” as an excuse for attacking has a long history in Japan
It’s a pretty well known trivia that the Shogunate under Tokugawa Ieyasu made the excuse that inscriptions on a bell sponsored by the Toyotomi clan were cutting up the name of Ieyasu, and thus was a surreptitious but insulting curse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hokoji-BellDetail-M1767.jpg

The claim is that the words 国家安康 were cutting up 家康 (Ieyasu) and that 君臣豊楽 were praying for the wealth and expansion of the 豊臣 (Toyotomi) clan.
It’s a commonly held theory that the Tokugawa side decided to nit-pick this issue as an excuse to be outraged and eventually escalate the situation into the Siege of Osaka and destroy the Toyotomi clan which would have been a source of opposition for the shogunate to unify the country … but (at least according to Wikipedia), it seems that the Toyotomi side knowingly included this insulting passage.

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E5%9D%82%E3%81%AE%E5%BD%B9#.E6.96.B9.E5.BA.83.E5.AF.BA.E9.90.98.E9.8A.98.E4.BA.8B.E4.BB.B6

IMO, the fact that the DPJ admitted fault so quickly and readily might indicate how such a visible symbol could escalate into a potentially politically lethal situation. (Although I do believe they have said and done much more dumb things in the past)
RMilner

They should have gone to Kinko’s and printed their logo onto foam board.
Buster

Sounds like some people are might scared of loosing an election…
nakamura25

Why is the bottom part of their logo all jagged?
thaKingRocka

i remember when i went to my first sports day festival. i was running around like an idiot for five minutes or so picking up all the flags that the kids dropped on the ground being like, “hey, that’s your flag! you can’t let it touch the ground!” then i looked around, and saw nearly everyone in the school had done the same. that was one of those early “things are different here” moments for me.
Nicklas W bjurman

It is just a piece of cloth… Whatever, you worship pieces of cloth and have a problem with what other people do with pieces of cloth that looks similar to the piece of cloth you worship. You got a big problem!
http://www.chirimotsumoreba.net Jordan

Who cares? Ruin a flag. Ruin a country. Which is worse?
hegdemoen

That is not the Japanese flag it is the DPJ logo consiting of 2 Japanese flags. I personally like it when I see on TV angry mobs in the Middle East burning the American flag, I think it is very good to see the American flag burning.

Richard

I am also amused when I see angry mobs burning U.S. flags. It is the ultimate symbol of their impotent rage.

Americans watch that pathetic little display on their giant television sets and laugh.

hegdemoen

The symbol of their impotent rage brought down Twin Towers. Americans watch Japanese TV sets on borrwed Chinese money is more accurate. Anyhow. It’s better to make friends than to piss people off and be hated throughout the world.

Anyhow, seeing people burning flags is a big so what to me, be it American or Japanese flag. To me it is good entertainment value.

Having debates about if this is the Japanese flag or not is really irrelevant. Flags in general are over hyped especially in places like US where flag wavers take on a whole different type of meaning. People who usually are flag wavers in Japan are for the most part right winged extremists. Is DPJ too a right winged extreme party? I still haven’t figured out if DPJ is more liberal than LDP. As there are different groups wthint LDP, and DPJ where som are more concervative than others. For instance Koizumi/Abe were both extemely right winged where as Aso is less.

So what is the main difference between the 2 parties? LDP, Komeito, DPJ seem all to be over lapping each other.

the past me

care to let us know where you are from? You sound really smug.
Nicklas W bjurman

I agree, in Sweden where I live, if you a flag bearing or waver of the Swedish flag. You are assumed on the spot to be a racist nationalist extremist.

I　do not worship pieces of cloth or the people behind the pieces of cloth!
Mike

Meh…3/10. Would have been a more effective trolling attempt if it was more coherent. Me like flag burn to are is was were yes good maybe no submarine WHARRGARBL!

LK

Well, this is funny, cos I’ve always thought that Japan needs to change its flag anyways – except that this funny two-ball flag is no good!

Japan should shed itself of its silly “rising sun” “koh-haku” red-white concept and move on. They should’ve done that when the new century came around. I mean after all, everybody talks about how a place like Tokyo is living far into the future than most cities already anyways, so why not?

I see nothing wrong with this silly two-ball flag, it’s a good attempt.

Buster

Maybe they could add some nice red “rays” coming out of the sun, could be cool.
helical

Hmm, maybe invert the colors for starters.
Maybe then add a little mark in the middle to further distinguish it from the old flag.
I guess State Shinto is blamed for being a tool of the war, so maybe we should go Buddhist this time with a manji. I personally think a right-facing one is good since it represents strength and intelligence. Nice and easy concepts.

… oh.

The Overthinker

Hey, don’t knock it. Whatever else the Nazis did, their flag, as a piece of design, is very very cool. Bold, unique, and simple.

helical

And I agree.
It sucks that they had to go through the effort to first come up with such a cool design and then go and ruin its reputation so much that the stigma will be around for the next millenia.

Arrr

helical,

you are SO going to hell! hahahahaha

No really – perhaps Japan should go with the Sakura (Cherry) and Purple-Gold of the old royal family symbols colours.

helical

… wait, so Japan is the University of Washington now?

http://www.washington.edu/externalaffairs/mediarelations/cherry2007/

jc

The official logo of the DPJ is goatse.cx?
Canadian

I would prefer Mt. Fuji background as the national flag. Nothing better than depicting a holy Japanese mountain gracefully on the flag.
http://kingofpunk.com Kingofpunk

The DPJ got a really good logo, however the problem here comes from the company who organize the meeting :

The DPJ logo comes with a baseline and it’s not meant to be put on a rectangle at the same size of a the japanese flag and without the baseline, No pro design studio will ever do this simple error.

I saw this kind of error many times from companies I work with, when they want to cut expenses and do a design decoration work by themselves…
jrb

Is it not just a reflection of the sun? Hence a reflection of the “Land of the Rising Sun”?

Did the DPJ desecrate the Japanese flag?

Recent Comments

Further Reading

South Korean Government Demands That International Hydrographic Organization Use “East Sea”

Japanese Documentary About Sea Shepherd’s Protest Activities in Taiji (English Subtitles)

Babies Born on March 11th Receive Special Present

Washington Times Freelancer Slams Former Employer, Fails to Ethically Disclose Relationship?

Christopher Johnson Attempts to Silence Criticism of His “Gaijin Gulag” Article (Legal Threats!!!)

Tabloid Reports About Yu Darvish’s Love Life: Kirara Asuka & Miho Koga?

Does K-Pop Group KARA Have Ties to North Korea?

Tokyo Gate Bridge

Sara Errani Admits She Avoided Tennis Tournament in Tokyo: Feared Radiation

Chinese Workers Who Survived March 11th Tsunami Return to Tohoku

Categories

Archives

Subscribe

Japan Blogs

Korea Blogs

Linkroll

Other Asia Blogs