Originally published on February 13, 2020. This article introduces a column by Nobuhiko Sakai in the Sankei Shimbun and points out the contradiction that the Asahi Shimbun criticizes Japan’s government over the Hinomaru and the Rising Sun Flag while its own company flag is itself a Rising Sun flag and was vigorously waved at send-off ceremonies for soldiers during wartime. It questions why Asahi continues to use a company flag that played an active role in the war.

February 13, 2020
Here, since the Rising Sun Flag issue has conveniently come up, there is something I definitely want to introduce about the company flag of the Asahi Shimbun, which is itself the same Rising Sun flag.
The following is from a serialized column by Nobuhiko Sakai, former professor at the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo, published in the Sankei Shimbun on February 9 under the title “The Asahi Shimbun Company Flag That Played an Active Role in the War.”
In the Asahi Shimbun editorial of January 11, there was a headline reading, “In the Year of the Tokyo Olympics: What Does It Mean to Wave a Flag?”
The editorial began with the flags of the gorillas and chimpanzees in the film Beneath the Planet of the Apes and went on to introduce various topics concerning flags around the world, but around the middle it contained the following words.
“There are also people who harbor complicated feelings toward the ‘Hinomaru.’
Even after 75 years since the war, from the perspective of such people, the very act of raising the Hinomaru is nothing other than something that evokes dark memories of the war of aggression.”
It was exactly the sort of reference one would expect.
There was once an opposition movement against the Hinomaru and Kimigayo in the field of school education, and it even led to the suicide of a school principal.
The National Flag and National Anthem Act was enacted in 1999, but I remember that it was the Asahi Shimbun that conducted a campaign against this bill.
The Asahi Shimbun apparently wants to wake a sleeping child.
This editorial also refers to the Rising Sun Flag issue.
Regarding South Korea’s protest that “the waving of the Rising Sun Flag should be banned at the Tokyo Olympics,” the Japanese government rebutted that “the criticism that it is a political assertion or a symbol of militarism is completely off the mark.”
In response, citing the fact that Rising Sun flags were seen in part of the spectator seats at the Rugby World Cup, the Asahi criticized the government, saying, “Can one really say there is no ‘political assertion’ in the deliberate act of waving a flag that is known to be unpleasant to some people?”
Here, since the Rising Sun Flag issue has conveniently come up, there is something I definitely want to introduce about the company flag of the Asahi Shimbun, which is itself the same Rising Sun flag.
On the society page of the Asahi Shimbun, in connection with the attack on its Hanshin Bureau, a series titled “‘Seeing, Hearing, Speaking’ Now” is published every year, and the article dated October 17, 1991, titled “Tailwind,” is extremely interesting.
（It is included in Freedom of Speech Is Not Free, published by Komichi Shobo.）
It says the following: “‘Go and die for your country.’
Each time the town mayor or the representative of the veterans’ association gave a speech, red and white small Asahi Shimbun company flags waved.
Toshio Ushiro（86）, who had been an Asahi Shimbun sales office employee, stood beside the people seeing the soldiers off and waved a large company flag with all his might.
The small flags held by family members and others had been distributed the night before.”
This was an incident at the Ikeda Normal School ground in Osaka during the Sino-Japanese War, but it was probably carried out nationwide.
The same scene now seen at tournaments and events sponsored by the company also existed at send-off ceremonies for soldiers departing for the front.
What is the reason for continuing to use even now a company flag that played such an active role in the war?
The Asahi, which curses the Hinomaru, has a responsibility to explain this clearly.