Published on February 19, 2020.
This article cites a Sankei Shimbun editorial and argues that the Japanese government must sternly question the South Korean government about VANK’s activities and its poster depicting a torch runner in protective clothing.
It criticizes the exploitation of the Tokyo Olympics for anti-Japanese propaganda, reputational damage concerning Fukushima, the campaign against the Rising Sun Flag, and claims about food safety as part of a coordinated anti-Japanese movement on the South Korean side.

February 19, 2020
The Japanese government should sternly demand that the South Korean government state its position on VANK’s activities and on the poster of a torch runner in protective clothing.
Today’s editorial proves that, at present, the most decent newspaper is the Sankei Shimbun.
The passages between ＊ and ＊ are mine.
Demand South Korea’s Position
The Torch Runner in Protective Clothing
A torch runner clad in protective clothing runs on the track of the National Stadium.
On the chest is the emblem of the Tokyo Olympics, on the shoulder is a radiation symbol, and beyond the stadium a nuclear power plant can be seen.
The green flame of the Olympic torch was probably intended to evoke criticality.
The Olympic rings are also used.
Some versions have the Hinomaru as the background.
The runner in protective clothing running through the dusk is a parody of the poster for the 1964 Games.
It is a poster that was temporarily put up on walls around the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.
It was created by the South Korean private organization “VANK” and others.
This is outrageous.
It is clearly intended to demean Japan and the Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee, which is strict about the political use of the Olympics and the unauthorized use of trademarks, reportedly told VANK that it “condemns the unauthorized use of the Olympic emblem for a political message and asks that such actions be refrained from in the future.”
However, VANK claimed that it had “created it as a parody for the public interest of protecting the health and safety of Olympic participants, not in order to damage Japan’s image,” and continued to post it on Facebook.
＊This proves that Facebook is also a hotbed of evil.＊
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga stated, “It is completely different from reality.
It is something that must never happen.
We are protesting strongly by every possible means,” but the effect of the protest is nowhere to be seen.
VANK conducts activities concerning the naming of the Sea of Japan, the comfort women issue, and the territorial issue of Takeshima, and also calls for a ban on the Rising Sun Flag at Olympic venues.
According to reports in South Korea and elsewhere, it is said to receive financial support through a government-affiliated research institute, and in the past it has also received a presidential commendation.
It cannot be said to be an organization unrelated to the government.
The Japanese government should sternly demand that the South Korean government state its position on VANK’s activities and on the poster of a torch runner in protective clothing.
Does it approve of the act of bringing anti-Japanese propaganda into the Olympic Games, a festival of peace, and deliberately spreading malicious reputational damage?
Will it pretend to know nothing, saying that these are the activities of a private organization?
The South Korean government must not be allowed to stand by silently.
Last year, lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea released a map in which data on detected amounts of radioactive substances around Olympic venues had been falsified.
A representative of the South Korean athletes’ delegation expressed concern about the safety of food products from Fukushima Prefecture at Olympic facilities.
＊While committing such evil deeds, they illegally carried into South Korea strawberries and sweet potatoes whose varieties had been registered by Japan, cultivated them there, and exported them in large quantities to Singapore and Hong Kong, where Japanese strawberries and sweet potatoes are highly popular.
Where can there be greater malice than this?
People all over the world will surely feel keenly that I have hit the mark in continuing to say that their essence is bottomless evil and plausible lies.＊
This is also because it is impossible to dispel the suspicion that all of these are part of an anti-Japanese movement in which the South Korean side is acting as one.