Hino maru
I took this photograph in my neighbourhood on Thursday, May 5, 2022, the third and last day of consecutive spring time holidays collectively called Golden Week. May 5th is “kodomo no hi,” or Children’s Day. It used to be called Boys’ Day, but in a postwar spirit of democracy it was rebranded. Children’s Day is also known for carp streamer wind socks, or “koi no bori,” that celebrate a family’s sons.
Unlike North America, where many people fly the Maple Leaf or the Stars and Stripes in their gardens, national public holidays are among the few occasions when Japanese are apt to fly their national flag, the Hino Maru. Government buildings, post offices, police stations, hospitals, and schools habitually fly the Hino Maru daily as a matter of course. But private citizens rarely do. The reason stems from chronic ill feeling towards the flag and its Second World War militarist symbolism. Reverence for the Hino Maru was closely tied to the ultra-nationalist ideology that drove the country to ruin.
If a private citizen wants to display the Hino Maru, they don't do it using a tall, vertical flagpole, but with a wall-mounted bracket near their doors, which makes for a diagonal disposition like this.
When I was growing up, I misunderstood the Japanese flag. I watched WWII movies and saw the Rising Sun flag. But I learned after living here that the Rising Sun flag was (and still is) the Naval ensign, not the national flag.