Japan Flags

The flag of Japan consists of a white rectangular field, centred by a crimson-red disc. The modern flag of Japan is known as the Nisshoki, or “sun-mark flag”, as well as the Hinomaru, or the “circle of the sun”. The original design of this flag has been used since 1870 as the flag of the Empire of Japan and the Japanese state, but there are historical accounts of the flag being used as early as 701 AD. The Act on National Flag and Anthem was ratified on 13 August 1999, and this is legislation that allowed formal adoption of a national flag as well as a national anthem. Before this law was enabled, Japan had no official flag or national anthem.

The sun has an important place in Japanese culture, and the country even has the nickname “land of the rising sun”. The crimson/red disc in the centre of the Japanese flag represents the sun rising as it is seen from Japan. The exact shades of deep crimson-red and white have not been formally defined in the flag legislation of 1999, but officially the disc must be a dark shade of crimson-red.

As mentioned earlier, there have been historical writings describing a similar Japanese flag to that of today's being used as early as 701 AD. This occurrence of the symbol makes it difficult to determine who designed and spread the original banner. There have also been written references to Japanese national flags that had a similar sun-like pattern in the centre in the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries as well as artists renderings of Japanese ships in the late 16th Century flying the flag.

Perhaps the most well-known historical flag of Japan besides the Hinomaru is the military flag known as the Rising Sun Flag. On 15 May 1870, this design was adopted as the war flag of the Imperial Japanese Army and additionally, on October 7, 1889, the Rising Sun Flag was officially adopted as the emblem of the Imperial Japanese Naval Forces.

This page was last modified on May 1st, 2018

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Published on 2019-11-06


Capital	Tokyo
Languages	Japanese
Ethnic Groups	Japanese 98.5%, Koreans 0.5%, Chinese 0.4%, other 0.6%
Religion	Shintoism 79.2%, Buddhism 66.8%, Christianity 1.5%, other 7.1%
Government	Parliamentary constitutional monarchy
Independance	3 May 1947 (current constitution adopted as amendment to Meiji Constitution); notable earlier dates: 660 B.C. (traditional date of the founding of the nation by Emperor JIMMU); 29 November 1890 (Meiji Constitution provides for constitutional monarchy)
Area	377,915.00 km²
Water Area	13,430.00 km²
Land Area	364,485.00 km²
Population	126,702,133.00 All primary and secondary regions of high population density lie on the coast; one-third of the population resides in and around Tokyo on the central plain (Kanto Plain)
Location	Eastern Asia, island chain between the North Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan, east of the Korean Peninsula
GDP(PPP)	$4,930,000,000,000.00 (USD)
GDP (Per Capita)	$38,900.00 (USD)
Export Partners	Its major export partners are the United States, China, and South Korea.
Export Commodities	Its main exports are motor vehicles, iron and steel products, and semiconductors.
Import Partners	Its major import partners are China, the United States, and Australia.
Import Commodities	Its major imports include petroleum, liquid natural gas, and clothing.
Climate	Varies from tropical in south to cool temperate in north
Terrain	Mostly rugged and mountainous
Learn More	Japan

Japan Flags

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