Japan’s flag, called the "Hinomaru" is white with a red sun disk in the centre, and was officially introduced on the 8th of August, 1854 for use at sea, and on the 27th of February, 1870 on land. Other Sources name as datum of the introduction of the flag the 5th of August in 1854, the 9th of July in 1854, and formal (official) Japanese Sources name even the year 1856. On 27th of February in 1870 a law was passed which allowed the use of the sun disk flag ashore and even its use as merchant flag in the navigation. For warships on that datum was introduced the naval flag and series of further special flags. This law also regulated the exact appearance of the national flag: proportions 7:10, the diameter of the red disc was set at 3/5 of the height of the flag. For the merchant flag it was further stipulated: Proportions 2:3 and the red disc is shifted one twentieth of the flag's length towards the mast. On 13th of August in 1999, the Law on the National Flag and the National Anthem was adopted, changing the proportions of the flag to 2:3. The shade of red was not precisely defined, only described as "deep". The colours have been defined in a Ministry of Defence document, first in 1973, red as "Munsell 5R 4/12" and white "Munsell N9". This would mean for the red that it would roughly correspond to: RGB 180|46|61, CMYK 6|95|67|25, Pantone 703. That document was amended on 21st of March in 2008, not least to comply with the requirements of the 1999 Act. Here the red is designated as "Munsell 5.7R 3.7 / 15.5" for printing on acrylic and as "Munsell 6.2R 4/15.2" for printing on nylon. As these colour specifications only serve the manufacturing process, but hardly clarify what constitutes a correct representation, the Japanese Development Agency (ODA), which reports to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has classified the red as "DIC 156". The DIC Corporation is a Japanese chemical company with its own colour standards. In this respect, the ODA interprets the colour red as CMYK 0|100|90|0, which would roughly correspond to: RGB 228|29|45, or Pantone 1788. Banners with sun or moon disks have a tradition going back about 1300 years in Japan. The red sun disk symbolizes the Japanese Emperors as direct descendant of the sun-goddess. White stands for honesty, sincerity and cleanliness, and red for courage, openness and passion.
The coat of arms of Japan is the imperial coat of arms. It shows a stylized, golden, 16-leaved chrysanthemum. This symbol is a so-called Mon, a Japanese family symbol, but the golden chrysanthemum may be used only by the imperial family. Is in this way also used on the standard of the emperor.
1889 · new constitution following the style of the German Empire
1894–1895 · Chinese-Japanese war, victory of Japan, purchase of Formosa (Taiwan) and the Pescadores Islands, China has to grant Korea independence
29th of April 1901 · birth of the later emperor Hirohito
1904–1905 · Russian-Japanese war, victory of Japan, purchase of South Sakhalin and the Liaotung peninsula (Port Arthur), establishment of Korea as a Japanese protectorate
1910 · Japan annexes Korea
1914–1918 · Japan participates in the First World War on the side of the allies
1919 · the dictate of Versailles assigns to Japan the administration of German colonies in the Pacific (Marshall-, Caroline- and Mariana-Islands) and Japan receives the German colony of Kiaochow
1921 · Hirohito becomes regent (in substitution of his diseased father Taisho)
1926 · death of Taisho, his son Hirohito becomes the new emperor
1927 · start of the era of radical nationalism, in the Pacific conflicts of interests with the USA
1931 · military intervention of Japan in Manchuria, establishment of the Japanese satellite state of Manchoukuo
1938 · phasing of public live in Japan, rule of the military
1939 · Japanese-Soviet frontier war, Japan suffers a defeat
1940 · Japan occupies French Indochina
1941 · total trade embargo of the USA against Japan, a cause for a foreseeable collapse of the Japanese economy
7th of December 1941 · Japan answers with an attack on the US-american naval base Pearl Harbor and starts with the occupation of US-american, British and Dutch possessions in the Pacific
4th–7th of June 1942 · sea battle of Midway, defeat of Japan, gradual back push of the Japanese troops
6th and 9th of August in 1945 · the USA drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and kill 150 000 civilians
2nd of September 1945 · capitulation of Japan, Japan loses its possessions, the Ryukyu Islands, and the Bonin and Marcus Islands are occupied by the USA
1945–1947 · US military government
1947 · new constitution, following the style of the US-american constitution, ousting of the emperor from the rule
1952 · peace treaty of San Francisco, Japan gets back its right of self-determination
1968 · Japan gets back the Bonin and Marcus Islands
1972 · Japan gets back the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa)
1989 · death of Emperor Hirohito
1997 · start of a severe economic crisis, gradual economic recovery in the following years
The worldwide common name for the country, "Japan", comes from sources outside of Japan. He probably goes back to the Malay word "Jepang" for the today's country of Japan. Portuguese sailors brought this country name to Europe in the 16th century, from where it has found worldwide commonness. The Japanese themselves call their country "Nihon", a word composed of the syllables "ni" and "hon", which are to translate with "day / sun" and "origin / beginning". Japan is therefore known as the "Land of the Rising Sun". The name "Nihon" was chosen in 6th/7th century to clarify in letters to the Chinese emperors, where the country of the sender is placed. The name "Nippon" (synonymous with Nihon) is more official and is used on stamps and banknotes or in international traffic. Originally the country was called "Wakoku", a name that goes back to the Chinese neighbors and means "land of the short people".
