Rising Sun Flag
The Japanese government's refusal to ban the controversial Rising Sun Flag in the Olympic sites has been criticized as going against the Olympic spirit, as the flag is offensive to East and Southeast Asian peoples due to its historical usage by the Imperial Japanese military during World War II, as well as its current usage by racist hate groups in Japan, such as Zaitokukai. The flag, often compared to Nazi swastika, is associated with war crimes and atrocities committed under the Japanese Empire, as well as contemporary Japan's far-right nationalist attempts to revise, deny, and romanticise its imperialistic past.