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Japanese Peace flag

Last modified: 2023-06-03 by zachary harden
Keywords: peace flag | japan |
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First Variant

[Japanese peace flag]
image by Tomislav Todorović and Mladen Mijatov from an image by M. Schmöger

In April 2004, protests against national defence forces' taking part in the Iraq campaign took place in Japan. In TV reports from these protests, broadcasted in Serbia by the RTS 1 channel on 9 April 2004, Italian peace flags were seen. The colour pattern was: purple, dark blue, light blue, green, yellow, orange and red; white inscription PEACE was over light blue and green. English word PEACE was used instead of the original Italian word PACE, probably because it is more familiar to the Japanese people, which might be true for some other cases of its use.
Tomislav Todorović, 7 July 2005

The flag [pictured above] with the same color pattern, but lighter shades of all colors except yellow and red, as well as a different typeface (Arial Narrow or very similar), was seen at pacifist demonstrations in Kyoto on 2006-10-15.
Tomislav Todorović, 23 May 2020


Second Variant

[Japanese peace flag]
image by Tomislav Todorović from an image by M. Schmöger 17 October 2017

The color pattern is: dark blue, light blue, very light blue, green, yellow, orange and red; white word PEACE is over very light blue and green. Dark blue inclines towards both purple and intermediate blue, light blue inclines towards cyan, very light blue and green are lighter and yellow is darker than on most of similar flags seen elsewhere. (Source)
Tomislav Todorović, 17 October 2017


Third Variant

[Japanese peace flag]
image by Tomislav Todorović, 23 May 2020

Despite English being much more familiar language to the Japanese people than Italian, flags with inscription PACE are being introduced as well. At least one such flag was seen at the Tokyo Rainbow Pride Parade on 2016-05-08. [This Flickr photo] clearly display the same copy of the flag, all of its surface being covered with graffiti. This third photo might also display that copy, or a completely different one, tiny details such as the graffiti not being recognizable due to distance from which the photo was taken. Regardless of that, the color pattern is clearly the same in all of these cases: violet, dark blue, light blue, green, yellow, orange and red, with the word PACE inscribed in white over light blue and green. The fact that the flag was seen at an LGBT-related event, not a political Pacifist one, mirrors such use in the USA, which seems to be spreading to other countries as well.