Why This Topic Landed in Japan

Friction over the Rising Sun flag between Japan and South Korea is a recurring online theme, and there is accumulated exasperation at the habit of reading any radial pattern as the flag. When a post treated the everyday speed lines—the effect lines used in manga—on the underside of a Mouko Tanmen Nakamoto cup-noodle lid as a Rising Sun flag, it drew ridicule along the lines of "you can't even tell speed lines from the flag." Around the same time, a line from the game Ace Combat 8, "a crab is not the sun," had become an internet meme, and the two threads merged into playful mockery of over-sensitive flag-spotting. How widespread the original overseas posting actually was could not be confirmed, since the source post and its spread could not be traced.

Key Reaction Themes

  • "It's just speed lines" (most common) — People pointed to the pattern's origin—manga effect lines going back to Hokusai's era—to reject the flag reading.
  • Exasperation and ridicule — "You must have such a hard time living," plus mock-amazement at the level of sensitivity.
  • Meme consumption — "A crab is not the Rising Sun flag," "it's the Asahi company flag, too bad"—enjoying the whole thing as a joke.

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

A cup-noodle lid's speed lines called a Rising Sun flag

A cup-noodle lid's radial speed lines were called a Rising Sun flag, and Japanese users pushed back that it is just a pattern.

Comments:

  • "I don't think it's something you gleefully eat and call delicious…"
  • "…To look at that and be reminded of the Rising Sun flag—you're pretty sensitive, aren't you ^ω^"
  • "I don't think it's the Rising Sun flag."
  • "Man, you must have such a hard time living."
  • "It's the Asahi Shimbun company flag. Too bad."
  • "I've been eating Mouko Tanmen all this time and only just noticed the Rising Sun flag. Koreans' powers of observation are amazing."
  • "LOL, what an incredible trap that was 🤣"
  • "This isn't the Rising Sun flag. It's just a pattern……"
  • "I thought 'Mongol' meant Mongolia. Also, that's a pattern—the kind used in Japanese manga for ages to draw attention to something."
  • "Speed lines have been around since Hokusai's day, so they predate the Rising Sun flag~. Glad you got a little smarter."
  • "I get that there's historical background, but getting criticized when you can't even tell speed lines from the Rising Sun flag is a bit much…."
  • "'War-criminal flag'? I wondered what that was—oh, that old Japanese-flag-looking thing! I don't think that's it; it's just a pattern!"
  • "I thought there'd be a Rising Sun flag, but it's just a pattern—lol."

The "a crab is not the sun" meme from Ace Combat 8

A line from the game Ace Combat 8, "a crab is not the sun," became a meme riffing on past Rising Sun flag panics.

Sources: AUTOMATON

Comments:

  • "While they're at it, I'd like them to bomb circus tents too."
  • "Makes you want to become a crab."
  • "But isn't the sun yellow?"
  • "Japanese games do have gags like this now and then."
  • "Let me, a net-right guy, over-read this: the Rising Sun flag literally depicts a rising sun; there was a case where Koreans criticized a crab-burger wrapper for resembling the Rising Sun flag—so maybe this line is telling Koreans, 'a crab is not the Rising Sun flag'?"
  • "A crab is not the Rising Sun flag."
  • "But apparently the Asahi Shimbun company flag isn't a sun."
  • "Spotting a ship's logo by eye from a fighter jet would be nearly impossible in real life."
  • "Apparently the US Forces Japan patch is safe because it's a 'setting sun,' not a 'rising sun'—though as an excuse for not complaining, that's a real stretch, lol."
  • "This is just a trap."
  • "Recently they were griping about Mouko Tanmen—something about a 'sun' hidden on the underside of the cup-noodle lid being an insidious act of harassment against them, or whatever."
  • "Is this poking a bit of fun at the story of Koreans getting mad at a crab?"